diff --git a/narnia.txt b/narnia.txt index 8bc31ae..36cd2b4 100644 --- a/narnia.txt +++ b/narnia.txt @@ -1,4147 +1,34592 @@ -CHAPTER I - -_Lucy Looks into a Wardrobe_ - -Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and -Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they -were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. -They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart -of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two -miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a -very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs. Macready and three -servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not -come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy -white hair, which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, -and they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he -came out to meet them at the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy -(who was the youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was -the next youngest) wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was -blowing his nose to hide it. - -As soon as they had said good night to the Professor and gone upstairs -on the first night, the boys came into the girls' room and they all -talked it over. - -"We've fallen on our feet and no mistake," said Peter. "This is going -to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we -like." - -"I think he's an old dear," said Susan. - -"Oh, come off it!" said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be -tired, which always made him bad-tempered. "Don't go on talking like -that." - -"Like what?" said Susan; "and anyway, it's time you were in bed." - -"Trying to talk like Mother," said Edmund. "And who are you to say -when I'm to go to bed? Go to bed yourself." - -"Hadn't we all better go to bed?" said Lucy. "There's sure to be a row -if we're heard talking here." - -"No there won't," said Peter. "I tell you this is the sort of house -where no one's going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won't hear us. -It's about ten minutes' walk from here down to that dining room, and -any amount of stairs and passages in between." - -"What's that noise?" said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house -than she had ever been in before and the thought of all those long -passages and rows of doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to -make her feel a little creepy. - -"It's only a bird, silly," said Edmund. - -"It's an owl," said Peter. "This is going to be a wonderful place for -birds. I shall go to bed now. I say, let's go and explore to-morrow. -You might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those -mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. -There might be stags. There'll be hawks." - -"Badgers!" said Lucy. - -"Snakes!" said Edmund. - -"Foxes!" said Susan. - -But when next morning came, there was a steady rain falling, so thick -that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the -mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden. - -"Of course it _would_ be raining!" said Edmund. They had just finished -breakfast with the Professor and were upstairs in the room he had set -apart for them--a long, low room with two windows looking out in one -direction and two in another. - -"Do stop grumbling, Ed," said Susan. "Ten to one it'll clear up in an -hour or so. And in the meantime we're pretty well off. There's a -wireless and lots of books." - -"Not for me," said Peter, "I'm going to explore in the house." - -Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was -the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was -full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only -into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but soon -they came to a very long room full of pictures and there they found a -suit of armour; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a -harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, -and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out onto a -balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and -were lined with books--most of them very old books and some bigger than -a Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room -that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a -looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all -except a dead blue-bottle on the window-sill. - -"Nothing there!" said Peter, and they all trooped out again--all except -Lucy. She stayed behind because she thought it would be worth while -trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that -it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily, and two -moth-balls dropped out. - -Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up--mostly long -fur coats. There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel -of fur. She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the -coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of -course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into -any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a -second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost -quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her -so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a -step further in--then two or three steps--always expecting to feel -woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it. - -"This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!" thought Lucy, going still -further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room -for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her -feet. "I wonder is that more moth-balls?" she thought, stooping down -to feel it with her hands. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth -wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery -and extremely cold, "This is very queer," she said, and went on a step -or two further. - -Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands -was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. -"Why, it is just like branches of trees!" exclaimed Lucy. And then she -saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where -the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. -Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found -that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow -under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air. - -Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and -excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between -the dark tree-trunks, she could still see the open doorway of the -wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had -set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it -is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to -be still daylight there. "I can always get back if anything goes -wrong," thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, _crunch-crunch_, over -the snow and through the wood towards the other light. - -In about ten minutes she reached it and found that it was a lamp-post. -As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the -middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter -patter of feet coming towards her. And soon after that a very strange -person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamp-post. - -He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his -head an umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like -a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat's (the hair on them was -glossy black) and instead of feet he had goat's hoofs. He also had a -tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was neatly -caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from -trailing in the snow. He had a red woollen muffler round his neck and -his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little -face with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair -there stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead. One of his -hands, as I have said, held the umbrella: in the other arm he carried -several brown paper parcels. What with the parcels and the snow it -looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a -Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he -dropped all his parcels. - -"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed the Faun. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -_What Lucy Found There_ - -"Good evening," said Lucy. But the Faun was so busy picking up his -parcels that at first he did not reply. When he had finished he made -her a little bow. - -"Good evening, good evening," said the Faun. "Excuse me--I don't want -to be inquisitive--but should I be right in thinking that you are a -Daughter of Eve?" - -"My name's Lucy," said she, not quite understanding him. - -"But you are--forgive me--you are what they call a girl?" asked the -Faun. - -"Of course I'm a girl," said Lucy. - -"You are in fact Human?" - -"Of course I'm human," said Lucy, still a little puzzled. - -"To be sure, to be sure," said the Faun. "How stupid of me! But I've -never seen a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve before. I am delighted. -That is to say--" and then he stopped as if he had been going to say -something he had not intended but had remembered in time. "Delighted, -delighted," he went on. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is -Tumnus." - -"I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy. - -"And may I ask, O Lucy, Daughter of Eve," said Mr. Tumnus, "how you -have come into Narnia?" - -"Narnia? What's that?" said Lucy. - -"This is the land of Narnia," said the Faun, "where we are now; all -that lies between the lamp-post and the great castle of Cair Paravel on -the eastern sea. And you--you have come from the wild woods of the -west?" - -"I--I got in through the wardrobe in the spare room," said Lucy. - -"Ah!" said Mr. Tumnus in a rather melancholy voice, "if only I had -worked harder at geography when I was a little Faun, I should no doubt -know all about those strange countries. It is too late now." - -"But they aren't countries at all," said Lucy, almost laughing. "It's -only just back there--at least--I'm not sure. It is summer there." - -"Meanwhile," said Mr. Tumnus, "it is winter in Narnia, and has been for -ever so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in -the snow. Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal -summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if -you came and had tea with me?" - -"Thank you very much, Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy. "But I was wondering -whether I ought to be getting back." - -"It's only just round the corner," said the Faun, "and there'll be a -roaring fire--and toast--and sardines--and cake." - -"Well, it's very kind of you," said Lucy. "But I shan't be able to -stay long." - -"If you will take my arm, Daughter of Eve," said Mr. Tumnus, "I shall -be able to hold the umbrella over both of us. That's the way. -Now--off we go." - -And so Lucy found herself walking through the wood arm in arm with this -strange creature as if they had known one another all their lives. - -They had not gone far before they came to a place where the ground -became rough and there were rocks all about and little hills up and -little hills down. At the bottom of one small valley Mr. Tumnus turned -suddenly aside as if he were going to walk straight into an unusually -large rock, but at the last moment Lucy found he was leading her into -the entrance of a cave. As soon as they were inside she found herself -blinking in the light of a wood fire. Then Mr. Tumnus stooped and took -a flaming piece of wood out of the fire with a neat little pair of -tongs, and lit a lamp. "Now we shan't be long," he said, and -immediately put a kettle on. +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe -Lucy thought she had never been in a nicer place. It was a little, -dry, clean cave of reddish stone with a carpet on the floor and two -little chairs ("one for me and one for a friend," said Mr. Tumnus) and -a table and a dresser and a mantelpiece over the fire and above that a -picture of an old Faun with a grey beard. In one corner there was a -door which Lucy thought must lead to Mr. Tumnus' bedroom, and on one -wall was a shelf full of books. Lucy looked at these while he was -setting out the tea things. They had titles like _The Life and Letters -of Silenus_ or _Nymphs and Their Ways_ or _Men, Monks and Gamekeepers; -a Study in Popular Legend_ or _Is Man a Myth_? -"Now, Daughter of Eve!" said the Faun. +CHAPTER ONE -And really it was a wonderful tea. There was a nice brown egg, lightly -boiled, for each of them, and then sardines on toast, and then buttered -toast, and then toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake. And -when Lucy was tired of eating the Faun began to talk. He had wonderful -tales to tell of life in the forest. He told about the midnight dances -and how the Nymphs who lived in the wells and the Dryads who lived in -the trees came out to dance with the Fauns; about long hunting parties -after the milk-white Stag who could give you wishes if you caught him; -about feasting and treasure-seeking with the wild Red Dwarfs in deep -mines and caverns far beneath the forest floor; and then about summer -when the woods were green and old Silenus on his fat donkey would come -to visit them, and sometimes Bacchus himself, and then the streams -would run with wine instead of water and the whole forest would give -itself up to jollification for weeks on end. "Not that it isn't always -winter now," he added gloomily. Then to cheer himself up he took out -from its case on the dresser a strange little flute that looked as if -it were made of straw and began to play. And the tune he played made -Lucy want to cry and laugh and dance and go to sleep all at the same -time. It must have been hours later when she shook herself and said, - -"Oh Mr. Tumnus--I'm so sorry to stop you, and I do love that tune--but -really, I must go home. I only meant to stay for a few minutes." - -"It's no good _now_, you know," said the Faun, laying down his flute -and shaking his head at her very sorrowfully. - -"No good?" said Lucy, jumping up and feeling rather frightened. "What -do you mean? I've got to go home at once. The others will be -wondering what has happened to me." But a moment later she asked, "Mr. -Tumnus! Whatever is the matter?" for the Faun's brown eyes had filled -with tears and then the tears began trickling down his cheeks, and soon -they were running off the end of his nose; and at last he covered his -face with his hands and began to howl. - -"Mr. Tumnus! Mr. Tumnus!" said Lucy in great distress. "Don't! -Don't! What is the matter? Aren't you well? Dear Mr. Tumnus, do tell -me what is wrong." But the Faun continued sobbing as if his heart -would break. And even when Lucy went over and put her arms round him -and lent him her handkerchief, he did not stop. He merely took the -handkerchief and kept on using it, wringing it out with both hands -whenever it got too wet to be any more use, so that presently Lucy was -standing in a damp patch. - -"Mr. Tumnus!" bawled Lucy in his ear, shaking him. "Do stop. Stop it -at once! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a great big Faun like -you. What on earth are you crying about?" - -"Oh--oh--oh!" sobbed Mr. Tumnus, "I'm crying because I'm such a bad -Faun." - -"I don't think you're a bad Faun at all," said Lucy. "I think you are -a very good Faun. You are the nicest Faun I've ever met." - -"Oh--oh--you wouldn't say that if you knew," replied Mr. Tumnus between -his sobs. "No, I'm a bad Faun. I don't suppose there ever was a worse -Faun since the beginning of the world." - -"But what have you done?" asked Lucy. - -"My old father, now," said Mr. Tumnus, "that's his picture over the -mantelpiece. He would never have done a thing like this." - -"A thing like what?" said Lucy. - -"Like what I've done," said the Faun. "Taken service under the White -Witch. That's what I am. I'm in the pay of the White Witch." - -"The White Witch? Who is she?" - -"Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It's she that -makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of -that!" - -"How awful!" said Lucy. "But what does she pay you for?" - -"That's the worst of it," said Mr. Tumnus with a deep groan. "I'm a -kidnapper for her, that's what I am. Look at me, Daughter of Eve. -Would you believe that I'm the sort of Faun to meet a poor innocent -child in the wood, one that had never done me any harm, and pretend to -be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake of -lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?" -"No," said Lucy. "I'm sure you wouldn't do anything of the sort." +LUCY LOOKS INTO A WARDROBE -"But I have," said the Faun. +ONCE there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund +and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were +sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent +to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles +from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He +had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs +Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but +they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with +shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and +they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet +them at the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy (who was the youngest) +was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest) wanted to +laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose to hide it. -"Well," said Lucy rather slowly (for she wanted to be truthful and yet -not to be too hard on him), "well, that was pretty bad. But you're so -sorry for it that I'm sure you will never do it again." +As soon as they had said good night to the Professor and gone upstairs on the +first night, the boys came into the girls’ room and they all talked it over. -"Daughter of Eve, don't you understand?" said the Faun. "It isn't -something I _have_ done. I'm doing it now, this very moment." +“We’ve fallen on our feet and no mistake,” said Peter. “This is going to be +perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like.” -"What do you mean?" cried Lucy, turning very white. +“I think he’s an old dear,” said Susan. -"You are the child," said Mr. Tumnus. "I had orders from the White -Witch that if ever I saw a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve in the -wood, I was to catch them and hand them over to her. And you are the -first I ever met. And I've pretended to be your friend and asked you -to tea, and all the time I've been meaning to wait till you were asleep -and then go and tell _her_." +“Oh, come off it!” said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be +tired, which always made him bad-tempered. “Don’t go on talking like that.” -"Oh but you won't, Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy. "You won't, will you? -Indeed, indeed you really mustn't." +“Like what?” said Susan; “and anyway, it’s time you were in bed.” -"And if I don't," said he, beginning to cry again, "she's sure to find -out. And she'll have my tail cut off, and my horns sawn off, and my -beard plucked out, and she'll wave her wand over my beautiful cloven -hoofs and turn them into horrid solid hoofs like a wretched horse's. -And if she is extra and specially angry she'll turn me into stone and I -shall be only a statue of a Faun in her horrible house until the four -thrones at Cair Paravel are filled--and goodness knows when that will -happen, or whether it will ever happen at all." +“Trying to talk like Mother,” said Edmund. “And who are you to say when +I’m to go to bed? Go to bed yourself.” -"I'm very sorry, Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy. "But please let me go home." +“Hadn’t we all better go to bed?” said Lucy. “There’s sure to be a row if +we’re heard talking here.” -"Of course I will," said the Faun. "Of course I've got to. I see that -now. I hadn't known what Humans were like before I met you. Of course -I can't give you up to the Witch; not now that I know you. But we must -be off at once. I'll see you back to the lamp-post. I suppose you can -find your own way from there back to Spare Oom and War Drobe?" +“No there won’t,” said Peter. “I tell you this is the sort of house where no +one’s going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won’t hear us. It’s about ten +minutes’ walk from here down to that dining-room, and any amount of stairs and +passages in between.” -"I'm sure I can," said Lucy. +“What’s that noise?” said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house than she +had ever been in before and the thought of all those long passages and rows of +doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to make her feel a little creepy. + +“It’s only a bird, silly,” said Edmund. + +“It’s an owl,” said Peter. “This is going to be a wonderful place for birds. I -"We must go as quietly as we can," said Mr. Tumnus. "The whole wood is -full of _her_ spies. Even some of the trees are on her side." -They both got up and left the tea things on the table, and Mr. Tumnus -once more put up his umbrella and gave Lucy his arm, and they went out -into the snow. The journey back was not at all like the journey to the -Faun's cave; they stole along as quickly as they could, without -speaking a word, and Mr. Tumnus kept to the darkest places. Lucy was -relieved when they reached the lamp-post again. -"Do you know your way from here, Daughter of Eve?" said Tumnus. +shall go to bed now. I say, let’s go and explore tomorrow. You might find +anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as we came along? +And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There’ll be +hawks.” -Lucy looked very hard between the trees and could just see in the -distance a patch of light that looked like daylight. "Yes," she said, -"I can see the wardrobe door." +“Badgers!” said Lucy. -"Then be off home as quick as you can," said the Faun, "and--c-can you -ever forgive me for what I meant to do?" +“Foxes!” said Edmund. -"Why, of course I can," said Lucy, shaking him heartily by the hand. -"And I do hope you won't get into dreadful trouble on my account." +“Rabbits!” said Susan. -"Farewell, Daughter of Eve," said he. "Perhaps I may keep the -handkerchief?" +But when next morning came there was a steady rain falling, so thick that +when you looked out of the window you could see neither the mountains nor the +woods nor even the stream in the garden. -"Rather!" said Lucy, and then ran towards the far-off patch of daylight -as quickly as her legs would carry her. And presently instead of rough -branches brushing past her she felt coats, and instead of crunching -snow under her feet she felt wooden boards, and all at once she found -herself jumping out of the wardrobe into the same empty room from which -the whole adventure had started. She shut the wardrobe door tightly -behind her and looked around, panting for breath. It was still raining -and she could hear the voices of the others in the passage. +“Of course it would be raining!” said Edmund. They had just finished their +breakfast with the Professor and were upstairs in the room he had set apart for +them - a long, low room with two windows looking out in one direction and two +in another. -"I'm here," she shouted. "I'm here. I've come back, I'm all right." +“Do stop grumbling, Ed,” said Susan. “Ten to one it’ll clear up in an hour or +so. And in the meantime we’re pretty well off. There’s a wireless and lots of +books.” +“Not for me”said Peter; “I’m going to explore in the house.” +Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the +sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of +unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, +as everyone had expected that they would; but soon they came to a very long +room full of pictures and there they found a suit of armour; and after that was a +room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps +down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led +out on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and +were lined with books - most of them very old books and some bigger than a +Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite +empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. +There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the +window-sill. +“Nothing there!” said Peter, and they all trooped out again - all except Lucy. +She stayed behind because she thought it would be worth while trying the door +of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her +surprise it opened quite easily, and two moth-balls dropped out. -CHAPTER III +Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up - mostly long fur +coats. There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She +immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed +her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it -_Edmund and the Wardrobe_ -Lucy ran out of the empty room into the passage and found the other -three. -"It's all right," she repeated, "I've come back." +is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and +found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It +was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her +so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further +in - then two or three steps always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of +her fingers. But she could not feel it. -"What on earth are you talking about, Lucy?" asked Susan. - -"Why?" said Lucy in amazement, "haven't you all been wondering where I -was?" - -"So you've been hiding, have you?" said Peter. "Poor old Lu, hiding -and nobody noticed! You'll have to hide longer than that if you want -people to start looking for you." - -"But I've been away for hours and hours," said Lucy. - -The others all stared at one another. - -"Batty!" said Edmund tapping his head. "Quite batty." - -"What do you mean, Lu?" asked Peter. - -"What I said," answered Lucy. "It was just after breakfast when I went -into the wardrobe, and I've been away for hours and hours, and had tea, -and all sorts of things have happened." - -"Don't be silly, Lucy," said Susan. "We've only just come out of that -room a moment ago, and you were there then." - -"She's not being silly at all," said Peter, "she's just making up a -story for fun, aren't you, Lu? And why shouldn't she?" - -"No, Peter, I'm not," she said. "It's--it's a magic wardrobe. There's -a wood inside it, and it's snowing, and there's a Faun and a witch and -it's called Narnia; come and see." - -The others did not know what to think, but Lucy was so excited that -they all went back with her into the room. She rushed ahead of them, -flung open the door of the wardrobe and cried, "Now! go in and see for -yourselves." - -"Why, you goose," said Susan, putting her head inside and pulling the -fur coats apart, "it's just an ordinary wardrobe, look! there's the -back of it." - -Then everyone looked in and pulled the coats apart; and they all -saw--Lucy herself saw--a perfectly ordinary wardrobe. There was no -wood and no snow, only the back of the wardrobe, with hooks on it. -Peter went in and rapped his knuckles on it to make sure that it was -solid. - -"A jolly good hoax, Lu," he said as he came out again, "you have really -taken us in, I must admit. We half believed you." - -"But it wasn't a hoax at all," said Lucy, "really and truly. It was -all different a moment ago. Honestly it was. I promise." - -"Come, Lu," said Peter, "that's going a bit far. You've had your joke. -Hadn't you better drop it now?" - -Lucy grew very red in the face and tried to say something, though she -hardly knew what she was trying to say, and burst into tears. - -For the next few days she was very miserable. She could have made it -up with the others quite easily at any moment if she could have brought -herself to say that the whole thing was only a story made up for fun. -But Lucy was a very truthful girl and she knew that she was really in -the right; and she could not bring herself to say this. The others who -thought she was telling a lie, and a silly lie too, made her very -unhappy. The two elder ones did this without meaning to do it, but -Edmund could be spiteful, and on this occasion he was spiteful. He -sneered and jeered at Lucy and kept on asking her if she'd found any -other new countries in other cupboards all over the house. What made -it worse was that these days ought to have been delightful. The -weather was fine and they were out of doors from morning to night, -bathing, fishing, climbing trees, birds' nesting, and lying in the -heather. But Lucy could not properly enjoy any of it. And so things -went on until the next wet day. - -That day, when it came to the afternoon and there was still no sign of -a break in the weather, they decided to play hide-and-seek. Susan was -"It" and as soon as the others scattered to hide, Lucy went to the room -where the wardrobe was. She did not mean to hide in the wardrobe, -because she knew that would only set the others talking again about the -whole wretched business. But she did want to have one more look inside -it; for by this time she was beginning to wonder herself whether Narnia -and the Faun had not been a dream. The house was so large and -complicated and full of hiding places that she thought she would have -time to have one look into the wardrobe and then hide somewhere else. -But as soon as she reached it she heard steps in the passage outside, -and then there was nothing for it but to jump into the wardrobe and -hold the door closed behind her. She did not shut it properly because -she knew that it is very silly to shut oneself into a wardrobe, even if -it is not a magic one. - -Now the steps she had heard were those of Edmund; and he came into the -room just in time to see Lucy vanishing into the wardrobe. He at once -decided to get into it himself--not because he thought it a -particularly good place to hide but because he wanted to go on teasing -her about her imaginary country. He opened the door. There were the -coats hanging up as usual, and a smell of mothballs, and darkness and -silence, and no sign of Lucy. "She thinks I'm Susan come to catch -her," said Edmund to himself, "and so she's keeping very quiet in at -the back." He jumped in and shut the door, forgetting what a very -foolish thing this is to do. Then he began feeling about for Lucy in -the dark. He had expected to find her in a few seconds and was very -surprised when he did not. He decided to open the door again and let -in some light. But he could not find the door either. He didn't like -this at all and began groping wildly in every direction; he even -shouted out. "Lucy! Lu! Where are you? I know you're here." - -There was no answer and Edmund noticed that his own voice had a curious -sound--not the sound you expect in a cupboard but a kind of open-air -sound. He also noticed that he was unexpectedly cold; and then he saw -a light. - -"Thank goodness," said Edmund, "the door must have swung open of its -own accord." He forgot all about Lucy and went towards the light which -he thought was the open door of the wardrobe. But instead of finding -himself stepping out into the spare room he found himself stepping out -from the shadow of some thick dark fir trees into an open place in the -middle of a wood. - -There was crisp, dry snow under his feet and more snow lying on the -branches of the trees. Overhead there was a pale blue sky, the sort of -sky one sees on a fine winter day in the morning. Straight ahead of -him he saw between the tree trunks the sun, just rising, very red and -clear. Everything was perfectly still, as if he were the only living -creature in that country. There was not even a robin or a squirrel -among the trees, and the wood stretched as far as he could see in every -direction. He shivered. - -He now remembered that he had been looking for Lucy; and also how -unpleasant he had been to her about her "imaginary country" which now -turned out not to have been imaginary at all. He thought that she must -be somewhere quite close and so he shouted, "Lucy! Lucy! I'm here -too--Edmund." - -There was no answer. - -"She's angry about all the things I've been saying lately," thought -Edmund. And though he did not like to admit that he had been wrong, he -also did not much like being alone in this strange, cold, quiet place; -so he shouted again. - -"I say, Lu! I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I see now you were right -all along. Do come out. Make it Pax." - -Still there was no answer. - -"Just like a girl," said Edmund to himself, "sulking somewhere, and -won't accept an apology." He looked round him again and decided he did -not much like this place, and had almost made up his mind to go home, -when he heard, very far off in the wood, a sound of bells. He listened -and the sound came nearer and nearer and at last there swept into sight -a sledge drawn by two reindeer. - -The reindeer were about the size of Shetland ponies and their hair was -so white that even the snow hardly looked white compared with them; -their branching horns were gilded and shone like something on fire when -the sunrise caught them. Their harness was of scarlet leather and -covered with bells. On the sledge, driving the reindeer, sat a fat -dwarf who would have been about three feet high if he had been -standing. He was dressed in polar bear's fur and on his head he wore a -red hood with a long gold tassel hanging down from its point; his huge -beard covered his knees and served him instead of a rug. But behind -him, on a much higher seat in the middle of the sledge sat a very -different person--a great lady, taller than any woman that Edmund had -ever seen. She also was covered in white fur up to her throat and held -a long straight golden wand in her right hand and wore a golden crown -on her head. Her face was white--not merely pale, but white like snow -or paper or icing sugar, except for her very red mouth. It was a -beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern. - -The sledge was a fine sight as it came sweeping towards Edmund with the -bells jingling and the Dwarf cracking his whip and the snow flying up -on each side of it. - -"Stop!" said the Lady, and the Dwarf pulled the reindeer up so sharp -that they almost sat down. Then they recovered themselves and stood -champing their bits and blowing. In the frosty air the breath coming -out of their nostrils looked like smoke. - -"And what, pray, are you?" said the Lady, looking hard at Edmund. - -"I'm--I'm--my name's Edmund," said Edmund rather awkwardly. He did not -like the way she looked at him. - -The Lady frowned. "Is that how you address a Queen?" she asked, -looking sterner than ever. - -"I beg your pardon, your Majesty, I didn't know," said Edmund. - -"Not know the Queen of Narnia?" cried she. "Ha! You shall know us -better hereafter. But I repeat--what are you?" - -"Please, your Majesty," said Edmund, "I don't know what you mean. I'm -at school--at least I was--it's the holidays now." - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -_Turkish Delight_ - -"But what are you?" said the Queen again. "Are you a great overgrown -dwarf that has cut off its beard." - -"No, your Majesty," said Edmund, "I never had a beard, I'm a boy." - -"A boy!" said she. "Do you mean you are a Son of Adam?" - -Edmund stood still, saying nothing. He was too confused by this time -to understand what the question meant. - -"I see you are an idiot, whatever else you may be," said the Queen. -"Answer me, once and for all, or I shall lose my patience. Are you -human?" - -"Yes, your Majesty," said Edmund. - -"And how, pray, did you come to enter my dominions?" - -"Please, your Majesty, I came in through a wardrobe." - -"A wardrobe? What do you mean?" - -"I--I opened a door and just found myself here, your Majesty," said -Edmund. - -"Ha!" said the Queen, speaking more to herself than to him. "A door. -A door from the world of men! I have heard of such things. This may -wreck all. But he is only one, and he is easily dealt with." As she -spoke these words she rose from her seat and looked Edmund full in the -face, her eyes flaming; at the same moment she raised her wand. Edmund -felt sure that she was going to do something dreadful but he seemed -unable to move. Then, just as he gave himself up for lost, she -appeared to change her mind. - -"My poor child," she said in quite a different voice, "how cold you -look! Come and sit with me here on the sledge and I will put my mantle -around you and we will talk." - -Edmund did not like this arrangement at all but he dared not disobey; -he stepped on to the sledge and sat at her feet, and she put a fold of -her fur mantle around him and tucked it well in. - -"Perhaps something hot to drink?" said the Queen. "Should you like -that?" - -"Yes please, your Majesty," said Edmund, whose teeth were chattering. - -The Queen took from somewhere among her wrappings a very small bottle -which looked as if it were made of copper. Then, holding out her arm, -she let one drop fall from it on to the snow beside the sledge. Edmund -saw the drop for a second in mid-air, shining like a diamond. But the -moment it touched the snow there was a hissing sound and there stood a -jewelled cup full of something that steamed. The Dwarf immediately -took this and handed it to Edmund with a bow and a smile; not a very -nice smile. Edmund felt much better as he began to sip the hot drink. -It was something he had never tasted before, very sweet and foamy and -creamy, and it warmed him right down to his toes. - -"It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating," said the Queen -presently. "What would you like best to eat?" - -"Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty," said Edmund. - -The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and -instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, -which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best -Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and -Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm -now, and very comfortable. +“This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!” thought Lucy, going still +further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. +Then she noticed that there was something cmnching under her feet. “I wonder +is that more mothballs?” she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But +instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt +something soft and powdery and extremely cold. “This is very queer,” she said, +and went on a step or two further. -While he was eating the Queen kept asking him questions. At first -Edmund tried to remember that it is rude to speak with one's mouth -full, but soon he forgot about this and thought only of trying to -shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate -the more he wanted to eat, and he never asked himself why the Queen -should be so inquisitive. She got him to tell her that he had one -brother and two sisters, and that one of his sisters had already been -in Narnia and had met a Faun there, and that no one except himself and -his brother and his sisters knew anything about Narnia. She seemed -especially interested in the fact that there were four of them, and -kept on coming back to it. "You are sure there are just four of you?" -she asked. "Two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve, neither more -nor less?" and Edmund, with his mouth full of Turkish Delight, kept on -saying, "Yes, I told you that before," and forgetting to call her "Your -Majesty" but she didn't seem to mind now. - -At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking -very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether -he would like some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he -was thinking; for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was -enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would -want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on -eating it till they killed themselves. But she did not offer him any -more. Instead, she said to him, - -"Son of Adam, I should so much like to see your brother and your two -sisters. Will you bring them to see me?" - -"I'll try," said Edmund, still looking at the empty box. - -"Because, if you did come again--bringing them with you of course--I'd -be able to give you some more Turkish Delight. I can't do it now, the -magic will only work once. In my own house it would be another matter." - -"Why can't we go to your house now?" said Edmund. When he had first -got on to the sledge he had been afraid that she might drive away with -him to some unknown place from which he would not be able to get back, -but he had forgotten about that fear now. - -"It is a lovely place, my house," said the Queen. "I am sure you would -like it. There are whole rooms full of Turkish Delight, and what's -more, I have no children of my own. I want a nice boy whom I could -bring up as a Prince and who would be King of Narnia when I am gone. -While he was Prince he would wear a gold crown and eat Turkish Delight -all day long; and you are much the cleverest and handsomest young man -I've ever met. I think I would like to make you the Prince--some day, -when you bring the others to visit me." - -"Why not now?" said Edmund. His face had become very red and his mouth -and fingers were sticky. He did not look either clever or handsome -whatever the Queen might say. - -"Oh, but if I took you there now," said she, "I shouldn't see your -brother and your sisters. I very much want to know your charming -relations. You are to be the Prince and--later on--the King; that is -understood. But you must have courtiers and nobles. I will make your -brother a Duke and your sisters Duchesses." - -"There's nothing special about _them_," said Edmund, "and, anyway, I -could always bring them some other time." - -"Ah, but once you were in my house," said the Queen, "you might forget -all about them. You would be enjoying yourself so much that you -wouldn't want the bother of going to fetch them. No. You must go back -to your own country now and come to me another day, _with them_, you -understand. It is no good coming without them." - -"But I don't even know the way back to my own country," pleaded Edmund. - -"That's easy," answered the Queen. "Do you see that lamp?" She -pointed with her wand and Edmund turned and saw the same lamp-post -under which Lucy had met the Faun. "Straight on, beyond that, is the -way to the World of Men. And now look the other way"--here she pointed -in the opposite direction--"and tell me if you can see two little hills -rising above the trees." - -"I think I can," said Edmund. - -"Well my house is between those two hills. So next time you come you -have only to find the lamp-post and look for those two hills and walk -through the wood till you reach my house. You had better keep the -river on your right when you get to it. But remember--you must bring -the others with you. I might have to be very angry with you if you -came alone." - -"I'll do my best," said Edmund. - -"And, by the way," said the Queen, "you needn't tell them about me. It -would be fun to keep it a secret between us two, wouldn't it? Make it -a surprise for them. Just bring them along to the two hills--a clever -boy like you will easily think of some excuse for doing that--and when -you come to my house you could just say 'Let's see who lives here' or -something like that. I am sure that would be best. If your sister has -met one of the Fauns, she may have heard strange stories about -me--nasty stories that might make her afraid to come to me. Fauns will -say anything, you know, and now--" - -"Please, please," said Edmund suddenly, "please couldn't I have just -one piece of Turkish Delight to eat on the way home?" - -"No, no," said the Queen with a laugh, "you must wait till next time." -While she spoke, she signalled to the Dwarf to drive on, but as the -sledge swept away out of sight, the Queen waved to Edmund calling out, -"Next time! Next time! Don't forget. Come soon." - -Edmund was still staring after the sledge when he heard someone calling -his own name, and looking round he saw Lucy coming towards him from -another part of the wood. - -"Oh, Edmund!" she cried. "So you've got in too! Isn't it wonderful, -and now--" - -"All right," said Edmund, "I see you were right and it is a magic -wardrobe after all. I'll say I'm sorry if you like. But where on -earth have you been all this time? I've been looking for you -everywhere." - -"If I'd known you had got in I'd have waited for you," said Lucy who -was too happy and excited to notice how snappishly Edmund spoke or how -flushed and strange his face was. "I've been having lunch with dear -Mr. Tumnus, the Faun, and he's very well and the White Witch has done -nothing to him for letting me go, so he thinks she can't have found out -and perhaps everything is going to be all right after all." +Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands +was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. “Why, it +is just like branches of trees!” exclaimed Lucy. And then she saw that there was +a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe +ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on +her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at +night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air. -"The White Witch?" said Edmund, "who's she?" +Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. +She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree trunks; she +could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the +empty room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, +for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It +seemed to be still daylight there. “I can always get back if anything goes wrong,” +thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and +through the wood towards the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and +found it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a +lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a +pitter patter of feet coming towards her. And soon after that a very strange +person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamp-post. -"She is a perfectly terrible person," said Lucy. "She calls herself -the Queen of Narnia though she has no right to be queen at all, and all -the Fauns and Dryads and Naiads and dwarfs and animals--at least all -the good ones--simply hate her. And she can turn people into stone and -do all kinds of horrible things. And she has made a magic so that it -is always winter in Narnia--always winter, but it never gets to -Christmas. And she drives about on a sledge, drawn by a reindeer, with -her wand in her hand and a crown on her head." - -Edmund was already feeling uncomfortable from having eaten too many -sweets, and when he heard that the Lady he had made friends with was a -dangerous witch he felt even more uncomfortable. But he still wanted -to taste that Turkish Delight again more than he wanted anything else. - -"Who told you all that stuff about the White Witch?" he asked. +He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his head an +umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his +legs were shaped like a goat’s (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of +feet he had goat’s hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first +because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep +it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woollen muffler round his neck and his +skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little face, with a short -"Mr. Tumnus, the Faun," said Lucy. -"You can't always believe what Fauns say," said Edmund, trying to sound -as if he knew far more about them than Lucy. -"Who said so?" asked Lucy. +pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns, one on +each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the umbrella: in +the other arm he carried several brown-paper parcels. What with the parcels and +the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a +Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he dropped all +his parcels. -"Everyone knows it," said Edmund, "ask anybody you like. But it's -pretty poor sport standing here in the snow. Let's go home." +“Goodness gracious me!” exclaimed the Faun. -"Yes, let's," said Lucy. "Oh Edmund, I _am_ glad you've got in too. -The others will have to believe in Narnia now that both of us have been -there. What fun it will be." -But Edmund secretly thought that it would not be as good fun for him as -for her. He would have to admit that Lucy had been right, before all -the others, and he felt sure the others would all be on the side of the -Fauns and the animals; but he was already more than half on the side of -the Witch. He did not know what he would say, or how he would keep his -secret once they were all talking about Narnia. - -By this time they had walked a good way. Then suddenly they felt coats -around them instead of branches and next moment they were both standing -outside the wardrobe in the empty room. -"I say," said Lucy, "you do look awful, Edmund. Don't you feel well?" +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and -"I'm all right," said Edmund, but this was not true. He was feeling -very sick. - -"Come on then," said Lucy, "let's find the others. What a lot we shall -have to tell them! And what wonderful adventures we shall have now -that we're all in it together." +The Wardrobe +CHAPTER TWO -CHAPTER V - -_Back on This Side of the Door_ - -Because the game of hide-and-seek was still going on, it took Edmund -and Lucy some time to find the others. But when at last they were all -together (which happened in the long room, where the suit of armour -was) Lucy burst out, - -"Peter! Susan! It's all true. Edmund has seen it too. There is a -country you can get to through the wardrobe. Edmund and I both got in. -We met one another in there, in the wood. Go on, Edmund; tell them all -about it." - -"What's all this about, Ed?" said Peter. -And now we come to one of the nastiest things in this story. Up to -that moment Edmund had been feeling sick, and sulky, and annoyed with -Lucy for being right, but he hadn't made up his mind what to do. When -Peter suddenly asked him the question he decided all at once to do the -meanest and most spiteful thing he could think of. He decided to let -Lucy down. +WHAT LUCY FOUND THERE -"Tell us, Ed," said Susan. +“GOOD EVENING,” said Lucy. But the Faun was so busy picking up its +parcels that at first it did not reply. When it had finished it made her a little bow. -And Edmund gave a very superior look as if he were far older than Lucy -(there was really only a year's difference) and then a little snigger -and said, "Oh, yes, Lucy and I have been playing--pretending that all -her story about a country in the wardrobe is true. Just for fun, of -course. There's nothing there really." +“Good evening, good evening,” said the Faun. “Excuse me -1 don’t want to +be inquisitive - but should I be right in thinking that you are a Daughter of Eve?” -Poor Lucy gave Edmund one look and rushed out of the room. +“My name’s Lucy,” said she, not quite understanding him. -Edmund, who was becoming a nastier person every minute, thought that he -had scored a great success, and went on at once to say, "There she goes -again. What's the matter with her? That's the worst of young kids, -they always--" +“But you are - forgive me - you are what they call a girl?” said the Faun. -"Look here," said Peter turning on him savagely, "shut up! You've been -perfectly beastly to Lu ever since she started this nonsense about the -wardrobe and now you go playing games with her about it and setting her -off again. I believe you did it simply out of spite." +“Of course I’m a girl,” said Lucy. -"But it's all nonsense," said Edmund, very taken aback. +“You are in fact Human?” -"Of course it's all nonsense," said Peter, "that's just the point. Lu -was perfectly all right when we left home, but since we've been down -here she seems to be either going queer in the head or else turning -into a most frightful liar. But whichever it is, what good do you -think you'll do by jeering and nagging at her one day and encouraging -her the next?" +“Of course I’m human,” said Lucy, still a little puzzled. -"I thought--I thought," said Edmund; but he couldn't think of anything -to say. +“To be sure, to be sure,” said the Faun. “How stupid of me! But I’ve never +seen a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve before. I am delighted. That is to say +and then it stopped as if it had been going to say something it had not intended +but had remembered in time. “Delighted, delighted,” it went on. “Allow me to +introduce myself. My name is Tumnus.” -"You didn't think anything at all," said Peter, "it's just spite. -You've always liked being beastly to anyone smaller than yourself; -we've seen that at school before now." +“I am very pleased to meet you, Mr Tumnus,” said Lucy. -"Do stop it," said Susan; "it won't make things any better having a row -between you two. Let's go and find Lucy." +“And may I ask, O Lucy Daughter of Eve,” said Mr Tumnus, “how you have +come into Narnia?” -It was not surprising that when they found Lucy, a good deal later, -everyone could see that she had been crying. Nothing they could say to -her made any difference. She stuck to her story and said: +“Narnia? What’s that?” said Lucy. -"I don't care what you think, and I don't care what you say. You can -tell the Professor or you can write to Mother or you can do anything -you like. I know I've met a Faun in there and--I wish I'd stayed there -and you are all beasts, beasts." +“This is the land of Narnia,” said the Faun, “where we are now; all that lies +between the lamp-post and the great castle of Cair Paravel on the eastern sea. +And you - you have come from the wild woods of the west?” -It was an unpleasant evening. Lucy was miserable and Edmund was -beginning to feel that his plan wasn't working as well as he had -expected. The two older ones were really beginning to think that Lucy -was out of her mind. They stood in the passage talking about it in -whispers long after she had gone to bed. +“I -1 got in through the wardrobe in the spare room,” said Lucy. -The result was that next morning they decided that they really would go -and tell the whole thing to the Professor. "He'll write to Father if -he thinks there is really something wrong with Lu," said Peter; "it's -getting beyond us." So they went and knocked at the study door, and -the Professor said "Come in," and got up and found chairs for them and -said he was quite at their disposal. Then he sat listening to them -with the tips of his fingers pressed together and never interrupting, -till they had finished the whole story. After that he said nothing for -quite a long time. Then he cleared his throat and said the last thing -either of them expected. +“Ah!” said Mr Tumnus in a rather melancholy voice, “if only I had worked +harder at geography when I was a little Faun, I should no doubt know all about +those strange countries. It is too late now.” -"How do you know?" he asked, "that your sister's story is not true?" +“But they aren’t countries at all,” said Lucy, almost laughing. “It’s only just +back there - at least - I’m not sure. It is summer there.” -"Oh, but--" began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see from the -old man's face that he was perfectly serious. Then Susan pulled -herself together and said, "But Edmund said they had only been -pretending." +“Meanwhile,” said Mr Tumnus, “it is winter in Narnia, and has been for ever +so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in the snow. +Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns +around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea +with me?” -"That is a point," said the Professor, "which certainly deserves -consideration; very careful consideration. For instance--if you will -excuse me for asking the question--does your experience lead you to -regard your brother or your sister as the more reliable? I mean, which -is the more truthful?" - -"That's just the funny thing about it, Sir," said Peter. "Up till now, -I'd have said Lucy every time." - -"And what do you think, my dear?" said the Professor, turning to Susan. - -"Well," said Susan, "in general, I'd say the same as Peter, but this -couldn't be true--all this about the wood and the Faun." - -"That is more than I know," said the Professor, "and a charge of lying -against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious -thing; a very serious thing indeed." - -"We were afraid it mightn't even be lying," said Susan. "We thought -there might be something wrong with Lucy." - -"Madness, you mean?" said the Professor quite coolly. "Oh, you can -make your minds easy about that. One has only to look at her and talk -to her to see that she is not mad." - -"But then," said Susan and stopped. She had never dreamed that a -grown-up would talk like the Professor and didn't know what to think. - -"Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "Why don't they teach -logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either -your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the -truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is -not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, -we must assume that she is telling the truth." - -Susan looked at him very hard and was quite sure from the expression on -his face that he was not making fun of them. - -"But how could it be true, Sir?" said Peter. - -"Why do you say that?" asked the Professor. - -"Well, for one thing," said Peter, "if it was real why doesn't everyone -find this country every time they go to the wardrobe? I mean, there -was nothing there when we looked; even Lucy didn't pretend there was." - -"What has that to do with it?" said the Professor. - -"Well, Sir, if things are real, they're there all the time." - -"Are they?" said the Professor; and Peter did not know quite what to -say. - -"But there was no time," said Susan, "Lucy had had no time to have gone -anywhere, even if there was such a place. She came running after us -the very moment we were out of the room. It was less than a minute, -and she pretended to have been away for hours." - -"That is the very thing that makes her story so likely to be true," -said the Professor. "If there really is a door in this house that -leads to some other world (and I should warn you that this is a very -strange house, and even I know very little about it)--if, I say, she -had got into another world, I should not be at all surprised to find -that that other world had a separate time of its own; so that however -long you stayed there it would never take up any of our time. On the -other hand, I don't think many girls of her age would invent that idea -for themselves. If she had been pretending, she would have hidden for -a reasonable time before coming out and telling her story." - -"But do you really mean, Sir," said Peter, "that there could be other -worlds--all over the place, just round the corner--like that?" - -"Nothing is more probable," said the Professor, taking off his -spectacles and beginning to polish them, while he muttered to himself, -"I wonder what they do teach them at these schools." +“Thank you very much, Mr Tumnus,” said Lucy. “But I was wondering +whether I ought to be getting back.” -"But what are we to do?" said Susan. She felt that the conversation -was beginning to get off the point. - -"My dear young lady," said the Professor, suddenly looking up with a -very sharp expression at both of them, "there is one plan which no one -has yet suggested and which is well worth trying." -"What's that?" said Susan. -"We might all try minding our own business," said he. And that was the -end of that conversation. +“It’s only just round the corner,” said the Faun, “and there’ll be a roaring fire +- and toast - and sardines - and cake.” -After this things were a good deal better for Lucy. Peter saw to it -that Edmund stopped jeering at her, and neither she nor anyone else -felt inclined to talk about the wardrobe at all. It had become a -rather alarming subject. And so for a time it looked as if all the -adventures were coming to an end; but that was not to be. +“Well, it’s very kind of you,” said Lucy. “But I shan’t be able to stay long.” -This house of the Professor's--which even he knew so little about--was -so old and famous that people from all over England used to come and -ask permission to see over it. It was the sort of house that is -mentioned in guide books and even in histories; and well it might be, -for all manner of stories were told about it, some of them even -stranger than the one I am telling you now. And when parties of -sight-seers arrived and asked to see the house, the Professor always -gave them permission, and Mrs. Macready, the housekeeper, showed them -round, telling them about the pictures and the armour, and the rare -books in the library. Mrs. Macready was not fond of children, and did -not like to be interrupted when she was telling visitors all the things -she knew. She had said to Susan and Peter almost on the first morning -(along with a good many other instructions) "And please remember you're -to keep out of the way whenever I'm taking a party over the house." +“If you will take my arm, Daughter of Eve,” said Mr Tumnus, “I shall be +able to hold the umbrella over both of us. That’s the way. Now - off we go.” -"Just as if any of us would want to waste half the morning trailing -round with a crowd of strange grown-ups!" said Edmund, and the other -three thought the same. That was how the adventures began for the -second time. +And so Lucy found herself walking through the wood arm in arm with this +strange creature as if they had known one another all their lives. -A few mornings later Peter and Edmund were looking at the suit of -armour and wondering if they could take it to bits when the two girls -rushed into the room and said, "Look out! Here comes the Macready and -a whole gang with her." +They had not gone far before they came to a place where the ground became +rough and there were rocks all about and little hills up and little hills down. At +the bottom of one small valley Mr Tumnus turned suddenly aside as if he were +going to walk straight into an unusually large rock, but at the last moment Lucy +found he was leading her into the entrance of a cave. As soon as they were inside +she found herself blinking in the light of a wood fire. Then Mr Tumnus stooped +and took a flaming piece of wood out of the fire with a neat little pair of tongs, +and lit a lamp. “Now we shan’t be long,” he said, and immediately put a kettle +on. -"Sharp's the word," said Peter, and all four made off through the door -at the far end of the room. But when they had got out into the Green -Room and beyond it, into the library, they suddenly heard voices ahead -of them, and realised that Mrs. Macready must be bringing her party of -sight-seers up the back stairs--instead of up the front stairs as they -had expected. And after that--whether it was that they lost their -heads, or that Mrs. Macready was trying to catch them, or that some -magic in the house had come to life and was chasing them into -Narnia--they seemed to find themselves being followed everywhere, until -at last Susan said, "Oh bother those trippers! Here--let's get into -the Wardrobe Room till they've passed. No one will follow us in -there." But the moment they were inside they heard voices in the -passage--and then someone fumbling at the door--and then they saw the -handle turning. +Lucy thought she had never been in a nicer place. It was a little, dry, clean +cave of reddish stone with a carpet on the floor and two little chairs (’’one for me +and one for a friend,” said Mr Tumnus) and a table and a dresser and a +mantelpiece over the fire and above that a picture of an old Faun with a grey +beard. In one corner there was a door which Lucy thought must lead to Mr +Tumnus’s bedroom, and on one wall was a shelf full of books. Lucy looked at +these while he was setting out the tea things. They had titles like The Life and +Letters of Silenus or Nymphs and Their Ways or Men, Monks and Gamekeepers; +a Study in Popular Legend or Is Man a Myth? -"Quick!" said Peter, "there's nowhere else," and flung open the -wardrobe. All four of them bundled inside it and sat there, panting, -in the dark. Peter held the door closed but did not shut it; for, of -course, he remembered, as every sensible person does, that you should -never never shut yourself up in a wardrobe. +“Now, Daughter of Eve!” said the Faun. +And really it was a wonderful tea. There was a nice brown egg, lightly +boiled, for each of them, and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast, and +then toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake. And when Lucy was tired +of eating the Faun began to talk. He had wonderful tales to tell of life in the +forest. He told about the midnight dances and how the Nymphs who lived in the +wells and the Dryads who lived in the trees came out to dance with the Fauns; +about long hunting parties after the milk-white stag who could give you wishes +if you caught him; about feasting and treasure-seeking with the wild Red Dwarfs +in deep mines and caverns far beneath the forest floor; and then about summer +when the woods were green and old Silenus on his fat donkey would come to +visit them, and sometimes Bacchus himself, and then the streams would run with +wine instead of water and the whole forest would give itself up to jollification +for weeks on end. “Not that it isn’t always winter now,” he added gloomily. Then -CHAPTER VI +to cheer himself up he took out from its case on the dresser a strange little flute +that looked as if it were made of straw and began to play. And the tune he played +made Lucy want to cry and laugh and dance and go to sleep all at the same time. +It must have been hours later when she shook herself and said: -_Into the Forest_ +“Oh, Mr Tumnus - I’m so sorry to stop you, and I do love that tune - but +really, I must go home. I only meant to stay for a few minutes.” -"I wish the Macready would hurry up and take all these people away," -said Susan presently, "I'm getting horribly cramped." +“It’s no good now, you know,” said the Faun, laying down its flute and +shaking its head at her very sorrowfully. -"And what a filthy smell of camphor!" said Edmund. +“No good?” said Lucy, jumping up and feeling rather frightened. “What do +you mean? I’ve got to go home at once. The others will be wondering what has +happened to me.” But a moment later she asked, “Mr Tumnus! Whatever is the +matter?” for the Faun’s brown eyes had filled with tears and then the tears began +trickling down its cheeks, and soon they were running off the end of its nose; +and at last it covered its face with its hands and began to howl. -"I expect the pockets of these coats are full of it," said Susan, "to -keep away moths." - -"There's something sticking into my back," said Peter. - -"And isn't it cold?" said Susan. - -"Now that you mention it, it is cold," said Peter, "and hang it all, -it's wet too. What's the matter with this place? I'm sitting on -something wet. It's getting wetter every minute." He struggled to his -feet. +“Mr Tumnus! Mr Tumnus!” said Lucy in great distress. “Don’t! Don’t! What +is the matter? Aren’ you well? Dear Mr Tumnus, do tell me what is wrong.” But +the Faun continued sobbing as if its heart would break. And even when Lucy +went over and put her arms round him and lent him her hand kerchief, he did not +stop. He merely took the handker chief and kept on using it, wringing it out with +both hands whenever it got too wet to be any more use, so that presently Lucy +was standing in a damp patch. -"Let's get out," said Edmund, "they've gone." +“Mr Tumnus!” bawled Lucy in his ear, shaking him. “Do stop. Stop it at +once! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a great big Faun like you. What on +earth are you crying about?” -"O-o-oh!" said Susan suddenly. And everyone asked her what was the -matter. +“Oh - oh - oh!” sobbed Mr Tumnus, “I’m crying because I’m such a bad +Faun.” -"I'm sitting against a tree," said Susan, "and look! It's getting -lighter--over there." +“I don’t think you’re a bad Faun at all,” said Lucy. “I think you are a very +good Faun. You are the nicest Faun I’ve ever met.” -"By jove, you're right," said Peter, "and look there--and there. It's -trees all round. And this wet stuff is snow. Why, I do believe we've -got into Lucy's wood after all." +“Oh - oh - you wouldn’t say that if you knew,” replied Mr Tumnus between +his sobs. “No, I’m a bad Faun. I don’t suppose there ever was a worse Faun since +the beginning of the world.” -And now there was no mistaking it and all four children stood blinking -in the daylight of a winter day. Behind them were coats hanging on -pegs, in front of them were snow-covered trees. +“But what have you done?” asked Lucy. -Peter turned at once to Lucy. +“My old father, now,” said Mr Tumnus; “that’s his picture over the +mantelpiece. He would never have done a thing like this.” -"I apologise for not believing you," he said, "I'm sorry. Will you -shake hands?" +“A thing like what?” said Lucy. -"Of course," said Lucy, and did. +“Like what I’ve done,” said the Faun. “Taken service under the White Witch. +That’s what I am. I’m in the pay of the White Witch.” -"And now," said Susan, "what do we do next?" +“The White Witch? Who is she?” -"Do?" said Peter, "why, go and explore the wood, of course." +“Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it -"Ugh!" said Susan, stamping her feet, "it's pretty cold. What about -putting on some of these coats?" -"They're not ours," said Peter doubtfully. -"I am sure nobody would mind," said Susan. "It isn't as if we wanted -to take them out of the house; we shan't take them even out of the -wardrobe." +always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!” -"I never thought of that, Su," said Peter. "Of course, now you put it -that way, I see. No one could say you had bagged a coat as long as you -leave it in the wardrobe where you found it. And I suppose this whole -country is in the wardrobe." +“How awful!” said Lucy. “But what does she pay you for?” -They immediately carried out Susan's very sensible plan. The coats -were rather too big for them so that they came down to their heels and -looked more like royal robes than coats when they had put them on. But -they all felt a good deal warmer and each thought the others looked -better in their new get-up and more suitable to the landscape. +“That’s the worst of it,” said Mr Tumnus with a deep groan. “I’m a +kidnapper for her, that’s what I am. Look at me, Daughter of Eve. Would you +believe that I’m the sort of Faun to meet a poor innocent child in the wood, one +that had never done me any harm, and pretend to be friendly with it, and invite it +home to my cave, all for the sake of lulling it asleep and then handing it over to +the White Witch?” -"We can pretend we are Arctic explorers," said Lucy. +“No,” said Lucy. “I’m sure you wouldn’t do anything of the sort.” -"This is going to be exciting enough without any pretending," said -Peter, as he began leading the way forward into the forest. There were -heavy darkish clouds overhead and it looked as if there might be more -snow before night. +“But I have,” said the Faun. -"I say," began Edmund presently, "oughtn't we to be bearing a bit more -to the left, that is, if we are aiming for the lamp-post." He had -forgotten for the moment that he must pretend never to have been in the -wood before. The moment the words were out of his mouth he realised -that he had given himself away. Everyone stopped; everyone stared at -him. Peter whistled. +“Well,” said Lucy rather slowly (for she wanted to be tmthful and yet not be +too hard on him), “well, that was pretty bad. But you’re so sorry for it that I’m +sure you will never do it again.” -"So you really were here," he said, "that time Lu said she'd met you in -here--and you made out she was telling lies." +“Daughter of Eve, don’t you understand?” said the Faun. “It isn’t something +I have done. I’m doing it now, this very moment.” -There was a dead silence. "Well, of all the poisonous little beasts--" -said Peter and shrugged his shoulders and said no more. There seemed, -indeed, no more to say and presently the four resumed their journey; -but Edmund was saying to himself, "I'll pay you all out for this, you -pack of stuck-up, self-satisfied prigs." +“What do you mean?” cried Lucy, turning very white. -"Where _are_ we going anyway?" said Susan, chiefly for the sake of -changing the subject. +“You are the child,” said Tumnus. “I had orders from the White Witch that if +ever I saw a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve in the wood, I was to catch them +and hand them over to her. And you are the first I’ve ever met. And I’ve +pretended to be your friend an asked you to tea, and all the time I’ve been +meaning to wait till you were asleep and then go and tell Her.” -"I think Lu ought to be the leader," said Peter, "goodness knows she -deserves it. Where will you take us, Lu?" +“Oh, but you won’t, Mr Tumnus,” said Lucy. “Yo won’t, will you? Indeed, +indeed you really mustn’t.” -"What about going to see Mr. Tumnus?" said Lucy. "He's the nice Faun I -told you about." +“And if I don’t,” said he, beginning to cry again “she’s sure to find out. And +she’ll have my tail cut off and my horns sawn off, and my beard plucked out, +and she’ll wave her wand over my beautiful clove hoofs and turn them into +horrid solid hoofs like wretched horse’s. And if she is extra and specially angry +she’ll turn me into stone and I shall be only statue of a Faun in her horrible +house until the four thrones at Cair Paravel are filled and goodness knows when +that will happen, or whether it will ever happen at all.” -Everyone agreed to this and off they went, walking briskly and stamping -their feet. Lucy proved a good leader. At first she wondered whether -she would be able to find the way, but she recognised an odd-looking -tree in one place and a stump in another and brought them on to where -the ground became uneven and into the little valley and at last to the -very door of Mr. Tumnus' cave. But there a terrible surprise awaited -them. +“I’m very sorry, Mr Tumnus,” said Lucy. “But please let me go home.” -The door had been wrenched off its hinges and broken to bits. Inside, -the cave was dark and cold and had the damp feel and smell of a place -that had not been lived in for several days. Snow had drifted in from -the doorway and was heaped on the floor, mixed with something black, -which turned out to be the charred sticks and ashes from the fire. -Someone had apparently flung it about the room and then stamped it out. -The crockery lay smashed on the floor and the picture of the Faun's -father had been slashed into shreds with a knife. +“Of course I will,” said the Faun. “Of course I’ve got to. I see that now. I +hadn’t known what Humans were like before I met you. Of course I can’t give +you up to the Witch; not now that I know you. But we must be off at once. I’ll +see you back to the lamp-post. I suppose you can find your own way from there +back to Spare Oom and War Drobe?” -"This is a pretty good wash-out," said Edmund, "not much good coming -here." +“I’m sure I can,” said Lucy. -"What's this?" said Peter, stooping down. He had just noticed a piece -of paper which had been nailed through the carpet to the floor. +“We must go as quietly as we can,” said Mr Tumnus. “The whole wood is +full of her spies. Even some of the trees are on her side.” -"Is there anything written on it?" asked Susan. -"Yes, I think there is," answered Peter, "but I can't read it in this -light. Let's get out into the open air." -They all went out in the daylight and crowded round Peter as he read -out the following words:-- +They both got up and left the tea things on the table, and Mr Tumnus once +more put up his umbrella and gave Lucy his arm, and they went out into the +snow. The journey back was not at all like the journey to the Faun’s cave; they +stole along as quickly as they could, without speaking a word, and Mr Tumnus +kept to the darkest places. Lucy was relieved when they reached the lamp-post +again. +“Do you know your way from here, Daughter o Eve?” said Tumnus. -"The former occupant of these premises, the Faun Tumnus, is under -arrest and awaiting his trial on a charge of High Treason against her -Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, -Empress of the Lone Islands, etc., also of comforting her said -Majesty's enemies, harbouring spies and fraternising with Humans. +Lucy looked very hard between the trees and could just see in the distance a +patch of light that looked like daylight. “Yes,” she said, “I can see the wardrobe +door.” -_Signed_ FENRIS ULF, Captain of the Secret Police, +“Then be off home as quick as you can,” said the Faun, “and - c-can you ever +forgive me for what meant to do?” -LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!" +“Why, of course I can,” said Lucy, shaking him heartily by the hand. “And I +do hope you won’t get into dreadful trouble on my account.” +“Farewell, Daughter of Eve,” said he. “Perhaps I may keep the +handkerchief?” -The children stared at each other. +“Rather!” said Lucy, and then ran towards the far off patch of daylight as +quickly as her legs would carry her. And presently instead of rough branch +brushing past her she felt coats, and instead of crunching snow under her feet she +felt wooden board and all at once she found herself jumping out of the wardrobe +into the same empty room from which the whole adventure had started. She shut +the wardrobe door tightly behind her and looked around, panting for breath. It +was still raining and she could hear the voices of the others in the passage. -"I don't know that I'm going to like this place after all," said Susan. +“I’m here,” she shouted. “I’m here. I’ve come back I’m all right.” -"Who is this Queen, Lu?" said Peter. "Do you know anything about her?" -"She isn't a real queen at all," answered Lucy, "she's a horrible -witch, the White Witch. Everyone--all the wood people--hate her. She -has made an enchantment over the whole country so that it is always -winter here and never Christmas." -"I--I wonder if there's any point in going on," said Susan. "I mean, -it doesn't seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won't be -much fun either. And it's getting colder every minute, and we've -brought nothing to eat. What about just going home?" +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and -"Oh, but we can't, we can't," said Lucy suddenly. "Don't you see? We -can't just go home, not after this. It is all on my account that the -poor Faun has got into this trouble. He hid me from the Witch and -showed me the way back. That's what it means by comforting the Queen's -enemies and fraternising with Humans. We simply must try to rescue -him." +The Wardrobe -"A lot _we_ could do!" said Edmund, "when we haven't even got anything -to eat!" -"Shut up--you!" said Peter, who was still very angry with Edmund. -"What do you think, Susan?" -"I've a horrid feeling that Lu is right," said Susan. "I don't want to -go a step further and I wish we'd never come. But I think we must try -to do something for Mr. Whatever-his-name is--I mean the Faun." +CHAPTER THREE -"That's what I feel too," said Peter. "I'm worried about having no -food with us. I'd vote for going back and getting something from the -larder, only there doesn't seem to be any certainty of getting into -this country again when once you've got out of it. I think we'll have -to go on." -"So do I," said both the girls. +EDMUND AND THE WARDROBE -"If only we knew where the poor chap was imprisoned!" said Peter. +Lucy ran out of the empty room into the passage and found the other three. -They were all still, wondering what to do next, when Lucy said, "Look! -There's a robin, with such a red breast. It's the first bird I've seen -here. I say!--I wonder can birds talk in Narnia? It almost looks as -if it wanted to say something to us." Then she turned to the Robin and -said, "Please, can you tell us where Tumnus the Faun has been taken -to?" As she said this she took a step towards the bird. It at once -hopped away but only as far as to the next tree. There it perched and -looked at them very hard as if it understood all they had been saying. -Almost without noticing that they had done so, the four children went a -step or two nearer to it. At this the Robin flew away again to the -next tree and once more looked at them very hard. (You couldn't have -found a robin with a redder chest or a brighter eye.) +“It’s all right,” she repeated, “Eve comeback.” -"Do you know," said Lucy, "I really believe he means us to follow him." +“What on earth are you talking about, Lucy?” asked Susan. -"I've an idea he does," said Susan, "what do you think, Peter?" +“Why? said Lucy in amazement, “haven’t you all been wondering where I +was?” -"Well, we might as well try it," answered Peter. +“So you’ve been hiding, have you?” said Peter. “Poor old Lu, hiding and +nobody noticed! You’ll have to hide longer than that if you want people to start +looking for you.” -The Robin appeared to understand the matter thoroughly. It kept going -from tree to tree, always a few yards ahead of them but always so near -that they could easily follow it. In this way it led them on, slightly -down hill. Wherever the Robin alighted a little shower of snow would -fall off the branch. Presently the clouds parted overhead and the -winter sun came out and the snow all around them grew dazzlingly -bright. They had been travelling in this way for about half an hour, -with the two girls in front, when Edmund said to Peter, "If you're not -still too high and mighty to talk to me, I've something to say which -you'd better listen to." +“But I’ve been away for hours and hours,” said Lucy. -"What is it?" asked Peter. +The others all stared at one another. -"Hush! Not so loud," said Edmund, "there's no good frightening the -girls. But have you realised what we're doing?" +“Batty!” said Edmund, tapping his head. “Quite batty.” -"What?" said Peter, lowering his voice to a whisper. +“What do you mean, Lu?” asked Peter. -"We're following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which -side that bird is on? Why shouldn't it be leading us into a trap?" +“What I said,” answered Lucy. “It was just after breakfast when I went into +the wardrobe, and I’ve been away for hours and hours, and had tea, and all sorts +of things have happened.” -"That's a nasty idea. Still--a robin you know. They're good birds in -all the stories I've ever read. I'm sure a robin wouldn't be on the -wrong side." +“Don’t be silly, Lucy,” said Susan. “We’ve only just come out of that room a +moment ago, and you were there then.” -"If it comes to that, which _is_ the right side? How do we know that -the fauns are in the right and the Queen (yes, I know we've been _told_ -she's a witch) is in the wrong? We don't really know anything about -either." +“She’s not being silly at all,” said Peter, “she’s just making up a story for fun, +aren’t you, Lu? And why shouldn’t she?” -"The Faun saved Lucy." +“No, Peter, I’m not,” she said. “It’s - it’s a magic wardrobe. There’s a wood +inside it, and it’s snowing, and there’s a Laun and a Witch and it’s called Narnia; +come and see.” -"He _said_ he did. But how do we know? And there's another thing too. -Has anyone the least idea of the way home from here?" +The others did not know what to think, but Lucy was so excited that they all +went back with her into the room. She rushed ahead of them, flung open the door +of the wardrobe and cried, “Now! go in and see for yourselves.” -"Great Scott!" said Peter, "I hadn't thought of that." +“Why, you goose,” said Susan, putting her head inside and pulling the fur +coats apart, “it’s just an ordinary wardrobe; look! there’s the back of it.” -"And no chance of dinner either," said Edmund. +Then everyone looked in and pulled the coats apart; and they all saw - Lucy +herself saw - a perfectly ordinary wardrobe. There was no wood and no snow, +only the back of the wardrobe, with hooks on it. Peter went in and rapped his +knuckles on it to make sure that it was solid. +“A jolly good hoax, Lu,” he said as he came out again; “you have really +taken us in, I must admit. We half believed you.” +“But it wasn’t a hoax at all,” said Lucy, “really and truly. It was all different -CHAPTER VII -_A Day with the Beavers_ +a moment ago. Honestly it was. I promise.” -While the two boys were whispering behind, both the girls suddenly -cried "Oh!" and stopped. "The robin!" cried Lucy, "the robin. It's -flown away." And so it had--right out of sight. +“Come, Lu,” said Peter, “that’s going a bit far. You’ve had your joke. Hadn’t +you better drop it now?” -"And now what are we to do?" said Edmund, giving Peter a look which was -as much as to say "What did I tell you?" +Lucy grew very red in the face and tried to say something, though she hardly +knew what she was trying to say, and burst into tears. -"Sh! Look!" said Susan. +For the next few days she was very miserable. She could have made it up +with the others quite easily at any moment if she could have brought herself to +say that the whole thing was only a story made up for fun. But Lucy was a very +truthful girl and she knew that she was really in the right; and she could not +bring herself to say this. The others who thought she was telling a lie, and a silly +lie too, made her very unhappy. The two elder ones did this without meaning to +do it, but Edmund could be spiteful, and on this occasion he was spiteful. He +sneered and jeered at Lucy and kept on asking her if she’d found any other new +countries in other cupboards all over the house. What made it worse was that +these days ought to have been delightful. The weather was fine and they were +out of doors from morning to night, bathing, fishing, climbing trees, and lying in +the heather. But Lucy could not properly enjoy any of it. And so things went on +until the next wet day. -"What?" said Peter. +That day, when it came to the afternoon and there was still no sign of a break +in the weather, they decided to play hide-and-seek. Susan was “It” and as soon as +the others scattered to hide, Lucy went to the room where the wardrobe was. She +did not mean to hide in the wardrobe, because she knew that would only set the +others talking again about the whole wretched business. But she did want to have +one more look inside it; for by this time she was beginning to wonder herself +whether Narnia and the Faun had not been a dream. The house was so large and +complicated and full of hiding-places that she thought she would have time to +have one look into the wardrobe and then hide somewhere else. But as soon as +she reached it she heard steps in the passage outside, and then there was nothing +for it but to jump into the wardrobe and hold the door closed behind her. She did +not shut it properly because she knew that it is very silly to shut oneself into a +wardrobe, even if it is not a magic one. -"There's something moving among the trees--over there to the left." +Now the steps she had heard were those of Edmund; and he came into the +room just in time to see Lucy vanishing into the wardrobe. He at once decided to +get into it himself - not because he thought it a particularly good place to hide +but because he wanted to go on teasing her about her imaginary country. He +opened the door. There were the coats hanging up as usual, and a smell of +mothballs, and darkness and silence, and no sign of Lucy. “She thinks I’m Susan +come to catch her,” said Edmund to himself, “and so she’s keeping very quiet in +at the back.” He jumped in and shut the door, forgetting what a very foolish -They all stared as hard as they could, and no one felt very comfortable. -"There it goes again," said Susan presently. -"I saw it that time too," said Peter. "It's still there. It's just -gone behind that big tree." +thing this is to do. Then he began feeling about for Lucy in the dark. He had +expected to find her in a few seconds and was very surprised when he did not. +He decided to open the door again and let in some light. But he could not find +the door either. He didn’t like this at all and began groping wildly in every +direction; he even shouted out, “Lucy! Lu! Where are you? I know you’re here.” -"What is it?" asked Lucy, trying very hard not to sound nervous. +There was no answer and Edmund noticed that his own voice had a curious +sound - not the sound you expect in a cupboard, but a kind of open-air sound. He +also noticed that he was unexpectedly cold; and then he saw a light. -"Whatever it is," said Peter, "it's dodging us. It's something that -doesn't want to be seen." +“Thank goodness,” said Edmund, “the door must have swung open of its +own accord.” He forgot all about Lucy and went towards the light, which he +thought was the open door of the wardrobe. But instead of finding himself +stepping out into the spare room he found himself stepping out from the shadow +of some thick dark fir trees into an open place in the middle of a wood. -"Let's go home," said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, -everyone suddenly realised the same fact that Edmund had whispered to -Peter at the end of the last chapter. They were lost. +There was crisp, dry snow under his feet and more snow lying on the +branches of the trees. Overhead there was pale blue sky, the sort of sky one sees +on a fine winter day in the morning. Straight ahead of him he saw between the +tree-trunks the sun, just rising, very red and clear. Everything was perfectly still, +as if he were the only living creature in that country. There was not even a robin +or a squirrel among the trees, and the wood stretched as far as he could see in +every direction. He shivered. -"What's it like?" said Lucy. +He now remembered that he had been looking for Lucy; and also how +unpleasant he had been to her about her “imaginary country” which now turned +out not to have been imaginary at all. He thought that she must be somewhere +quite close and so he shouted, “Lucy! Lucy! I’m here too-Edmund.” -"It's--it's a kind of animal," said Susan; and then, "Look! Look! -Quick! There it is." +There was no answer. -They all saw it this time, a whiskered furry face which had looked out -at them from behind a tree. But this time it didn't immediately draw -back. Instead, the animal put its paw against its mouth just as humans -put their finger on their lips when they are signalling to you to be -quiet. Then it disappeared again. The children all stood holding -their breaths. +“She’s angry about all the things I’ve been saying lately,” thought Edmund. +And though he did not like to admit that he had been wrong, he also did not +much like being alone in this strange, cold, quiet place; so he shouted again. -A moment later the stranger came out from behind the tree, glanced all -round as if it were afraid someone was watching, said "Hush," made -signs to them to join it in the thicker bit of wood where it was -standing, and then once more disappeared. +“I say, Lu! I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I see now you were right all along. +Do come out. Make it Pax.” -"I know what it is," said Peter, "it's a beaver. I saw the tail." +Still there was no answer. -"It wants us to go to it," said Susan, "and it is warning us not to -make a noise." +“Just like a girl,” said Edmund to himself, “sulking somewhere, and won’t +accept an apology.” He looked round him again and decided he did not much +like this place, and had almost made up his mind to go home, when he heard, +very far off in the wood, a sound of bells. He listened and the sound came nearer +and nearer and at last there swept into sight a sledge drawn by two reindeer. -"I know," said Peter. "The question is are we to go to it or not? -What do you think, Lu?" +The reindeer were about the size of Shetland ponies and their hair was so +white that even the snow hardly looked white compared with them; their +branching horns were gilded and shone like something on fire when the sunrise -"I think it's a nice beaver," said Lucy. -"Yes, but how do we _know_?" said Edmund. -"Shan't we have to risk it?" said Susan. "I mean, it's no good just -standing here and I feel I want some dinner." +caught them. Their harness was of scarlet leather and covered with bells. On the +sledge, driving the reindeer, sat a fat dwarf who would have been about three +feet high if he had been standing. He was dressed in polar bear’s fur and on his +head he wore a red hood with a long gold tassel hanging down from its point; his +huge beard covered his knees and served him instead of a rug. But behind him, +on a much higher seat in the middle of the sledge sat a very different person - a +great lady, taller than any woman that Edmund had ever seen. She also was +covered in white fur up to her throat and held a long straight golden wand in her +right hand and wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was white - not +merely pale, but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red +mouth. It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern. -At this moment the Beaver again popped its head out from behind the -tree and beckoned earnestly to them. +The sledge was a fine sight as it came sweeping towards Edmund with the +bells jingling and the dwarf cracking his whip and the snow flying up on each +side of it. -"Come on," said Peter, "let's give it a try. All keep close together. -We ought to be a match for one beaver if it turns out to be an enemy." +“Stop!” said the Lady, and the dwarf pulled the reindeer up so sharp that they +almost sat down. Then they recovered themselves and stood champing their bits +and blowing. In the frosty air the breath coming out of their nostrils looked like +smoke. -So the children all got close together and walked up to the tree and in -behind it, and there, sure enough, they found the Beaver; but it still -drew back, saying to them in a hoarse throaty whisper, "Further in, -come further in. Right in here. We're not safe in the open!" Only -when it had led them into a dark spot where four trees grew so close -together that their boughs met and the brown earth and pine needles -could be seen underfoot because no snow had been able to fall there, -did it begin to talk to them. +“And what, pray, are you?” said the Lady, looking hard at Edmund. -"Are you the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve?" it said. +“Tm-I’m-my name’s Edmund,” said Edmund rather awkwardly. He did not +like the way she looked at him. -"We're some of them," said Peter. +The Lady frowned, “Is that how you address a Queen?” she asked, looking +sterner than ever. -"S-s-s-sh!" said the Beaver, "not so loud please. We're not safe even -here." +“I beg your pardon, your Majesty, I didn’t know,” said Edmund: -"Why, who are you afraid of?" said Peter. "There's no one here but -ourselves." +“Not know the Queen of Narnia?” cried she. “Ha! You shall know us better +hereafter. But I repeat-what are you?” -"There are the trees," said the Beaver. "They're always listening. -Most of them are on our side, but there _are_ trees that would betray -us to _her_; you know who I mean," and it nodded its head several times. - -"If it comes to talking about sides," said Edmund, "how do we know -you're a friend?" - -"Not meaning to be rude, Mr. Beaver," added Peter, "but you see, we're -strangers." - -"Quite right, quite right," said the Beaver. "Here is my token." With -these words it held up to them a little white object. They all looked -at it in surprise, till suddenly Lucy said, "Oh, of course. It's my -handkerchief--the one I gave to poor Mr. Tumnus." - -"That's right," said the Beaver. "Poor fellow, he got wind of the -arrest before it actually happened and handed this over to me. He said -that if anything happened to him I must meet you here and take you on -to--" Here the Beaver's voice sank into silence and it gave one or two -very mysterious nods. Then signalling to the children to stand as -close around it as they possibly could, so that their faces were -actually tickled by its whiskers, it added in a low whisper-- - -"They say Aslan is on the move--perhaps has already landed." - -And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who -Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken -these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes -happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't -understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous -meaning--either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a -nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which -makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are -always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that -now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump -in his inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter -felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious -smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And -Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and -realise that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of -summer. - -"And what about Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy; "where is he?" - -"S-s-s-sh," said the Beaver, "not here. I must bring you where we can -have a real talk and also dinner." - -No one except Edmund felt any difficulty about trusting the Beaver now -and everyone, including Edmund, was very glad to hear the word -"dinner." They therefore all hurried along behind their new friend who -led them at a surprisingly quick pace, and always in the thickest parts -of the forest, for over an hour. Everyone was feeling very tired and -very hungry when suddenly the trees began to get thinner in front of -them and the ground to fall steeply down hill. A minute later they -came out under the open sky (the sun was still shining) and found -themselves looking down on a fine sight. - -They were standing on the edge of a steep, narrow valley at the bottom -of which ran--at least it would have been running if it hadn't been -frozen--a fairly large river. Just below them a dam had been built -across this river; and when they saw it everyone suddenly remembered -that of course beavers are always making dams and felt quite sure that -Mr. Beaver had made this one. They also noticed that he now had a sort -of modest expression on his face--the sort of look people have when you -are visiting a garden they've made or reading a story they've written. -So it was only common politeness when Susan said, "What a lovely dam!" -And Mr. Beaver didn't say "Hush" this time but "Merely a trifle! -Merely a trifle! And it isn't really finished!" - -Above the dam there was what ought to have been a deep pool but was now -of course a level floor of dark green ice. And below the dam, much -lower down, was more ice, but instead of being smooth this was all -frozen into the foamy and wavy shapes in which the water had been -rushing along at the very moment when the frost came. And where the -water had been trickling over and spurting through the dam there was -now a glittering wall of icicles, as if the side of the dam had been -covered all over with flowers and wreaths and festoons of the purest -sugar. And out in the middle, and partly on the top of the dam, was a -funny little house shaped rather like an enormous bee-hive and from a -hole in the roof smoke was going up, so that when you saw it -(especially if you were hungry) you at once thought of cooking and -became hungrier than you were before. - -That was what the others chiefly noticed, but Edmund noticed something -else. A little lower down the river there was another small river -which came down another small valley to join it. And looking up that -valley, Edmund could see two small hills, and he was almost sure they -were the two hills which the White Witch had pointed out to him when he -parted from her at the lamp-post that other day. And then between -them, he thought, must be her palace, only a mile off or less. And he -thought about Turkish Delight and about being a King ("And I wonder how -Peter will like that?" he asked himself) and horrible ideas came into -his head. - -"Here we are," said Mr. Beaver, "and it looks as if Mrs. Beaver is -expecting us. I'll lead the way. But be careful and don't slip." - -The top of the dam was wide enough to walk on, though not (for humans) -a very nice place to walk because it was covered with ice, and though -the frozen pool was level with it on one side, there was a nasty drop -to the lower river on the other. Along this route Mr. Beaver led them -in single file right out to the middle where they could look a long way -up the river and a long way down it. And when they had reached the -middle they were at the door of the house. - -"Here we are, Mrs. Beaver," said Mr. Beaver, "I've found them. Here -are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve"--and they all went in. - -The first thing Lucy noticed as she went in was a burring sound, and -the first thing she saw was a kind-looking old she-beaver sitting in -the corner with a thread in her mouth working busily at her sewing -machine and it was from it that the sound came. She stopped her work -and got up as soon as the children came in. - -"So you've come at last!" she said, holding out both her wrinkled old -paws. "At last! To think that ever I should live to see this day! -The potatoes are on boiling and the kettle's singing and I daresay, Mr. -Beaver, you'll get us some fish." - -"That I will," said Mr. Beaver and he went out of the house (Peter went -with him) and across the ice of the deep pool to where he had a little -hole in the ice which he kept open every day with his hatchet. They -took a pail with them, Mr. Beaver sat down quietly at the edge of the -hole (he didn't seem to mind it's being so chilly) looked hard into it, -then suddenly shot in his paw, and before you could say Jack Robinson -had whisked out a beautiful trout. Then he did it all over again until -they had a fine catch of fish. - -Meanwhile the girls were helping Mrs. Beaver to fill the the kettle and -lay the table and cut the bread and put the plates in the oven to heat -and draw a huge jug of beer for Mr. Beaver from a barrel which stood in -one corner of the house, and to put on the frying pan and get the -dripping hot. Lucy thought the Beavers had a very snug little home -though it was not at all like Mr. Tumnus's cave. There were no books -or pictures and instead of beds there were bunks, like on board ship, -built into the wall. And there were hams and strings of onions hanging -from the roof and against the walls were gum boots and oilskins and -hatchets and pairs of shears and spades and trowels and things for -carrying mortar in and fishing rods and fishing nets and sacks. And -the cloth on the table tho' very clean was very rough. - -Just as the frying pan was nicely hissing Peter and Mr. Beaver came in -with the fish which Mr. Beaver had already opened with his knife and -cleaned out in the open air. You can think how good the new-caught -fish smelled while they were frying and how the hungry children longed -for them to be done and how very much hungrier still they had become -before Mrs. Beaver said, "Now we're nearly ready." Susan drained the -potatoes and then put them all back in the empty pot to dry on the side -of the range while Lucy was helping Mrs. Beaver to dish up the trout, -so that in a very few minutes everyone was drawing up stools (it was -all three-legged stools in the Beavers' house except for Mrs. Beaver's -own special rocking chair beside the fire) and preparing to enjoy -themselves. There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr. -Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the -middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go -with his potatoes and all the children thought--and I agree with -them--that there's nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it -when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan -half a minute ago. And when they had finished the fish Mrs. Beaver -brought unexpectedly out of the oven a great and gloriously sticky -marmalade roll, steaming hot, and at the same time moved the kettle on -to the fire, so that when they had finished the marmalade roll the tea -was made and ready to be poured out. And when each person had got his -(or her) cup of tea, each person shoved back his (or her) stool so as -to be able to lean against the wall and gave a long sigh of contentment. - -"And now," said Mr. Beaver pushing away his empty beer mug and pulling -his cup of tea towards him, "if you'll just wait till I've got my pipe -lit up and going nicely--why, now we can get to business. It's snowing -again," he added, cocking his eye at the window. "That's all the -better, because it means we shan't have any visitors; and if anyone -should have been trying to follow you, why he won't find any tracks." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_What Happened after Dinner_ - -"And now," said Lucy, "do please tell us what's happened to Mr. Tumnus." - -"Ah, that's bad," said Mr. Beaver shaking his head. "That's a very, -very bad business. There's no doubt he was taken off by the police. I -got that from a bird who saw it done." - -"But where's he been taken to?" asked Lucy. - -"Well, they were heading northwards when they were last seen and we all -know what that means." - -"No, we don't," said Susan. But Mr. Beaver shook his head in a very -gloomy fashion. - -"I'm afraid it means they were taking him to her house," said Mr. -Beaver. - -"But what'll they do to him, Mr. Beaver?" gasped Lucy. - -"Well," said Mr. Beaver, "you can't exactly say for sure. But there's -not many taken in there that ever comes out again. Statues. All full -of statues they say it is--in the courtyard and up the stairs and in -the hall. People she's turned--" (he paused and shuddered) "turned -into stone." - -"But, Mr. Beaver," said Lucy, "can't we--I mean we _must_ do something -to save him. It's too dreadful and it's all on my account." - -"I don't doubt you'd save him if you could, dearie," said Mrs. Beaver, -"but you've no chance of getting into that House against her will and -ever coming out alive." - -"Couldn't we have some stratagem?" said Peter. "I mean couldn't we -dress up as something, or pretend to be--oh, pedlars or anything--or -watch till she was gone out--or--oh, hang it all, there must be _some_ -way. This Faun saved my sister at his own risk, Mr. Beaver. We can't -just leave him to be--to be--to have that done to him." - -"It's no good, Son of Adam," said Mr. Beaver, "no good _your_ trying, -of all people. But now that Aslan is on the move--" - -"Oh, yes! Tell us about Aslan!" said several voices at once; for once -again that strange feeling--like the first signs of spring, like good -news, had come over them. - -"Who is Aslan?" asked Susan. - -"Aslan?" said Mr. Beaver, "Why don't you know? He's the King. He's -the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never -in my time or my father's time. But the word has reached us that he -has come back. He is in Narnia at this moment. He'll settle the White -Queen all right. It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus." +“Please, your Majesty,” said Edmund, “I don’t know what you mean. I’m at +school - at least I was it’s the holidays now.” -"She won't turn him into stone too?" said Edmund. -"Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say!" answered Mr. -Beaver with a great laugh. "Turn _him_ into stone? If she can stand -on her two feet and look him in the face it'll be the most she can do -and more than I expect of her. No, no. He'll put all to rights as it -says in an old rhyme in these parts:-- - Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, - At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, - When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death - And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again. +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and -You'll understand when you see him." +The Wardrobe -"But shall we see him?" asked Susan. -"Why, Daughter of Eve, that's what I brought you here for. I'm to lead -you where you shall meet him," said Mr. Beaver. -"Is--is he a man?" asked Lucy. +CHAPTER FOUR -"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he -is the King of the wood and the son of the great -Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? -Aslan is a lion--_the_ Lion, the great Lion." -"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I -shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." +TURKISH DELIGHT -"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's -anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, -they're either braver than most or else just silly." +“BUT what are you?” said the Queen again. “Are you a great overgrown +dwarf that has cut off its beard?” -"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy. +“No, your Majesty,” said Edmund, “I never had a beard, I’m a boy.” -"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? -Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. -He's the King, I tell you." +“A boy!” said she. “Do you mean you are a Son of Adam?” -"I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if I do feel frightened -when it comes to the point." +Edmund stood still, saying nothing. He was too confused by this time to +understand what the question meant. -"That's right, Son of Adam," said Mr. Beaver bringing his paw down on -the table with a crash that made all the cups and saucers rattle. "And -so you shall. Word has been sent that you _are_ to meet him, to-morrow -if you can, at the Stone Table." +“I see you are an idiot, whatever else you may be,” said the Queen. “Answer +me, once and for all, or I shall lose my patience. Are you human?” -"Where's that?" said Lucy. +“Yes, your Majesty,” said Edmund. -"I'll show you," said Mr. Beaver. "It's down the river, a good step -from here. I'll take you to it!" +“And how, pray, did you come to enter my dominions?” -"But meanwhile what about poor Mr. Tumnus?" said Lucy. +“Please, your Majesty, I came in through a wardrobe.” -"The quickest way you can help him is by going to meet Aslan," said Mr. -Beaver, "once he's with us, then we can begin doing things. Not that -we don't need you too. For that's another of the old rhymes:-- +“A wardrobe? What do you mean?” - When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone - Sits at Cair Paravel in throne, - The evil time will be over and done. +“I -1 opened a door and just found myself here, your Majesty,” said Edmund. -So things must be drawing near their end now he's come and you've come. -We've heard of Aslan coming into these parts before--long ago, nobody -can say when. But there's never been any of your race here before." +“Ha!” said the Queen, speaking more to herself than to him. “A door. A door +from the world of men! I have heard of such things. This may wreck all. But he +is only one, and he is easily dealt with.” As she spoke these words she rose from +her seat and looked Edmund full in the face, her eyes flaming; at the same +moment she raised her wand. Edmund felt sure that she was going to do +something dreadful but he seemed unable to move. Then, just as he gave himself +up for lost, she appeared to change her mind. -"That's what I don't understand, Mr. Beaver," said Peter, "I mean isn't -the Witch herself human?" +“My poor child,” she said in quite a different voice, “how cold you look! +Come and sit with me here on the sledge and I will put my mantle round you and +we will talk.” -"She'd like us to believe it," said Mr. Beaver, "and it's on that that -she bases her claim to be Queen. But she's no Daughter of Eve. She -comes of your father Adam's--" (here Mr. Beaver bowed) "your father -Adam's first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the -Jinn. That's what she comes from on one side. And on the other she -comes of the giants. No, no, there isn't a drop of real Human blood in -the Witch." +Edmund did not like this arrangement at all but he dared not disobey; he +stepped on to the sledge and sat at her feet, and she put a fold of her fur mantle +round him and tucked it well in. -"That's why she's bad all through, Mr. Beaver," said Mrs. Beaver. +“Perhaps something hot to drink?” said the Queen. “Should you like that?” -"True enough, Mrs. Beaver," replied he, "there may be two views about -Humans (meaning no offence to the present company). But there's no two -views about things that look like Humans and aren't." +“Yes please, your Majesty,” said Edmund, whose teeth were chattering. -"I've known good dwarfs," said Mrs. Beaver. +The Queen took from somewhere among her wrappings a very small bottle +which looked as if it were made of copper. Then, holding out her arm, she let +one drop fall from it on the snow beside the sledge. Edmund saw the drop for a +second in mid-air, shining like a diamond. But the moment it touched the snow +there was a hissing sound and there stood a jewelled cup full of something that +steamed. The dwarf immediately took this and handed it to Edmund with a bow -"So've I, now you come to speak of it," said her husband, "but precious -few, and they were the ones least like men. But in general, take my -advice, when you meet anything that's going to be Human and isn't yet, -or used to be Human once and isn't now, or ought to be Human and isn't, -you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet. And that's why the -Witch is always on the lookout for any Humans in Narnia. She's been -watching for you this many a year, and if she knew there were four of -you she'd be more dangerous still." -"What's that to do with it?" asked Peter. -"Because of another prophecy," said Mr. Beaver. "Down at Cair -Paravel--that's the castle on the sea coast down at the mouth of this -river which ought to be the capital of the whole country if all was as -it should be--down at Cair Paravel there are four thrones and it's a -saying in Narnia time out of mind that when two Sons of Adam and two -Daughters of Eve sit in those four thrones, then it will be the end not -only of the White Witch's reign but of her life, and that is why we had -to be so cautious as we came along, for if she knew about you four, -your lives wouldn't be worth a shake of my whiskers!" +and a smile; not a very nice smile. Edmund felt much better as he began to sip +the hot drink. It was something he had never tasted before, very sweet and foamy +and creamy, and it warmed him right down to his toes. -All the children had been attending so hard to what Mr. Beaver was -telling them that they had noticed nothing else for a long time. Then -during the moment of silence that followed his last remark, Lucy -suddenly said: +“It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating,” said the Queen presently. +“What would you like best to eat?” -"I say--where's Edmund?" +“Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty,” said Edmund. -There was a dreadful pause, and then everyone began asking "Who saw him -last? How long has he been missing? Is he outside?" And then all -rushed to the door and looked out. The snow was falling thickly and -steadily, the green ice of the pool had vanished under a thick white -blanket, and from where the little house stood in the centre of the dam -you could hardly see either bank. Out they went, plunging well over -their ankles into the soft new snow, and went round the house in every -direction. "Edmund! Edmund!" they called till they were hoarse. But -the silently falling snow seemed to muffle their voices and there was -not even an echo in answer. +The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly +there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, +turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was +sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more +delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable. -"How perfectly dreadful!" said Susan as they at last came back in -despair. "Oh, how I wish we'd never come." +While he was eating the Queen kept asking him questions. At first Edmund +tried to remember that it is rude to speak with one’s mouth full, but soon he +forgot about this and thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish +Delight as he could, and the more he ate the more he wanted to eat, and he never +asked himself why the Queen should be so inquisitive. She got him to tell her +that he had one brother and two sisters, and that one of his sisters had already +been in Narnia and had met a Faun there, and that no one except himself and his +brother and his sisters knew anything about Narnia. She seemed especially +interested in the fact that there were four of them, and kept on coming back to it. +“You are sure there are just four of you?” she asked. “Two Sons of Adam and +two Daughters of Eve, neither more nor less?” and Edmund, with his mouth full +of Turkish Delight, kept on saying, “Yes, I told you that before,” and forgetting +to call her “Your Majesty”, but she didn’t seem to mind now. -"What on earth are we to do, Mr. Beaver?" said Peter. +At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very +hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like +some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking; for she +knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that +anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, +if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves. But she did not +offer him any more. Instead, she said to him, -"Do?" said Mr. Beaver who was already putting on his snow boots, "do? -We must be off at once. We haven't a moment to spare!" +“Son of Adam, I should so much like to see your brother and your two +sisters. Will you bring them to see me?” -"We'd better divide into four search parties," said Peter, "and all go -in different directions. Whoever finds him must come back here at once -and--" +“I’ll try,” said Edmund, still looking at the empty box. -"Search parties, Son of Adam?" said Mr. Beaver; "what for?" +“Because, if you did come again - bringing them with you of course - I’d be +able to give you some more Turkish Delight. I can’t do it now, the magic will +only work once. In my own house it would be another matter.” -"Why, to look for Edmund of course!" +“Why can’t we go to your house now?” said Edmund. When he had first got +on to the sledge he had been afraid that she might drive away with him to some -"There's no point in looking for him," said Mr. Beaver. -"What do you mean?" said Susan, "he can't be far away yet. And we've -got to find him. What do you mean when you say there's no use looking -for him?" -"The reason there's no use looking," said Mr. Beaver, "is that we know -already where he's gone!" Everyone stared in amazement. "Don't you -understand?" said Mr. Beaver. "He's gone to _her_, to the White Witch. -He has betrayed us all." +unknown place from which he would not be able to get back; but he had +forgotten about that fear now. -"Oh surely--oh really!" said Susan, "he can't have done that." +“It is a lovely place, my house,” said the Queen. “I am sure you would like it. +There are whole rooms full of Turkish Delight, and what’s more, I have no +children of my own. I want a nice boy whom I could bring up as a Prince and +who would be King of Narnia when I am gone. While he was Prince he would +wear a gold crown and eat Turkish Delight all day long; and you are much the +cleverest and handsomest young man I’ve ever met. I think I would like to make +you the Prince - some day, when you bring the others to visit me.” -"Can't he?" said Mr. Beaver looking very hard at the three children, -and everything they wanted to say died on their lips for each felt -suddenly quite certain inside that this was exactly what Edmund had -done. +“Why not now?” said Edmund. His face had become very red and his mouth +and fingers were sticky. He did not look either clever or handsome, whatever the +Queen might say. -"But will he know the way?" said Peter. +“Oh, but if I took you there now,” said she, “I shouldn’t see your brother and +your sisters. I very much want to know your charming relations. You are to be +the Prince and - later on - the King; that is understood. But you must have +courtiers and nobles. I will make your brother a Duke and your sisters +Duchesses.” -"Has he been in this country before?" asked Mr. Beaver, "has he ever -been here alone?" +“There’s nothing special about them,” said Edmund, “and, anyway, I could +always bring them some other time.” -"Yes," said Lucy almost in a whisper, "I'm afraid he has." +“Ah, but once you were in my house,” said the Queen, “you might forget all +about them. You would be enjoying yourself so much that you wouldn’t want the +bother of going to fetch them. No. You must go back to your own country now +and come to me another day, with them, you understand. It is no good coming +without them.” -"And did he tell you what he'd done or who he'd met?" +“But I don’t even know the way back to my own country,” pleaded Edmund. +“That’s easy,” answered the Queen. “Do you see that lamp?” She pointed with +her wand and Edmund turned and saw the same lamp-post under which Lucy +had met the Faun. “Straight on, beyond that, is the way to the World of Men. +And now look the other way’- here she pointed in the opposite direction - “and +tell me if you can see two little hills rising above the trees.” -"Well, no, he didn't," said Peter. +“I think I can,” said Edmund. -"Then mark my words," said Mr. Beaver, "he has already met the White -Witch and joined her side, and been told where she lives. I didn't -like to mention it before (he being your brother and all) but the -moment I set eyes on that brother of yours I said to myself -'Treacherous.' He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and -eaten her food. You can always tell them if you've lived long in -Narnia, something about their eyes." +“Well, my house is between those two hills. So next time you come you have +only to find the lamp-post and look for those two hills and walk through the +wood till you reach my house. But remember - you must bring the others with +you. I might have to be very angry with you if you came alone.” -"All the same," said Peter in a rather choking sort of voice, "we'll -still have to go and look for him. He is our brother after all, even -if he is rather a little beast, and he's only a kid." - -"Go to the Witch's house?" said Mrs. Beaver. "Don't you see that the -only chance of saving either him or yourselves is to keep away from -her?" - -"How do you mean?" said Lucy. - -"Why all she wants is to get all four of you (she's thinking all the -time of those four thrones at Cair Paravel). Once you were all four -inside her house her job would be done--and there'd be four new statues -in her collection before you'd had time to speak. But she'll keep him -alive as long as he's the only one she's got, because she'll want to -use him as a decoy; as bait to catch the rest of you with." - -"Oh, can _no_ one help us?" wailed Lucy. - -"Only Aslan," said Mr. Beaver, "we must go on and meet him. That's our -only chance now." - -"It seems to me, my dears," said Mrs. Beaver, "that it is very -important to know just _when_ he slipped away. How much he can tell -her depends on how much he heard. For instance, had we started talking -of Aslan before he left? If not, then we may do very well, for she -won't know that Aslan has come to Narnia, or that we are meeting him -and will be quite off her guard as far as _that_ is concerned." - -"I don't remember his being here when we were talking about Aslan--" -began Peter, but Lucy interrupted him. - -"Oh yes, he was," she said miserably; "don't you remember, it was he -who asked whether the Witch couldn't turn Aslan into stone too?" - -"So he did, by Jove," said Peter, "just the sort of thing he would say, -too!" - -"Worse and worse," said Mr. Beaver, "and the next thing is this. Was -he still here when I told you that the place for meeting Aslan was the -Stone Table?" - -And of course no one knew the answer to this question. - -"Because, if he was," continued Mr. Beaver, "then she'll simply sledge -down in that direction and get between us and the Stone Table and catch -us on our way down. In fact we shall be cut off from Aslan." - -"But that isn't what she'll do first," said Mrs. Beaver, "not if I know -her. The moment that Edmund tells her that we're all here she'll set -out to catch us this very night, and if he's been gone about half an -hour, she'll be here in about another twenty minutes." - -"You're right, Mrs. Beaver," said her husband, "we must all get away -from here. There's not a moment to lose." - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -_In the Witch's House_ - -And now of course you want to know what had happened to Edmund. He had -eaten his share of the dinner, but he hadn't really enjoyed it because -he was thinking all the time about Turkish Delight--and there's nothing -that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory -of bad magic food. And he had heard the conversation and hadn't -enjoyed it much either, because he kept on thinking that the others -were taking no notice of him and trying to give him the cold shoulder. -They weren't, but he imagined it. And then he had listened until Mr. -Beaver told them about Aslan and until he had heard the whole -arrangement for meeting Aslan at the Stone Table. It was then that he -began very quietly to edge himself under the curtain which hung over -the door. For the mention of Aslan gave him a mysterious and horrible -feeling just as it gave the others a mysterious and lovely feeling. - -Just as Mr. Beaver had been repeating the rhyme about _Adam's flesh and -Adam's bone_ Edmund had been very quietly turning the door handle; and -just before Mr. Beaver had begun telling them that the White Witch -wasn't really human at all but half a Jinn and half a giantess, Edmund -had got outside into the snow and cautiously closed the door behind him. - -You mustn't think that even now Edmund was quite so bad that he -actually wanted his brother and sisters to be turned into stone. He -did want Turkish Delight and to be a Prince (and later a King) and to -pay Peter out for calling him a beast. As for what the Witch would do -with the others, he didn't want her to be particularly nice to -them--certainly not to put them on the same level as himself--but he -managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn't do -anything very bad to them, "Because," he said to himself, "all these -people who say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half -of it isn't true. She was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than -they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, she'll -be better than that awful Aslan!" At least, that was the excuse he -made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn't a very good -excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White -Witch was bad and cruel. - -The first thing he realised when he got outside and found the snow -falling all around him, was that he had left his coat behind in the -Beavers' house. And of course there was no chance of going back to get -it now. The next thing he realised was that the daylight was almost -gone, for it had been nearly three o'clock when they sat down to dinner -and the winter days were short. He hadn't reckoned on this; but he had -to make the best of it. So he turned up his collar and shuffled across -the top of the dam (luckily it wasn't so slippery since the snow had -fallen) to the far side of the river. - -It was pretty bad when he reached the far side. It was growing darker -every minute and what with that and the snowflakes swirling all round -him he could hardly see three feet ahead. And then too there was no -road. He kept slipping into deep drifts of snow, and skidding on -frozen puddles, and tripping over fallen tree-trunks, and sliding down -steep banks, and barking his shins against rocks, till he was wet and -cold and bruised all over. The silence and the loneliness were -dreadful. In fact I really think he might have given up the whole plan -and gone back and owned up and made friends with the others, if he -hadn't happened to say to himself, "When I'm King of Narnia the first -thing I shall do will be to make some decent roads." And of course -that set him off thinking about being a King and all the other things -he would do and this cheered him up a good deal. He had just settled -in his mind what sort of palace he would have and how many cars and all -about his private cinema and where the principal railways would run and -what laws he would make against beavers and dams and was putting the -finishing touches to some schemes for keeping Peter in his place, when -the weather changed. First the snow stopped. Then a wind sprang up -and it became freezing cold. Finally, the clouds rolled away and the -moon came out. It was a full moon and, shining on all that snow, it -made everything almost as bright as day--only the shadows were rather -confusing. - -He would never have found his way if the moon hadn't come out by the -time he got to the other river--you remember he had seen (when they -first arrived at the Beavers') a smaller river flowing into the great -one lower down. He now reached this and turned to follow it up. But -the little valley down which it came was much steeper and rockier than -the one he had just left and much overgrown with bushes, so that he -could not have managed it at all in the dark. Even as it was, he got -wet through for he had to stoop to go under branches and great loads of -snow came sliding off on to his back. And every time this happened he -thought more and more how he hated Peter--just as if all this had been -Peter's fault. - -But at last he came to a part where it was more level and the valley -opened out. And there, on the other side of the river, quite close to -him, in the middle of a little plain between two hills, he saw what -must be the White Witch's house. And the moon was shining brighter -than ever. The house was really a small castle. It seemed to be all -towers; little towers with long pointed spires on them, sharp as -needles. They looked like huge dunce's caps or sorcerer's caps. And -they shone in the moonlight and their long shadows looked strange on -the snow! Edmund began to be afraid of the house. - -But it was too late to think of turning back now. He crossed the river -on the ice and walked up to the house. There was nothing stirring; not -the slightest sound anywhere. Even his own feet made no noise on the -deep newly fallen snow. He walked on and on, past corner after corner -of the house, and past turret after turret to find the door. He had to -go right round to the far side before he found it. It was a huge arch -but the great iron gates stood wide open. - -Edmund crept up to the arch and looked inside into the courtyard, and -there he saw a sight that nearly made his heart stop beating. Just -inside the gate, with the moonlight shining on it, stood an enormous -lion crouched as if it was ready to spring. And Edmund stood in the -shadow of the arch, afraid to go on and afraid to go back, with his -knees knocking together. He stood there so long that his teeth would -have been chattering with cold even if they had not been chattering -with fear. How long this really lasted I don't know, but it seemed to -Edmund to last for hours. - -Then at last he began to wonder why the lion was standing so still--for -it hadn't moved one inch since he first set eyes on it. Edmund now -ventured a little nearer, still keeping in the shadow of the arch as -much as he could. He now saw from the way the lion was standing that -it couldn't have been looking at him at all. ("But supposing it turns -its head?" thought Edmund.) In fact it was staring at something -else--namely a little dwarf who stood with his back to it about four -feet away. "Aha!" thought Edmund. "When it springs at the dwarf then -will be my chance to escape." But still the lion never moved, nor did -the dwarf. And now at last Edmund remembered what the others had said -about the White Witch turning people into stone. Perhaps this was only -a stone lion. And as soon as he had thought of that he noticed that -the lion's back and the top of its head were covered with snow. Of -course it must be only a statue! No living animal would have let -itself get covered with snow. Then very slowly and with his heart -beating as if it would burst, Edmund ventured to go up to the lion. -Even now he hardly dared to touch it, but at last he put out his hand, -very quickly, and did. It was cold stone. He had been frightened of a -mere statue! - -The relief which Edmund felt was so great that in spite of the cold he -suddenly got warm all over right down to his toes, and at the same time -there came into his head what seemed a perfectly lovely idea. -"Probably," he thought, "this is the great Lion Aslan that they were -all talking about. She's caught him already and turned him into stone. -So _that's_ the end of all their fine ideas about him! Pooh! Who's -afraid of Aslan?" - -And he stood there gloating over the stone lion, and presently he did -something very silly and childish. He took a stump of lead pencil out -of his pocket and scribbled a moustache on the lion's upper lip and -then a pair of spectacles on its eyes. Then he said, "Yah! Silly old -Aslan! How do you like being a stone? You thought yourself mighty -fine, didn't you?" But in spite of the scribbles on it the face of the -great stone beast still looked so terrible, and sad, and noble, staring -up in the moonlight that Edmund didn't really get any fun out of -jeering at it. He turned away and began to cross the courtyard. - -As he got into the middle of it he saw that there were dozens of -statues all about--standing here and there rather as the pieces stand -on a chess board when it is half way through the game. There were -stone satyrs, and stone wolves, and bears and foxes and cat-a-mountains -of stone. There were lovely stone shapes that looked like women but -who were really the spirits of trees. There was the great shape of a -centaur and a winged horse and a long lithe creature that Edmund took -to be a dragon. They all looked so strange standing there perfectly -lifelike and also perfectly still, in the bright cold moonlight, that -it was eerie work crossing the courtyard. Right in the very middle -stood a huge shape like a man, but as tall as a tree, with a fierce -face and a shaggy beard and a great club in its right hand. Even -though he knew that it was only a stone giant and not a live one, -Edmund did not like going past it. - -He now saw that there was a dim light showing from a doorway on the far -side of the courtyard. He went to it, there was a flight of stone -steps going up to an open door. Edmund went up them. Across the -threshold lay a great wolf: - -"It's all right, it's all right," he kept saying to himself, "it's only -a stone wolf. It can't hurt me," and he raised his leg to step over -it. Instantly the huge creature rose, with all the hair bristling -along its back, opened a great, red mouth and said in a growling voice, - -"Who's there? Who's there? Stand still, stranger, and tell me who you -are." - -"If you please, Sir," said Edmund, trembling so that he could hardly -speak, "my name is Edmund, and I'm the Son of Adam that Her Majesty met -in the wood the other day and I've come to bring her the news that my -brother and sisters are now in Narnia--quite close, in the Beavers' -house. She--she wanted to see them." - -"I will tell Her Majesty," said the Wolf. "Meanwhile, stand still on -the threshold, as you value your life." Then it vanished into the -house. - -Edmund stood and waited, his fingers aching with cold and his heart -pounding in his chest, and presently the grey Wolf, Fenris Ulf, the -Chief of the Witch's Secret Police, came bounding back and said, "Come -in! Come in! Fortunate favourite of the Queen--or else not so -fortunate." - -And Edmund went in, taking great care not to tread on the Wolf's paws. - -He found himself in a long gloomy hall with many pillars, full, as the -courtyard had been, of statues. The one nearest the door was a little -Faun with a very sad expression on its face, and Edmund couldn't help -wondering if this might be Lucy's friend. The only light came from a -single lamp and close behind this sat the White Witch. - -"I'm come, your Majesty," said Edmund rushing eagerly forward. - -"How dare you come alone?" said the Witch in a terrible voice. "Did I -not tell you to bring the others with you?" - -"Please, your Majesty," said Edmund, "I've done the best I can. I've -brought them quite close. They're in the little house on top of the -dam just up the river--with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver." - -A slow cruel smile came over the Witch's face. - -"Is this all your news?" she asked. - -"No, your Majesty," said Edmund, and proceeded to tell her all he had -heard before leaving the Beavers' house. - -"What! Aslan?" cried the Queen, "Aslan! Is this true? If I find you -have lied to me--" - -"Please, I'm only repeating what they said," stammered Edmund. - -But the Queen, who was no longer attending to him, clapped her hands. -Instantly the same dwarf whom Edmund had seen with her before appeared. - -"Make ready our sledge," ordered the Witch, "and use the harness -without bells." - - - - -CHAPTER X - -_The Spell Begins to Break_ - -Now we must go back to Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and the three other -children. As soon as Mr. Beaver said "There's no time to lose" -everyone began bundling themselves into coats, except Mrs. Beaver who -started picking up sacks and laying them on the table and said: "Now, -Mr. Beaver, just reach down that ham. And here's a packet of tea, and -there's sugar, and some matches. And if someone will get two or three -loaves out of the crock over there in the corner." - -"What are you doing, Mrs. Beaver?" exclaimed Susan. - -"Packing a load for each of us, dearie," said Mrs. Beaver very coolly. -"You didn't think we'd set out on a journey with nothing to eat, did -you?" - -"But we haven't time!" said Susan, buttoning the collar of her coat. -"She may be here any minute." - -"That's what I say," chimed in Mr. Beaver. - -"Get along with you all," said his wife. "Think it over, Mr. Beaver. -She can't be here for a quarter of an hour at least." - -"But don't we want as big a start as we can possibly get," said Peter, -"if we're to reach the Stone Table before her?" - -"You've got to remember _that_, Mrs. Beaver," said Susan. "As soon as -she has looked in here and finds we're gone she'll be off at top speed." +“I’ll do my best,” said Edmund. -"That she will," said Mrs. Beaver. "But we can't get there before her -whatever we do, for she'll be on a sledge and we'll be walking." - -"Then--have we no hope?" said Susan. - -"Now don't you get fussing, there's a dear," said Mrs. Beaver, "but -just get half a dozen clean handkerchiefs out of that drawer. 'Course -we've got a hope. We can't get there _before_ her but we can keep -under cover and go by ways she won't expect and perhaps we'll get -through." - -"That's true enough, Mrs. Beaver," said her husband. "But it's time we -were out of this." - -"And don't you start fussing either, Mr. Beaver," said his wife. -"There. That's better. There's four loads and the smallest for the -smallest of us: that's you, my dear," she added looking at Lucy. - -"Oh, do please come on," said Lucy. - -"Well, I'm nearly ready now," answered Mrs. Beaver at last allowing her -husband to help her into her snow boots. "I suppose the sewing -machine's too heavy to bring?" - -"Yes. It _is_," said Mr. Beaver. "A great deal too heavy. And you -don't think you'll be able to use it while we're on the run, I suppose?" - -"I can't abide the thought of that Witch fiddling with it," said Mrs. -Beaver, "and breaking it or stealing it, as likely as not." +“And, by the way,” said the Queen, “you needn’t tell them about me. It +would be fun to keep it a secret between us two, wouldn’t it? Make it a surprise +for them. Just bring them along to the two hills - a clever boy like you will easily -"Oh, please, please, please, do hurry!" said the three children. And -so at last they all got outside and Mr. Beaver locked the door ("It'll -delay her a bit," he said) and they set off, all carrying their loads -over their shoulders. - -The snow had stopped and the moon had come out when they began their -journey. They went in single file--first Mr. Beaver, then Lucy, then -Peter, then Susan, and Mrs. Beaver last of all. Mr. Beaver led them -across the dam and onto the right bank of the river and then along a -very rough sort of path among the trees right down by the river-bank. -The sides of the valley, shining in the moonlight, towered up far above -them on either hand. "Best keep down here as much as possible," he -said. "She'll have to keep to the top, for you couldn't bring a sledge -down here." - -It would have been a pretty enough scene to look at it through a window -from a comfortable armchair; and even as things were, Lucy enjoyed it -at first. But as they went on walking and walking--and walking--and as -the sack she was carrying felt heavier and heavier, she began to wonder -how she was going to keep up at all. And she stopped looking at the -dazzling brightness of the frozen river with all its waterfalls of ice -and at the white masses of the tree-tops and the great glaring moon and -the countless stars and could only watch the little short legs of Mr. -Beaver going pad-pad-pad-pad through the snow in front of her as if -they were never going to stop. Then the moon disappeared and the snow -began to fall once more. And at last Lucy was so tired that she was -almost asleep and walking at the same time when suddenly she found that -Mr. Beaver had turned away from the river bank to the right and was -leading them steeply uphill into the very thickest bushes. And then as -she came fully awake she found that Mr. Beaver was just vanishing into -a little hole in the bank which had been almost hidden under the bushes -until you were quite on top of it. In fact, by the time she realised -what was happening, only his short flat tail was showing. - -Lucy immediately stooped down and crawled in after him. Then she heard -noises of scrambling and puffing and panting behind her and in a moment -all five of them were inside. - -"Wherever is this?" said Peter's voice, sounding tired and pale in the -darkness. (I hope you know what I mean by a voice sounding pale.) - -"It's an old hiding-place for beavers in bad times," said Mr. Beaver, -"and a great secret. It's not much of a place but we must get a few -hours' sleep." - -"If you hadn't all been in such a plaguey fuss when we were starting, -I'd have brought some pillows," said Mrs. Beaver. - -It wasn't nearly such a nice cave as Mr. Tumnus's, Lucy thought--just a -hole in the ground but dry and earthy. It was very small so that when -they all lay down they were all a bundle of fur and clothes together, -and what with that and being warmed up by their long walk they were -really rather snug. If only the floor of the cave had been a little -smoother! Then Mrs. Beaver handed round in the dark a little flask out -of which everyone drank something--it made one cough and splutter a -little and stung the throat but it also made you feel deliciously warm -after you'd swallowed it--and everyone went straight to sleep. - -It seemed to Lucy only the next minute (though really it was hours and -hours later) when she woke up feeling a little cold and dreadfully -stiff and thinking how she would like a hot bath. Then she felt a set -of long whiskers tickling her cheek and saw the cold daylight coming in -through the mouth of the cave. But immediately after that she was very -wide awake indeed, and so was everyone else. In fact they were all -sitting up with their mouths and eyes wide open, listening to a sound -which was the very sound they'd all been thinking of (and sometimes -imagining they heard) during their walk last night. It was a sound of -jingling bells. - -Mr. Beaver was out of the cave like a flash the moment he heard it. -Perhaps you think, as Lucy thought for a moment, that this was a very -silly thing for him to do? But it was really a very sensible one. He -knew he could scramble to the top of the bank among bushes and brambles -without being seen; and he wanted above all things to see which way the -Witch's sledge went. The others all sat in the cave waiting and -wondering. They waited nearly five minutes. Then they heard something -that frightened them very much. They heard voices. "Oh," thought -Lucy, "he's been seen. She's caught him!" - -Great was their surprise when, a little later, they heard Mr. Beaver's -voice calling to them from just outside the cave. - -"It's all right," he was shouting. "Come out, Mrs. Beaver. Come out, -Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve. It's all right! It isn't _her_!" -This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they -are excited; I mean, in Narnia--in our world they usually don't talk at -all. - -So Mrs. Beaver and the children came bundling out of the cave, all -blinking in the daylight, and with earth all over them, and looking -very frowsty and unbrushed and uncombed and with the sleep in their -eyes. - -"Come on!" cried Mr. Beaver, who was almost dancing with delight. -"Come and see! This is a nasty knock for the Witch! It looks as if -her power was already crumbling." - -"What _do_ you mean, Mr. Beaver?" panted Peter as they all scrambled up -the steep bank of the valley together. - -"Didn't I tell you," answered Mr. Beaver, "that she'd made it always -winter and never Christmas? Didn't I tell you? Well, just come and -see!" - -And then they were all at the top and did see. - -It _was_ a sledge, and it _was_ reindeer with bells on their harness. -But they were far bigger than the Witch's reindeer, and they were not -white but brown. And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the -moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe -(bright as holly-berries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a -great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest. -Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in -Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our -world--the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you -really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures -of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. -But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn't -find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that -they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn. - -"I've come at last," said he. "She has kept me out for a long time, -but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch's magic is -weakening." - -And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which -you only get if you are being solemn and still. - -"And now," said Father Christmas, "for your presents. There is a new -and better sewing machine for you, Mrs. Beaver. I will drop it in your -house as I pass." - -"If you please, sir," said Mrs. Beaver, making a curtsey. "It's locked -up." - -"Locks and bolts make no difference to me," said Father Christmas. -"And as for you, Mr. Beaver, when you get home you will find your dam -finished and mended and all the leaks stopped and a new sluice gate -fitted." - -Mr. Beaver was so pleased that he opened his mouth very wide and then -found he couldn't say anything at all. - -"Peter, Adam's Son," said Father Christmas. - -"Here, Sir," said Peter. - -"These are your presents," was the answer, "and they are tools not -toys. The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well." -With these words he handed to Peter a shield and a sword. The shield -was the colour of silver and across it there ramped a red lion, as -bright as a ripe strawberry at the moment when you pick it. The hilt -of the sword was of gold and it had a sheath and a sword belt and -everything it needed, and it was just the right size and weight for -Peter to use. Peter was silent and solemn as he received these gifts -for he felt they were a very serious kind of present. - -"Susan, Eve's Daughter," said Father Christmas. "These are for you," -and he handed her a bow and a quiver full of arrows and a little ivory -horn. "You must use the bow only in great need," he said, "for I do -not mean you to fight in the battle. It does not easily miss. And -when you put this horn to your lips and blow it, then, wherever you -are, I think help of some kind will come to you." - -Last of all he said, "Lucy, Eve's Daughter," and Lucy came forward. He -gave her a little bottle of what looked like glass (but people said -afterwards that it was made of diamond) and a small dagger. "In this -bottle," he said, "there is a cordial made of the juice of one of the -fire-flowers that grow in the mountains of the sun. If you or any of -your friends are hurt, a few drops of this will restore you. And the -dagger is to defend yourself at great need. For you also are not to be -in the battle." - -"Why, Sir," said Lucy. "I think--I don't know--but I think I could be -brave enough." - -"That is not the point," he said. "But battles are ugly when women -fight. And now"--here he suddenly looked less grave--"here is -something for the moment for you all!" and he brought out (I suppose -from the big bag at his back, but nobody quite saw him do it) a large -tray containing five cups and saucers, a bowl of lump sugar, a jug of -cream, and a great big teapot all sizzling and piping hot. Then he -cried out "A Merry Christmas! Long live the true King!" and cracked -his whip and he and the reindeer and the sledge and all were out of -sight before anyone realised that they had started. - -Peter had just drawn his sword out of its sheath and was showing it to -Mr. Beaver when Mrs. Beaver said: - -"Now then, now then! Don't stand talking there till the tea's got -cold. Just like men. Come and help to carry the tray down and we'll -have breakfast. What a mercy I thought of bringing the bread-knife." - -So down the steep bank they went and back to the cave, and Mr. Beaver -cut some of the bread and ham into sandwiches and Mrs. Beaver poured -out the tea and everyone enjoyed himself. But long before they had -finished enjoying themselves Mr. Beaver said, "Time to be moving on -now." - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -_Aslan Is Nearer_ - -Edmund meanwhile had been having a most disappointing time. When the -Dwarf had gone to get the sledge ready he expected that the Witch would -start being nice to him, as she had been at their last meeting. But -she said nothing at all. And when at last Edmund plucked up his -courage to say, "Please, your Majesty, could I have some Turkish -Delight? You--you--said--" she answered, "Silence, fool!" Then she -appeared to change her mind and said, as if to herself, "And yet it -will not do to have the brat fainting on the way," and once more -clapped her hands. Another dwarf appeared. "Bring the human creature -food and drink," she said. The Dwarf went away and presently returned -bringing an iron bowl with some water in it and an iron plate with a -hunk of dry bread on it. He grinned in a repulsive manner as he set -them down the floor beside Edmund and said: - -"Turkish Delight for the little Prince. Ha! Ha! Ha!" - -"Take it away," said Edmund sulkily. "I don't want dry bread." But -the Witch suddenly turned on him with such a terrible expression on her -face that he apologised and began to nibble at the bread, though it was -so stale he could hardly get it down. - -"You may be glad enough of it before you taste bread again," said the -Witch. - -While he was still chewing away the first dwarf came back and announced -that the sledge was ready. The White Witch rose and went out, ordering -Edmund to go with her. The snow was again falling as they came into -the courtyard but she took no notice of that and made Edmund sit beside -her on the sledge. But before they drove off she called Fenris Ulf and -he came bounding like an enormous dog to the side of the sledge. - -"Take with you the swiftest of your wolves and go at once to the house -of the Beavers," said the Witch, "and kill whatever you find there. If -they are already gone, then make all speed to the Stone Table, but do -not be seen. Wait for me there in hiding. I meanwhile must go many -miles to the West before I find a place where I can drive across the -river. You may overtake these humans before they reach the Stone -Table. You will know what to do if you find them!" - -"I hear and obey, O Queen," growled the Wolf; and immediately he shot -away into the snow and darkness, as quickly as a horse can gallop. In -a few minutes he had called another wolf and was with him down on the -dam and sniffing at the Beavers' house. But of course they found it -empty. It would have been a dreadful thing for the Beavers and the -children if the night had remained fine, for the wolves would then have -been able to follow their trail--and ten to one would have overtaken -them before they had got to the cave. But now that the snow had begun -again the scent was cold and even the footprints were covered up. - -Meanwhile the Dwarf whipped up the reindeer and the Witch and Edmund -drove out under the archway and on and away into the darkness and the -cold. This was a terrible journey for Edmund who had no coat. Before -they had been going a quarter of an hour all the front of him was -covered with snow--he soon stopped trying to shake it off because, as -quickly as he did that, a new lot gathered, and he was so tired. Soon -he was wet to the skin. And oh, how miserable he was. It didn't look -now as if the Witch intended to make him a King! All the things he had -said to make himself believe that she was good and kind and that her -side was really the right side sounded to him silly now. He would have -given anything to meet the others at this moment--even Peter! The only -way to comfort himself now was to try to believe that the whole thing -was a dream and that he might wake up at any moment. And as they went -on, hour after hour, it did come to seem like a dream. - -This lasted longer than I could describe even if I wrote pages and -pages about it. But I will skip on to the time when the snow had -stopped and the morning had come and they were racing along in the -daylight. And still they went on and on, with no sound but the -everlasting swish of the snow and the creaking of the reindeer's -harness. And then at last the Witch said, "What have we here? Stop!" -and they did. - -How Edmund hoped she was going to say something about breakfast! But -she had stopped for quite a different reason. A little way off at the -foot of a tree sat a merry party, a squirrel and his wife with their -children and two satyrs and a dwarf and an old dog-fox, all on stools -round a table. Edmund couldn't quite see what they were eating, but it -smelled lovely and there seemed to be decorations of holly and he -wasn't at all sure that he didn't see something like a plum pudding. -At the moment when the sledge stopped, the Fox, who was obviously the -oldest person present, had just risen to its feet, holding a glass in -its right paw as if it was going to say something. But when the whole -party saw the sledge stopping and who was in it, all the gaiety went -out of their faces. The father squirrel stopped eating with his fork -half-way to his mouth and one of the satyrs stopped with its fork -actually in its mouth, and the baby squirrels squealed with terror. - -"What is the meaning of this?" asked the Witch Queen. Nobody answered. - -"Speak, vermin!" she said again. "Or do you want my dwarf to find you -a tongue with his whip? What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this -waste, this self indulgence? Where did you get all these things?" - -"Please, your Majesty," said the Fox, "we were given them. And if I -might make so bold as to drink your Majesty's very good health--" - -"Who gave them to you?" said the Witch. - -"F-F-F-Father Christmas," stammered the Fox. - -"What?" roared the Witch, springing from the sledge and taking a few -strides nearer to the terrified animals. "He has not been here! He -cannot have been here! How dare you--but no. Say you have been lying -and you shall even now be forgiven." - -At that moment one of the young squirrels lost its head completely. - -"He has--he has--he has!" it squeaked beating its little spoon on the -table. Edmund saw the Witch bite her lips so that a drop of blood -appeared on her white cheek. Then she raised her wand. "Oh don't, -don't, please don't," shouted Edmund, but even while he was shouting -she had waved her wand and instantly where the merry party had been -there were only statues of creatures (one with its stone fork fixed -forever half-way to its stone mouth) seated round a stone table on -which there were stone plates and a stone plum pudding. - -"As for you," said the Witch, giving Edmund a stunning blow on the face -as she re-mounted the sledge, "let that teach you to ask favour for -spies and traitors. Drive on!" And Edmund for the first time in this -story felt sorry for someone besides himself. It seemed so pitiful to -think of those little stone figures sitting there all the silent days -and all the dark nights, year after year, till the moss grew on them -and at last even their faces crumbled away. - -Now they were steadily racing on again. And soon Edmund noticed that -the snow which splashed against them as they rushed through it was much -wetter than it had been all last night. At the same time he noticed -that he was feeling much less cold. It was also becoming foggy. In -fact every minute it grew both foggier and warmer. And the sledge was -not running nearly as well as it had been running up till now. At -first he thought this was because the reindeer were tired, but soon he -saw that that couldn't be the real reason. The sledge jerked, and -skidded, and kept on jolting as if it had struck against stones. And -however the Dwarf whipped the poor reindeer the sledge went slower and -slower. There also seemed to be a curious noise all round them but the -noise of their driving and jolting and the Dwarf's shouting at the -reindeer prevented Edmund from hearing what it was, until suddenly the -sledge stuck so fast that it wouldn't go on at all. When that happened -there was a moment's silence. And in that silence Edmund could at last -listen to the other noise properly. A strange, sweet, rustling, -chattering noise--and yet not so strange, for he knew he'd heard it -before--if only he could remember where! Then all at once he did -remember. It was the noise of running water. All round them, though -out of sight, there were streams chattering, murmuring, bubbling, -splashing and even (in the distance) roaring. And his heart gave a -great leap (though he hardly knew why) when he realised that the frost -was over. And much nearer there was a drip-drip-drip from the branches -of all the trees. And then, as he looked at one tree he saw a great -load of snow slide off it and for the first time since he had entered -Narnia he saw the dark green of a fir tree. But he hadn't time to -listen or watch any longer for the Witch said: - -"Don't sit staring, fool! Get out and help." - -And of course Edmund had to obey. He stepped out into the snow--but it -was really only slush by now--and began helping the Dwarf to get the -sledge out of the muddy hole it had got into. They got it out in the -end, and by being very cruel to the reindeer the Dwarf managed to get -it on the move again, and they drove a little further. And now the -snow was really melting in earnest and patches of green grass were -beginning to appear in every direction. Unless you have looked at a -world of snow as long as Edmund had been looking at it, you will hardly -be able to imagine what a relief those green patches were after the -endless white. Then the sledge stopped again. - -"It's no good, your Majesty," said the Dwarf. "We can't sledge in this -thaw." - -"Then we must walk," said the Witch. - -"We shall never overtake them walking," growled the dwarf. "Not with -the start they've got." - -"Are you my councillor or my slave?" said the Witch. "Do as you're -told. Tie the hands of the human creature behind it and keep hold of -the end of the rope. And take your whip. And cut the harness of the -reindeer; they'll find their own way home." - -The Dwarf obeyed, and in a few minutes Edmund found himself being -forced to walk as fast as he could with his hands tied behind him. He -kept on slipping in the slush and mud and wet grass, and every time he -slipped the Dwarf gave him a curse and sometimes a flick with the whip. -The Witch walked behind the dwarf and kept on saying, "Faster! Faster!" - -Every moment the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of snow -grew smaller. Every moment more and more of the trees shook off their -robes of snow. Soon, wherever you looked, instead of white shapes you -saw the dark green of firs or the black prickly branches of bare oaks -and beeches and elms. Then the mist turned from white to gold and -presently cleared away altogether. Shafts of delicious sunlight struck -down onto the forest floor and overhead you could see a blue sky -between the tree-tops. - -Soon there were more wonderful things happening. Coming suddenly round -a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground -covered in all directions with little yellow flowers--celandines. The -noise of water grew louder. Presently they actually crossed a stream. -Beyond it they found snowdrops growing. - -"Mind your own business!" said the Dwarf when he saw that Edmund had -turned his head to look at them; and he gave the rope a vicious jerk. - -But of course this didn't prevent Edmund from seeing. Only five -minutes later he noticed a dozen crocuses growing round the foot of an -old tree--gold and purple and white. Then came a sound even more -delicious than the sound of the water. Close beside the path they were -following a bird suddenly chirped from the branch of a tree. It was -answered by the chuckle of another bird a little further off. And -then, as if that had been a signal, there was chattering and chirruping -in every direction, and then a moment of full song, and within five -minutes the whole wood was ringing with birds' music, and wherever -Edmund's eyes turned he saw birds alighting on branches, or sailing -overhead or having their little quarrels. - -"Faster! Faster!" said the Witch. - -There was no trace of the fog now. The sky became bluer and bluer and -now there were white clouds hurrying across it from time to time. In -the wide glades there were primroses. A light breeze sprang up which -scattered drops of moisture from the swaying branches and carried cool, -delicious scents against the faces of the travellers. The trees began -to come fully alive. The larches and birches were covered with green, -the laburnums with gold. Soon the beech trees had put forth their -delicate, transparent leaves. As the travellers walked under them the -light also became green. A bee buzzed across their path. - -"This is no thaw," said the Dwarf, suddenly stopping. "This is -_spring_. What are we to do? Your winter has been destroyed, I tell -you! This is Aslan's doing." - -"If either of you mention that name again," said the Witch, "he shall -instantly be killed." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -_Peter's First Battle_ - -While the Dwarf and the White Witch were saying this, miles away the -Beaver and the children were walking on hour after hour into what -seemed a delicious dream. Long ago they had left the coats behind -them. And by now they had even stopped saying to one another, "Look! -There's a kingfisher!" or "I say, bluebells!" or "What was that lovely -smell?" or "Just listen to that thrush!" They walked on in silence -drinking it all in, passing through patches of warm sunlight into cool, -green thickets and out again into wide mossy glades where tall elms -raised the leafy roof far overhead, and then into dense masses of -flowering currant and among hawthorn bushes where the sweet smell was -almost overpowering. - -They had been just as surprised as Edmund when they saw the winter -vanishing and the whole wood passing in a few hours or so from January -to May. They hadn't even known for certain (as the Witch did) that -this was what would happen when Aslan came to Narnia. But they all -knew that it was her spells which had produced the endless winter; and -therefore they all knew when this magic spring began that something had -gone wrong, and badly wrong, with the Witch's schemes. And after the -thaw had been going on for some time they all realised that the Witch -would no longer be able to use her sledge. After that they didn't -hurry so much and they allowed themselves more rests and longer ones. -They were pretty tired by now of course; but not what I'd call bitterly -tired--only slow and feeling very dreamy and quiet inside as one does -when one is coming to the end of a long day in the open. Susan had a -slight blister on one heel. - -They had left the course of the big river some time ago; for one had to -turn a little to the right (that meant a little to the South) to reach -the place of the Stone Table. Even if this had not been their way, -they couldn't have kept to the river valley once the thaw began, for -with all that melting snow the river was soon in flood--a wonderful, -roaring, thundering yellow flood--and their path would have been under -water. - -And now the sun got low and the light got redder and the shadows got -longer and the flowers began to think about closing. - -"Not long now," said Mr. Beaver, and began leading them uphill across -some very deep, springy moss (it felt nice under their tired feet) in a -place where only tall trees grew, very wide apart. The climb, coming -at the end of the long day, made them all pant and blow. And just as -Lucy was wondering whether she could really get to the top without -another long rest, suddenly they _were_ at the top. And this is what -they saw. - -They were on a green open space from which you could look down on the -forest spreading as far as one could see in every direction--except -right ahead. There, far to the East, was something twinkling and -moving. "By gum!" whispered Peter to Susan. "The sea!" In the very -middle of this open hilltop was the Stone Table. It was a great grim -slab of grey stone supported on four upright stones. It looked very -old; and it was cut all over with strange lines and figures that might -be the letters of an unknown language. They gave you a curious feeling -when you looked at them. The next thing they saw was a pavilion -pitched on one side of the open place. A wonderful pavilion it -was--and especially now when the light of the setting sun fell upon -it--with sides of what looked like yellow silk and cords of crimson and -tent-pegs of ivory; and high above it on a pole a banner, which bore a -red rampant lion, fluttered in the breeze which was blowing in their -faces from the far-off sea. While they were looking at this they heard -a sound of music on their right; and turning in that direction they saw -what they had come to see. - -Aslan stood in the centre of a crowd of creatures who had grouped -themselves around him in the shape of a half-moon. There were -Tree-Women there and Well-Women (Dryads and Naiads as they used to be -called in our world) who had stringed instruments; it was they who had -made the music. There were four great centaurs. The horse part of -them was like huge English farm horses, and the man part was like stern -but beautiful giants. There was also a unicorn, and a bull with the -head of a man, and a pelican, and an eagle, and a great dog. And next -to Aslan stood two leopards of whom one carried his crown and the other -his standard. - -But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn't know what -to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia -sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same -time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. -For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse -of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and -then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly. - -"Go on," whispered Mr. Beaver. - -"No," whispered Peter, "you first." - -"No, Sons of Adam before animals," whispered Mr. Beaver back again. - -"Susan," whispered Peter, "what about you? Ladies first." - -"No, you're the eldest," whispered Susan. And of course the longer -they went on doing this the more awkward they felt. Then at last Peter -realised that it was up to him. He drew his sword and raised it to the -salute and hastily saying to the others "Come on. Pull yourselves -together," he advanced to the Lion and said: - -"We have come--Aslan." - -"Welcome, Peter, Son of Adam," said Aslan. "Welcome, Susan and Lucy, -Daughters of Eve. Welcome He-Beaver and She-Beaver." - -His voice was deep and rich and somehow took the fidgets out of them. -They now felt glad and quiet and it didn't seem awkward to them to -stand and say nothing. - -"But where is the fourth?" asked Aslan. - -"He has tried to betray them and joined the White Witch, O Aslan," said -Mr. Beaver. And then something made Peter say: - -"That was partly my fault, Aslan. I was angry with him and I think -that helped him to go wrong." - -And Aslan said nothing either to excuse Peter or to blame him but -merely stood looking at him with his great golden eyes. And it seemed -to all of them that there was nothing to be said. - -"Please--Aslan," said Lucy, "can anything be done to save Edmund?" - -"All shall be done," said Aslan. "But it may be harder than you -think." And then he was silent again for some time. Up to that moment -Lucy had been thinking how royal and strong and peaceful his face -looked; now it suddenly came into her head that he looked sad as well. -But next minute that expression was quite gone. The Lion shook his -mane and clapped his paws together ("Terrible paws," thought Lucy, "If -he didn't know how to velvet them!") and said: - -"Meanwhile, let the feast be prepared. Ladies, take these Daughters of -Eve to the pavilion and minister to them." - -When the girls had gone Aslan laid his paw--and though it was velveted -it was very heavy--on Peter's shoulder and said, "Come, Son of Adam, -and I will show you a far-off sight of the castle where you are to be -King." - -And Peter with his sword still drawn in his hand went with the Lion to -the eastern edge of the hill-top. There a beautiful sight met their -eyes. The sun was setting behind their backs. That meant that the -whole country below them lay in the evening light--forest and hills and -valleys and, winding away like a silver snake, the lower part of the -great river. And beyond all this, miles away, was the sea, and beyond -the sea the sky, full of clouds which were just turning rose colour -with the reflection of the sunset. But just where the land of Narnia -met the sea--in fact, at the mouth of the great river--there was -something on a little hill, shining. It was shining because it was a -castle and of course the sunlight was reflected from all the windows -which looked towards Peter and the sunset; but to Peter it looked like -a great star resting on the seashore. - -"That, O Man," said Aslan, "is Cair Paravel of the four thrones, in one -of which you must sit as King. I show it to you because you are the -first-born and you will be High King over all the rest." - -And once more Peter said nothing, for at that moment a strange noise -woke the silence suddenly. It was like a bugle, but richer. - -"It is your sister's horn," said Aslan to Peter in a low voice; so low -as to be almost a purr, if it is not disrespectful to think of a lion -purring. - -For a moment Peter did not understand. Then, when he saw all the other -creatures start forward and heard Aslan say with a wave of his paw, -"Back! Let the Prince win his spurs," he did understand, and set off -running as hard as he could to the pavilion. And there he saw a -dreadful sight. - -The Naiads and Dryads were scattering in every direction. Lucy was -running towards him as fast as her short legs would carry her and her -face was as white as paper. Then he saw Susan make a dash for a tree, -and swing herself up, followed by a huge grey beast. At first Peter -thought it was a bear. Then he saw that it looked like an Alsatian, -though it was far too big to be a dog. Then he realised that it was a -wolf--a wolf standing on its hind legs, with its front paws against the -tree-trunk snapping and snarling. All the hair on its back stood up on -end. Susan had not been able to get higher than the second big branch. -One of her legs hung down so that her foot was only an inch or two -above the snapping teeth. Peter wondered why she did not get higher or -at least take a better grip; then he realised that she was just going -to faint and that if she fainted she would fall off. -Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. -But that made no difference to what he had to do. He rushed straight -up to the monster and aimed a slash of his sword at its side. That -stroke never reached the Wolf. Quick as lightning it turned round, its -eyes flaming, and its mouth wide open in a howl of anger. If it had -not been so angry that it simply had to howl it would have got him by -the throat at once. As it was--though all this happened too quickly -for Peter to think at all--he had just time to duck down and plunge his -sword, as hard as he could, between the brute's forelegs into its -heart. Then came a horrible, confused moment like something in a -nightmare. He was tugging and pulling and the Wolf seemed neither -alive nor dead, and its bared teeth knocked against his forehead, and -everything was blood and heat and hair. A moment later he found that -the monster lay dead and he had drawn his sword out of it and was -straightening his back and rubbing the sweat off his face and out of -his eyes. He felt tired all over. - -Then, after a bit, Susan came down the tree. She and Peter felt pretty -shaky when they met and I won't say there wasn't kissing and crying on -both sides. But in Narnia no one thinks any the worse of you for that. - -"Quick! Quick!" shouted the voice of Aslan, "Centaurs! Eagles! I see -another wolf in the thickets. There--behind you. He has just darted -away. After him, all of you! He will be going to his mistress. Now -is your chance to find the Witch and rescue the fourth Son of Adam." -And instantly with a thunder of hoofs and a beating of wings a dozen or -so of the swiftest creatures disappeared into the gathering darkness. - -Peter, still out of breath, turned and saw Aslan close at hand. - -"You have forgotten to clean your sword," said Aslan. - -It was true. Peter blushed when he looked at the bright blade and saw -it all smeared with the Wolf's hair and blood. He stooped down and -wiped it quite clean on the grass, and then wiped it quite dry on his -coat. - -"Hand it to me and kneel, Son of Adam," said Aslan. And when Peter had -done so he struck him with the flat of the blade and said, "Rise up, -Sir Peter Fenris-Bane. And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe -your sword." - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -_Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time_ - -Now we must go back to Edmund. When he had been made to walk far -further than he had ever known that anybody _could_ walk, the Witch at -last halted in a dark valley all overshadowed with fir trees and yew -trees. Edmund simply sank down and lay on his face, doing nothing at -all and not even caring what was going to happen next provided they -would let him lie still. He was too tired even to notice how hungry -and thirsty he was. The Witch and the Dwarf were talking close beside -him in low tones. - -"No," said the Dwarf, "it is no use now, O Queen. They must have -reached the Stone Table by now." - -"Perhaps the Wolf will smell us out and bring us news," said the Witch. - -"It cannot be good news if he does," said the Dwarf. - -"Four thrones in Cair Paravel," said the Witch. "How if only three -were filled? That would not fulfil the prophecy." - -"What difference would that make now that _he_ is here?" said the -Dwarf. He did not dare, even now, to mention the name of Aslan to his -mistress. - -"He may not stay long. And then--we would fall upon the three at Cair." - -"Yet it might be better," said the Dwarf, "to keep this one" (here he -kicked Edmund) "for bargaining with." - -"Yes! And have him rescued," said the Witch scornfully. - -"Then," said the Dwarf, "we had better do what we have to do at once." - -"I would like to have done it on the Stone Table itself," said the -Witch. "That is the proper place. That is where it has always been -done before." - -"It will be a long time now before the Stone Table can again be put to -its proper use," said the Dwarf. - -"True," said the Witch; and then, "Well, I will begin." - -At that moment with a rush and a snarl a Wolf rushed up to them. - -"I have seen them. They are all at the Stone Table, with _him_. They -have killed my captain, Fenris Ulf. I was hidden in the thickets and -saw it all. One of the Sons of Adam killed him. Fly! Fly!" - -"No," said the Witch. "There need be no flying. Go quickly. Summon -all our people to meet me here as speedily as they can. Call out the -giants and the werewolves and the spirits of those trees who are on our -side. Call the Ghouls, and the Boggles, the Ogres and the Minotaurs. -Call the Cruels, the Hags, the Spectres, and the people of the -Toadstools. We will fight. What? Have I not still my wand? Will not -their ranks turn into stone even as they come on? Be off quickly, I -have a little thing to finish here while you are away." - -The great brute bowed its head, turned, and galloped away. - -"Now!" said she, "we have no table--let me see. We had better put it -against the trunk of a tree." - -Edmund found himself being roughly forced to his feet. Then the Dwarf -set him with his back against a tree and bound him fast. He saw the -Witch take off her outer mantle. Her arms were bare underneath it and -terribly white. Because they were so very white he could not see much -else, it was so dark in this valley under the dark trees. - -"Prepare the victim," said the Witch. And the Dwarf undid Edmund's -collar and folded back his shirt at the neck. Then he took Edmund's -hair and pulled his head back so that he had to raise his chin. After -that Edmund heard a strange noise--whizz--whizz--whizz. For a moment -he couldn't think what it was. Then he realised. It was the sound of -a knife being sharpened! - -At that very moment he heard loud shouts from every direction--a -drumming of hoofs and a beating of wings--a scream from the -Witch--confusion all round him. And then he found he was being untied. -Strong arms were round him and he heard big, kind voices saying things -like "Let him lie down--give him some wine--drink this--steady -now--you'll be all right in a minute." - -Then he heard the voices of people who were talking not to him but to -one another. And they were saying things like "Who's got the Witch?--I -thought you had her--I didn't see her after I knocked the knife out of -her hand--I was after the Dwarf--Do you mean to say she's escaped?--A -chap can't mind everything at once--What's that? Oh sorry it's only an -old stump!" But just at this point Edmund went off in a dead faint. - -Presently the centaurs and unicorns and deer and birds (they were of -course the rescue party which Aslan had sent in the last chapter) all -set off to go back to the Stone Table, carrying Edmund with them. But -if they could have seen what happened in that valley after they had -gone, I think they might have been surprised. - -It was perfectly still and presently the moon grew bright, if you had -been there you would have seen the moonlight shining on an old -tree-stump and on a fair sized boulder. But if you had gone on looking -you would gradually have begun to think there was something odd about -both the stump and the boulder. And next you would have thought that -the stump did look really remarkably like a little fat man crouching on -the ground. And if you had watched long enough you would have seen the -stump walk across to the boulder and the boulder sit up and begin -talking to the stump; for in reality the stump and the boulder were -simply the Witch and the Dwarf. For it was part of her magic that she -could make things look like what they weren't, and she had the presence -of mind to do so at the very moment when the knife was knocked out of -her hand. She had kept hold of her wand also, so it had been kept -safe, too. - -When the other children woke up next morning (they had been sleeping on -piles of cushions in the pavilion) the first thing they heard--from -Mrs. Beaver--was that their brother had been rescued and brought into -camp late last night; and was at that moment with Aslan. As soon as -they had breakfasted they all went out, and there they saw Aslan and -Edmund walking together in the dewy grass, apart from the rest of the -court. There is no need to tell you (and no one ever heard) what Aslan -was saying but it was a conversation which Edmund never forgot. As the -others drew nearer Aslan turned to meet them bringing Edmund with him. - -"Here is your brother," he said, "and--there is no need to talk to him -about what is past." - -Edmund shook hands with each of the others and said to each of them in -turn, "I'm sorry," and everyone said "That's all right." And then -everyone wanted very hard to say something which would make it quite -clear that they were all friends with him again--something ordinary and -natural--and of course no one could think of anything in the world to -say. But before they had time to feel really awkward one of the -leopards approached Aslan and said: - -"Sire, there is a messenger from the enemy who craves audience." - -"Let him approach," said Aslan. - -The leopard went away and soon returned leading the Witch's Dwarf. - -"What is your message, Son of Earth?" asked Aslan. - -"The Queen of Narnia and Empress of the Lone Islands desires a safe -conduct to come and speak with you," said the Dwarf, "on a matter which -is as much to your advantage as to hers." - -"Queen of Narnia, indeed!" said Mr. Beaver. "Of all the cheek--" - -"Peace, Beaver," said Aslan. "All names will soon be restored to their -proper owners. In the meantime we will not dispute about noises. Tell -your mistress, Son of Earth, that I grant her safe conduct on condition -that she leaves her wand behind her at that great oak." - -This was agreed to and two leopards went back with the Dwarf to see -that the conditions were properly carried out. "But supposing she -turns the two leopards into stone?" whispered Lucy to Peter. I think -the same idea had occurred to the leopards themselves; at any rate, as -they walked off their fur was all standing up on their backs and their -tails were bristling--like a cat's when it sees a strange dog. - -"It'll be all right," whispered Peter in reply. "He wouldn't send them -if it weren't." - -A few minutes later the Witch herself walked out on to the top of the -hill and came straight across and stood before Aslan. The three -children, who had not seen her before, felt shudders running down their -backs at the sight of her face; and there were low growls among all the -animals present. Though it was bright sunshine everyone felt suddenly -cold. The only two people present who seemed to be quite at their ease -were Aslan and the Witch herself. It was the oddest thing to see those -two faces--the golden face and the dead-white face--so close together. -Not that the Witch looked Aslan exactly in his eyes; Mrs. Beaver -particularly noticed this. - -"You have a traitor there, Aslan," said the Witch. Of course everyone -present knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking -about himself after all he'd been through and after the talk he'd had -that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn't seem to -matter what the Witch said. - -"Well," said Aslan. "His offence was not against you." - -"Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?" asked the Witch. - -"Let us say I have forgotten it," answered Aslan gravely. "Tell us of -this Deep Magic." - -"Tell you?" said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly shriller. "Tell -you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? -Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the -trunk of the World Ash Tree? Tell you what is engraved on the sceptre -of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea? You at least know the magic which the -Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every -traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I -have a right to a kill." - -"Oh," said Mr. Beaver. "So _that's_ how you came to imagine yourself a -Queen--because you were the Emperor's hangman. I see." - -"Peace, Beaver," said Aslan, with a very low growl. - -"And so," continued the Witch, "that human creature is mine. His life -is forfeit to me. His blood is my property." - -"Come and take it then," said the Bull with the man's head in a great -bellowing voice. - -"Fool," said the Witch with a savage smile that was almost a snarl, "do -you really think your master can rob me of my rights by mere force? He -knows the Deep Magic better than that. He knows that unless I have -blood as the Law says all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire -and water." - -"It is very true," said Aslan; "I do not deny it." - -"Oh, Aslan!" whispered Susan in the Lion's ear, "can't we--I mean, you -won't, will you? Can't we do something about the Deep Magic? Isn't -there something you can work against it?" - -"Work against the Emperor's magic?" said Aslan turning to her with -something like a frown on his face. And nobody ever made that -suggestion to him again. -Edmund was on the other side of Aslan, looking all the time at Aslan's -face. He felt a choking feeling and wondered if he ought to say -something; but a moment later he felt that he was not expected to do -anything except to wait, and do what he was told. - -"Fall back, all of you," said Aslan, "and I will talk to the Witch -alone." +think of some excuse for doing that - and when you come to my house you could +just say “Let’s see who lives here” or something like that. I am sure that would +be best. If your sister has met one of the Fauns, she may have heard strange +stories about me - nasty stories that might make her afraid to come to me. Fauns +will say anything, you know, and now -They all obeyed. It was a terrible time this--waiting and wondering -while the Lion and the Witch talked earnestly together in low voices. -Lucy said, "Oh, Edmund!" and began to cry. Peter stood with his back -to the others looking out at the distant sea. The Beavers stood -holding each other's paws with their heads bowed. The centaurs stamped -uneasily with their hoofs. But everyone became perfectly still in the -end, so that you noticed even small sounds like a bumble bee flying -past, or the birds in the forest down below them, or the wind rustling -the leaves. And still the talk between Aslan and the White Witch went -on. +“Please, please,” said Edmund suddenly, “please couldn’t I have just one +piece of Turkish Delight to eat on the way home?” -At last they heard Aslan's voice. "You can all come back," he said. -"I have settled the matter. She has renounced the claim on your -brother's blood." And all over the hill there was a noise as if -everyone had been holding his breath and had now begun breathing again, -and then a murmur of talk. They began to come back to Aslan's throne. +“No, no,” said the Queen with a laugh, “you must wait till next time.” While +she spoke, she signalled to the dwarf to drive on, but as the sledge swept away +out of sight, the Queen waved to Edmund, calling out, “Next time! Next time! +Don’t forget. Come soon.” -The Witch was just turning away with a look of fierce joy on her face -when she stopped and said, +Edmund was still staring after the sledge when he heard someone calling his +own name, and looking round he saw Lucy coming towards him from another +part of the wood. -"But how do I know this promise will be kept?" +“Oh, Edmund!” she cried. “So you’ve got in too! Isn’t it wonderful, and +now-“ -"Wow!" roared Aslan half rising from his throne; and his great mouth -opened wider and wider and the roar grew louder and louder, and the -Witch, after staring for a moment with her lips wide apart, picked up -her skirts and fairly ran for her life. +“All right,” said Edmund, “I see you were right and it is a magic wardrobe +after all. I’ll say I’m sorry if you like. But where on earth have you been all this +time? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” +“If I’d known you had got in I’d have waited for you,” said Lucy, who was +too happy and excited to notice how snappishly Edmund spoke or how flushed +and strange his face was. “I’ve been having lunch with dear Mr Tumnus, the +Faun, and he’s very well and the White Witch has done nothing to him for letting +me go, so he thinks she can’t have found out and perhaps everything is going to +be all right after all.” +“The White Witch?” said Edmund; “who’s she?” +“She is a perfectly terrible person,” said Lucy. “She calls herself the Queen +of Narnia though she has no right to be queen at all, and all the Fauns and +Dryads and Naiads and Dwarfs and Animals - at least all the good ones - simply +hate her. And she can turn people into stone and do all kinds of horrible things. +And she has made a magic so that it is always winter in Narnia - always winter, +but it never gets to Christmas. And she drives about on a sledge, drawn by +reindeer, with her wand in her hand and a crown on her head.” -CHAPTER XIV +Edmund was already feeling uncomfortable from having eaten too many +sweets, and when he heard that the Lady he had made friends with was a +dangerous witch he felt even more uncomfortable. But he still wanted to taste +that Turkish Delight again more than he wanted anything else. -_The Triumph of the Witch_ +“Who told you all that stuff about the White Witch?” he asked. -As soon as the Witch had gone Aslan said, "We must move from this place -at once, it will be wanted for other purposes. We shall encamp -to-night at the Fords of Beruna." +“Mr Tumnus, the Faun,” said Lucy. -Of course everyone was dying to ask him how he had arranged matters -with the Witch; but his face was stern and everyone's ears were still -ringing with the sound of his roar and so nobody dared. -After a meal, which was taken in the open air on the hill-top (for the -sun had got strong by now and dried the grass) they were busy for a -while taking the pavilion down and packing things up. Before two -o'clock they were on the march and set off in a North-Westerly -direction, walking at an easy pace for they had not far to go. -During the first part of the journey Aslan explained to Peter his plan -of campaign. "As soon as she has finished her business in these -parts," he said, "the Witch and her crew will almost certainly fall -back to her house and prepare for a siege. You may or may not be able -to cut her off and prevent her from reaching it." He then went on to -outline two plans of battle--one for fighting the Witch and her people -in the wood and another for assaulting her castle. And all the time he -was advising Peter how to conduct the operations, saying things like, -"You must put your centaurs in such and such a place" or "You must post -scouts to see that she doesn't do so-and-so," till at last Peter said, +“You can’t always believe what Fauns say,” said Edmund, trying to sound as +if he knew far more about them than Lucy. -"But you will be there yourself, Aslan." +“Who said so?” asked Lucy. -"I can give you no promise of that," answered the Lion. And he -continued giving Peter his instructions. +“Everyone knows it,” said Edmund; “ask anybody you like. But it’s pretty +poor sport standing here in the snow. Let’s go home.” -For the last part of the journey it was Susan and Lucy who saw most of -him. He did not talk very much and seemed to them to be sad. +“Yes, let’s,” said Lucy. “Oh, Edmund, I am glad you’ve got in too. The +others will have to believe in Narnia now that both of us have been there. What +fun it will be! ” -It was still afternoon when they came down to a place where the river -valley had widened out and the river was broad and shallow. This was -the Fords of Beruna and Aslan gave orders to halt on this side of the -water. But Peter said, +But Edmund secretly thought that it would not be as good fun for him as for +her. He would have to admit that Lucy had been right, before all the others, and +he felt sure the others would all be on the side of the Fauns and the animals; but +he was already more than half on the side of the Witch. He did not know what he +would say, or how he would keep his secret once they were all talking about +Narnia. -"Wouldn't it be better to camp on the far side--for fear she should try -a night attack or anything?" +By this time they had walked a good way. Then suddenly they felt coats +around them instead of branches and next moment they were both standing +outside the wardrobe in the empty room. -Aslan who seemed to have been thinking about something else roused -himself with a shake of his magnificent mane and said, "Eh? What's -that?" Peter said it all over again. +“I say,” said Lucy, “you do look awful, Edmund. Don’t you feel well?” -"No," said Aslan in a dull voice, as if it didn't matter. "No. She -will not make an attack to-night." And then he sighed deeply. But -presently he added, "All the same it was well thought of. That is how -a soldier ought to think. But it doesn't really matter." So they -proceeded to pitch their camp. +“I’m all right,” said Edmund, but this was not true. He was feeling very sick. -Aslan's mood affected everyone that evening. Peter was feeling -uncomfortable too at the idea of fighting the battle on his own; the -news that Aslan might not be there had come as a great shock to him. -Supper that evening was a quiet meal. Everyone felt how different it -had been last night or even that morning. It was as if the good times, -having just begun, were already drawing to their end. +“Come on then,” said Lucy, “let’s find the others. What a lot we shall have to +tell them! And what wonderful adventures we shall have now that we’re all in it +together.” -This feeling affected Susan so much that she couldn't get to sleep when -she went to bed. And after she had lain counting sheep and turning -over and over she heard Lucy give a long sigh and turn over just beside -her in the darkness. -"Can't you get to sleep either?" said Susan. -"No," said Lucy. "I thought you were asleep. I say, Susan?" - -"What?" +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and -"I've a most horrible feeling--as if something were hanging over us." +The Wardrobe -"Have you? Because, as a matter of fact, so have I." -"Something about Aslan," said Lucy. "Either some dreadful thing that -is going to happen to him, or something dreadful that he's going to do." -"There's been something wrong with him all afternoon," said Susan. -"Lucy! What was that he said about not being with us at the battle? -You don't think he could be stealing away and leaving us to-night, do -you?" +CHAPTER FIVE -"Where is he now?" said Lucy. "Is he here in the pavilion?" -"I don't think so." +BACK ON THIS SIDE OF THE DOOR -"Susan! Let's go outside and have a look round. We might see him." +BECAUSE the game of hide-and-seek was still going on, it took Edmund +and Lucy some time to find the others. But when at last they were all together +(which happened in the long room, where the suit of armour was) Lucy burst +out: -"All right. Let's," said Susan, "we might just as well be doing that -as lying awake here." - -Very quietly the two girls groped their way among the other sleepers -and crept out of the tent. The moonlight was bright and everything was -quite still except for the noise of the river chattering over the -stones. Then Susan suddenly caught Lucy's arm and said, "Look!" On -the far side of the camping ground, just where the trees began, they -saw the Lion slowly walking away from them into the wood. Without a -word they both followed him. - -He led them up the steep slope out of the river valley and then -slightly to the left--apparently by the very same route which they had -used that afternoon in coming from the Hill of the Stone Table. On and -on he led them, into dark shadows and out into pale moonlight, getting -their feet wet with the heavy dew. He looked somehow different from -the Aslan they knew. His tail and his head hung low and he walked -slowly as if he were very, very tired. Then, when they were crossing a -wide open place where there were no shadows for them to hide in, he -stopped and looked round. It was no good trying to run away so they -came towards him. When they were closer he said, - -"Oh, children, children, why are you following me?" - -"We couldn't sleep," said Lucy--and then felt sure that she need say no -more and that Aslan knew all they had been thinking. - -"Please, may we come with you--wherever you're going?" said Susan. - -"Well--" said Aslan and seemed to be thinking. Then he said, "I should -be glad of company to-night. Yes, you may come, if you will promise to -stop when I tell you, and after that leave me to go on alone." - -"Oh, thank you, thank you. And we will," said the two girls. - -Forward they went again and one of the girls walked on each side of the -Lion. But how slowly he walked! And his great, royal head drooped so -that his nose nearly touched the grass. Presently he stumbled and gave -a low moan. - -"Aslan! Dear Aslan!" said Lucy, "what is wrong? Can't you tell us?" - -"Are you ill, dear Aslan?" asked Susan. - -"No," said Aslan. "I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane so -that I can feel you are there and let us walk like that." - -And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without his -permission but what they had longed to do ever since they first saw -him--buried their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked it -and, so doing, walked with him. And presently they saw that they were -going with him up the slope of the hill on which the Stone Table stood. -They went up at the side where the trees came furthest up, and when -they got to the last tree (it was one that had some bushes about it) -Aslan stopped and said, - -"Oh, children, children. Here you must stop. And whatever happens, do -not let yourselves be seen. Farewell." - -And both the girls cried bitterly (though they hardly knew why) and -clung to the Lion and kissed his mane and his nose and his paws and his -great, sad eyes. Then he turned from them and walked out onto the top -of the hill. And Lucy and Susan, crouching in the bushes, looked after -him and this is what they saw. - -A great crowd of people were standing all round the Stone Table and -though the moon was shining many of them carried torches which burned -with evil-looking red flames and black smoke. But such people! Ogres -with monstrous teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed men; spirits of evil -trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures whom I won't describe -because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this -book--Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, -Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins. In fact here were all those who -were on the Witch's side and whom the Wolf had summoned at her command. -And right in the middle, standing by the Table, was the Witch herself. +“Peter! Susan! It’s all true. Edmund has seen it too. There is a country you +can get to through the wardrobe. Edmund and I both got in. We met one another +in there, in the wood. Go on, Edmund; tell them all about it.” -A howl and a gibber of dismay went up from the creatures when they -first saw the great Lion pacing towards them, and for a moment the -Witch herself seemed to be struck with fear. Then she recovered -herself and gave a wild, fierce laugh. - -"The fool!" she cried. "The fool has come. Bind him fast." - -Lucy and Susan held their breaths waiting for Aslan's roar and his -spring upon his enemies. But it never came. Four hags, grinning and -leering, yet also (at first) hanging back and half afraid of what they -had to do, had approached him. "Bind him, I say!" repeated the White -Witch. The hags made a dart at him and shrieked with triumph when they -found that he made no resistance at all. Then others--evil dwarfs and -apes--rushed in to help them and between them they rolled the huge Lion -round on his back and tied all his four paws together, shouting and -cheering as if they had done something brave, though, had the Lion -chosen, one of those paws could have been the death of them all. But -he made no noise, even when the enemies, straining and tugging, pulled -the cords so tight that they cut into his flesh. Then they began to -drag him towards the Stone Table. - -"Stop!" said the Witch. "Let him first be shaved." - -Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre -with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan's head. -Snip-snip-snip went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall -to the ground. Then the ogre stood back and the children, watching -from their hiding-place, could see the face of Aslan looking all small -and different without its mane. The enemies also saw the difference. - -"Why, he's only a great cat after all!" cried one. - -"Is _that_ what we were afraid of?" said another. - -And they surged round Aslan jeering at him, saying things like "Puss, -Puss! Poor Pussy," and "How many mice have you caught to-day, Cat?" -and "Would you like a saucer of milk, Pussums?" - -"Oh how _can_ they?" said Lucy, tears streaming down her cheeks. "The -brutes, the brutes!" for now that the first shock was over the shorn -face of Aslan looked to her braver, and more beautiful, and more -patient than ever. - -"Muzzle him!" said the Witch. And even now, as they worked about his -face putting on the muzzle, one bite from his jaws would have cost two -or three of them their hands. But he never moved. And this seemed to -enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those who had been -afraid to come near him even after he was bound began to find their -courage, and for a few minutes the two girls could not even see him--so -thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd of creatures kicking him, -hitting him, spitting on him, jeering at him. - -At last the rabble had had enough of this. They began to drag the -bound and muzzled Lion to the Stone Table, some pulling and some -pushing. He was so huge that even when they got him there it took all -their efforts to hoist him onto the surface of it. Then there was more -tying and tightening of cords. - -"The cowards! The cowards!" sobbed Susan. "Are they _still_ afraid of -him, even now?" - -When once Aslan had been tied (and tied so that he was really a mass of -cords) on the flat stone, a hush fell on the crowd. Four Hags, holding -four torches, stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch bared her -arms as she had bared them the previous night when it had been Edmund -instead of Aslan. Then she began to whet her knife. It looked to the -children, when the gleam of the torchlight fell on it, as if the knife -were made of stone not of steel and it was of a strange and evil shape. - -At last she drew near. She stood by Aslan's head. Her face was -working and twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still -quiet, neither angry nor afraid, but a little sad. Then, just before -she gave the blow, she stooped down and said in a quivering voice, - -"And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would -save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact -was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what -will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of -my hand _then_? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you -have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, -despair and die." - -The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They -couldn't bear to look and had covered their eyes. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -_Deeper Magic from_ before _the Dawn of Time_ - -While the two girls still crouched in the bushes with their hands over -their faces, they heard the voice of the Witch calling out. - -"Now! Follow me all and we will set about what remains of this war! -It will not take us long to crush the human vermin and the traitors now -that the great Fool, the great Cat, lies dead." - -At this moment the children were for a few seconds in very great -danger. For with wild cries and a noise of skirling pipes and shrill -horns blowing, the whole of that vile rabble came sweeping off the -hill-top and down the slope right past their hiding-place. They felt -the Spectres go by them like a cold wind and they felt the ground shake -beneath them under the galloping feet of the Minotaurs; and overhead -there went a flurry of foul wings and a blackness of vultures and giant -bats. At any other time they would have trembled with fear; but now -the sadness and shame and horror of Aslan's death so filled their minds -that they hardly thought of it. - -As soon as the wood was silent again Susan and Lucy crept out into the -open hill-top. The moon was getting low and thin clouds were passing -across her, but still they could see the shape of the great Lion lying -dead in his bonds. And down they both knelt in the wet grass and -kissed his cold face and stroked his beautiful fur--what was left of -it--and cried till they could cry no more. And then they looked at -each other and held each other's hands for mere loneliness and cried -again; and then again were silent. At last Lucy said, - -"I can't bear the look of that horrible muzzle. I wonder could we take -it off?" - -So they tried. And after a lot of working at it (for their fingers -were cold and it was now the darkest part of the night) they succeeded. -And when they saw his face without it they burst out crying again and -kissed it and fondled it and wiped away the blood and the foam as well -as they could. And it was all more lonely and hopeless and horrid than -I know how to describe. - -"I wonder could we untie him as well?" said Susan presently. But the -enemies, out of pure spitefulness had drawn the cords so tight that the -girls could make nothing of the knots. - -I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan -and Lucy were that night; but if you have been--if you've been up all -night and cried till you have no more tears left in you--you will know -that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if -nothing was ever going to happen again. At any rate that was how it -felt to these two. Hours and hours seemed to go by in this dead calm, -and they hardly noticed that they were getting colder and colder. But -at last Lucy noticed two other things. One was that the sky on the -East side of the hill was a little less dark than it had been an hour -ago. The other was some tiny movement going on in the grass at her -feet. At first she took no interest in this. What did it matter? -Nothing mattered now! But at last she saw that whatever-it-was had -begun to move up the upright stones of the Stone Table. And now -whatever-they-were were moving about on Aslan's body. She peered -closer. They were little grey things. - -"Ugh!" said Susan from the other side of the Table. "How beastly! -There are horrid little mice crawling over him. Go away, you little -beasts." And she raised her hand to frighten them away. - -"Wait!" said Lucy who had been looking at them more closely still. -"Can you see what they're doing?" - -Both girls bent down and stared. - -"I do believe!" said Susan. "But how queer. They're nibbling away at -the cords!" - -"That's what I thought," said Lucy. "I think they're friendly mice. -Poor little things--they don't realise he's dead. They think it'll do -some good untying him." - -It was quite definitely lighter by now. Each of the girls noticed for -the first time the white face of the other. They could see the mice -nibbling away; dozens and dozens, even hundreds, of little field mice. -And at last, one by one, the ropes were all gnawed through. - -The sky in the East was whitish by now and the stars were getting -fainter--all except one very big one low down on the Eastern horizon. -They felt colder than they had been all night. The mice crept away -again. - -The girls cleared away the remains of the gnawed ropes. Aslan looked -more like himself without them. Every moment his dead face looked -nobler, as the light grew and they could see it better. - -In the wood behind them a bird gave a chuckling sound. It had been so -still for hours and hours that it startled them. Then another bird -answered it. Soon there were birds singing all over the place. - -It was quite definitely early morning now, not late night. - -"I'm so cold," said Lucy. - -"So am I," said Susan. "Let's walk about a bit." - -They walked to the Eastern edge of the hill and looked down. The one -big star had almost disappeared. The country all looked dark grey, but -beyond, at the very end of the world, the sea showed pale. The sky -began to turn red. They walked to and fro more times than they could -count between the dead Aslan and the Eastern ridge, trying to keep -warm; and oh, how tired their legs felt. Then at last, as they stood -for a moment looking out towards the sea and Cair Paravel (which they -could now just make out) the red turned to gold along the line where -the sea and the sky met and very slowly up came the edge of the sun. -At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise--a great -cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant's plate. - -"What's that?" said Lucy, clutching Susan's arm. - -"I--I feel afraid to turn round," said Susan; "something awful is -happening." - -"They're doing something worse to _him_," said Lucy. "Come on!" And -she turned, pulling Susan round with her. - -The rising of the sun had made everything look so different--all the -colours and shadows were changed--that for a moment they didn't see the -important thing. Then they did. The Stone Table was broken into two -pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was -no Aslan. - -"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the two girls rushing back to the Table. - -"Oh, it's _too_ bad," sobbed Lucy; "they might have left the body -alone." - -"Who's done it?" cried Susan. "What does it mean? Is it more magic?" - -"Yes!" said a great voice behind their backs. "It is more magic." -They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had -seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) -stood Aslan himself. - -"Oh, Aslan!" cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much -frightened as they were glad. - -"Aren't you dead then, dear Aslan?" said Lucy. - -"Not now," said Aslan. - -"You're not--not a--?" asked Susan in a shaky voice. She couldn't -bring herself to say the word _ghost_. - -Aslan stooped his golden head and licked her forehead. The warmth of -his breath and a rich sort of smell that seemed to hang about his hair -came all over her. - -"Do I look it?" he said. - -"Oh, you're real, you're real! Oh, Aslan!" cried Lucy and both girls -flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses. - -"But what does it all mean?" asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. - -"It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, -there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge -goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a -little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time -dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would -have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery -was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself -would start working backwards. And now-- - -"Oh yes. Now?" said Lucy jumping up and clapping her hands. - -"Oh, children," said the Lion, "I feel my strength coming back to me. -Oh, children, catch me if you can!" He stood for a second, his eyes -very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then -he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of -the Table. Laughing, though she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over -it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and -round the hill-top he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now -letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now -tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and -catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of -them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and -legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and -whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a -kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that -when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no -longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty. - -"And now," said Aslan presently, "to business. I feel I am going to -roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears." - -And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar -his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And -they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his -roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind. Then he said, - -"We have a long journey to go. You must ride on me." And he crouched -down and the children climbed onto his warm, golden back and Susan sat -first holding on tightly to his mane and Lucy sat behind holding on -tightly to Susan. And with a great heave he rose underneath them and -then shot off, faster than any horse could go, downhill and into the -thick of the forest. - -That ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in -Narnia. Have you ever had a gallop on a horse? Think of that; and -then take away the heavy noise of the hoofs and the jingle of the -harness and imagine instead the almost noiseless padding of the great -paws. Then imagine instead of the black or grey or chestnut back of -the horse the soft roughness of golden fur, and the mane flying back in -the wind. And then imagine you are going about twice as fast as the -fastest racehorse. But this is a mount that doesn't need to be guided -and never grows tired. He rushes on and on, never missing his footing, -never hesitating, threading his way with perfect skill between -tree-trunks, jumping over bush and briar and the smaller streams, -wading the larger, swimming the largest of all. And you are riding not -on a road nor in a park nor even on the downs but right across Narnia, -in spring, down solemn avenues of beech and across sunny glades of oak, -through wild orchards of snow-white cherry trees, past roaring -waterfalls and mossy rocks and echoing caverns, up windy slopes alight -with gorse bushes and across the shoulders of heathery mountains and -along giddy ridges and down, down, down again into wild valleys and out -into acres of blue flowers. - -It was nearly mid-day when they found themselves looking down a steep -hillside at a castle--a little toy castle it looked from where they -stood--which seemed to be all pointed towers. But the Lion was rushing -down at such a speed that it grew larger every moment and before they -had time even to ask themselves what it was they were already on a -level with it. And now it no longer looked like a toy castle but rose -frowning in front of them. No face looked over the battlements and the -gates were fast shut. And Aslan, not at all slacking his pace, rushed -straight as a bullet towards it. - -"The Witch's home!" he cried. "Now, children, hold tight." - -Next moment the whole world seemed to turn upside down, and the -children felt as if they had left their insides behind them; for the -Lion had gathered himself together for a greater leap than any he had -yet made and jumped--or you may call it flying rather than -jumping--right over the castle wall. The two girls, breathless but -unhurt, found themselves tumbling off his back in the middle of a wide -stone courtyard full of statues. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -_What Happened about the Statues_ - -"What an extraordinary place!" cried Lucy. "All those stone -animals--and people too! It's--it's like a museum." - -"Hush," said Susan, "Aslan's doing something." - -He was indeed. He had bounded up to the stone lion and breathed on -him. Then without waiting a moment he whisked round--almost as if he -had been a cat chasing its tail--and breathed also on the stone dwarf, -which (as you remember) was standing a few feet from the lion with his -back to it. Then he pounced on a tall stone Dryad which stood beyond -the dwarf, turned rapidly aside to deal with a stone rabbit on his -right, and rushed on to two centaurs. But at that moment Lucy said, - -"Oh, Susan! Look! Look at the lion." - -I expect you've seen someone put a lighted match to a bit of newspaper -which is propped up in a grate against an unlit fire. And for a second -nothing seems to have happened; and then you notice a tiny streak of -flame creeping along the edge of the newspaper. It was like that now. -For a second after Aslan had breathed upon him the stone lion looked -just the same. Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white -marble back--then it spread--then the colour seemed to lick all over -him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper--then, while his -hind-quarters were still obviously stone the lion shook his mane and -all the heavy, stony folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened a -great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now -his hind legs had come to life. He lifted one of them and scratched -himself. Then, having caught sight of Aslan, he went bounding after -him and frisking round him whimpering with delight and jumping up to -lick his face. - -Of course the children's eyes turned to follow the lion; but the sight -they saw was so wonderful that they soon forgot about _him_. -Everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no -longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were -running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in -the crowd. Instead of all that deadly white the courtyard was now a -blaze of colours; glossy chestnut sides of centaurs, indigo horns of -unicorns, dazzling plumage of birds, reddy-brown of foxes, dogs, and -satyrs, yellow stockings and crimson hoods of dwarfs; and the -birch-girls in silver, and the beech-girls in fresh, transparent green, -and the larch-girls in green so bright that it was almost yellow. And -instead of the deadly silence the whole place rang with the sound of -happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, cooings, -neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs and laughter. - -"Ooh!" said Susan in a different tone. "Look! I wonder--I mean, is it -safe?" - -Lucy looked and saw that Aslan had just breathed on the feet of the -stone giant. - -"It's all right!" shouted Aslan joyously. "Once the feet are put -right, all the rest of him will follow." - -"That wasn't exactly what I meant," whispered Susan to Lucy. But it -was too late to do anything about it now even if Aslan would have -listened to her. The change was already creeping up the Giant's legs. -Now he was moving his feet. A moment later he lifted the club off his -shoulder, rubbed his eyes and said, - -"Bless me! I must have been asleep. Now! Where's that dratted little -Witch that was running about on the ground. Somewhere just by my feet -it was." But when everyone had shouted up to him to explain what had -really happened, and when the Giant had put his hand to his ear and got -them to repeat it all again so that at last he understood, then he -bowed down till his head was no further off than the top of a haystack -and touched his cap repeatedly to Aslan, beaming all over his honest -ugly face, (giants of any sort are now so rare in England and so few -giants are good tempered that ten to one you have never seen a giant -when his face is beaming. It's a sight well worth looking at.) - -"Now for the inside of this house!" said Aslan. "Look alive, everyone. -Up stairs and down stairs and in my lady's chamber! Leave no corner -unsearched. You never know where some poor prisoner may be concealed." - -And into the interior they all rushed and for several minutes the whole -of that dark, horrible, fusty old castle echoed with the opening of -windows and with everyone's voices crying out at once "Don't forget the -dungeons--Give us a hand with this door!--Here's another little winding -stair--Oh! I say. Here's a poor little kangaroo. Call Aslan--Phew! -How it smells in here--Look out for trap-doors--Up here! There are a -whole lot more on the landing!" But the best of all was when Lucy came -rushing upstairs shouting out, - -"Aslan! Aslan! I've found Mr. Tumnus. Oh, do come quick." - -A moment later Lucy and the little Faun were holding one another by -both hands and dancing round and round for joy. The little chap was -none the worse for having been a statue and was of course very -interested in all she had to tell him. - -But at last the ransacking of the Witch's fortress was ended. The -whole castle stood empty with every door and window open and the light -and the sweet spring air flooding in to all the dark and evil places -which needed them so badly. The whole crowd of liberated statues -surged back into the courtyard. And it was then that someone (Tumnus, -I think) first said, - -"But how are we going to get out?" for Aslan had got in by a jump and -the gates were still locked. - -"That'll be all right," said Aslan; and then, rising on his hind-legs, -he bawled up at the Giant. "Hi! You up there," he roared. "What's -your name?" - -"Giant Rumblebuffin if it please your honour," said the Giant, once -more touching his cap. - -"Well then, Giant Rumblebuffin," said Aslan, "just let us out of this, -will you?" - -"Certainly, your honour. It will be a pleasure," said Giant -Rumblebuffin. "Stand well away from the gates, all you little 'uns." -Then he strode to the gate himself and bang--bang--bang--went his huge -club. The gates creaked at the first blow, cracked at the second, and -shivered at the third. Then he tackled the towers on each side of them -and after a few minutes of crashing and thudding both the towers and a -good bit of the wall on each side went thundering down in a mass of -hopeless rubble; and when the dust cleared it was odd, standing in that -dry, grim, stony yard, to see through the gap all the grass and waving -trees and sparkling streams of the forest, and the blue hills beyond -that and beyond them the sky. - -"Blowed if I ain't all in a muck sweat," said the Giant puffing like -the largest railway engine. "Comes of being out of condition. I -suppose neither of you young ladies has such a thing as a -pocket-handkerchee about you?" - -"Yes, I have," said Lucy standing on tip-toes and holding her -handkerchief up as far as she could reach. - -"Thank you, Missie," said Giant Rumblebuffin stooping down. Next -moment Lucy got rather a fright for she found herself caught up in -mid-air between the Giant's finger and thumb. But just as she was -getting near his face he suddenly started and then put her gently back -on the ground muttering, "Bless me! I've picked up the little girl -instead. I beg your pardon, Missie, I thought you was the handkerchee!" - -"No, no," said Lucy laughing, "here it is!" This time he managed to -get it but it was only about the same size to him that a saccharine -tablet would be to you, so that when she saw him solemnly rubbing it to -and fro across his great red face, she said, "I'm afraid it's not much -use to you, Mr. Rumblebuffin." - -"Not at all. Not at all," said the Giant politely. "Never met a nicer -handkerchee. So fine, so handy. So--I don't know how to describe it." - -"What a nice giant he is!" said Lucy to Mr. Tumnus. - -"Oh yes," replied the Faun. "All the Buffins always were. One of the -most respected of all the giant families in Narnia. Not very clever, -perhaps (I never knew a giant that was) but an old family. With -traditions, you know. If he'd been the other sort she'd never have -turned him into stone." - -At this point Aslan clapped his paws together and called for silence. - -"Our day's work is not yet over," he said, "and if the Witch is to be -finally defeated before bed-time we must find the battle at once." - -"And join in I hope, Sir!" added the largest of the centaurs. - -"Of course," said Aslan. "And now! Those who can't keep up--that is, -children, dwarfs, and small animals--must ride on the backs of those -who can--that is, lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants and eagles. -Those who are good with their noses must come in the front with us -lions to smell out where the battle is. Look lively and sort -yourselves." - -And with a great deal of bustle and cheering they did. The most -pleased of the lot was the other lion, who kept running about -everywhere pretending to be very busy but really in order to say to -everyone he met, "Did you hear what he said? _Us lions_. That means -him and me. _Us lions_. That's what I like about Aslan. No side, no -stand-off-ishness. _Us lions_. That meant him and me." At least he -went on saying this till Aslan had loaded him up with three dwarfs, one -Dryad, two rabbits, and a hedgehog. That steadied him a bit. - -When all were ready (it was a big sheep-dog who actually helped Aslan -most in getting them sorted into their proper order) they set out -through the gap in the castle wall. At first the lions and dogs went -nosing about in all directions. But then suddenly one great hound -picked up the scent and gave a bay. There was no time lost after that. -Soon all the dogs and lions and wolves and other hunting animals were -going at full speed with their noses to the ground, and all the others, -streaked out for about half a mile behind them, were following as fast -as they could. The noise was like an English fox-hunt only better -because every now and then with the music of the hounds was mixed the -roar of the other lion and sometimes the far deeper and more awful roar -of Aslan himself. Faster and faster they went as the scent became -easier and easier to follow. And then, just as they came to the last -curve in a narrow, winding valley, Lucy heard above all these noises -another noise--a different one, which gave her a queer feeling inside. -It was a noise of shouts and shrieks and of the clashing of metal -against metal. - -Then they came out of the narrow valley and at once she saw the reason. -There stood Peter and Edmund and all the rest of Aslan's army fighting -desperately against the crowd of horrible creatures whom she had seen -last night; only now, in the daylight, they looked even stranger and -more evil and more deformed. There also seemed to be far more of them. -Aslan's army--which had their backs to her--looked terribly few. And -there were statues dotted all over the battlefield, so apparently the -Witch had been using her wand. But she did not seem to be using it -now. She was fighting with her stone knife. It was Peter she was -fighting--both of them going at it so hard that Lucy could hardly make -out what was happening; she only saw the stone knife and Peter's sword -flashing so quickly that they looked like three knives and three -swords. That pair were in the centre. On each side the line stretched -out. Horrible things were happening wherever she looked. - -"Off my back, children," shouted Aslan. And they both tumbled off. -Then with a roar that shook all Narnia from the Western lamp-post to -the shores of the Eastern sea the great beast flung himself upon the -White Witch. Lucy saw her face lifted towards him for one second with -an expression of terror and amazement. Then Lion and Witch had rolled -over together but with the Witch underneath; and at the same moment all -war-like creatures whom Aslan had led from the Witch's house rushed -madly on the enemy's line, dwarfs with their battle-axes, dogs with -teeth, the giant with his club (and his feet also crushed dozens of the -foe) unicorns with their horns, centaurs with swords and hoofs. And -Peter's tired army cheered, and the newcomers roared, and the enemy -squealed and gibbered till the wood re-echoed with the din of that -onset. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -_The Hunting of the White Stag_ - -The battle was all over a few minutes after their arrival. Most of the -enemy had been killed in the first charge of Aslan and his companions; -and when those who were still living saw that the Witch was dead they -either gave themselves up or took to flight. The next thing that Lucy -knew was that Peter and Aslan were shaking hands. It was strange to -her to see Peter looking as he looked now--his face was so pale and -stern and he seemed so much older. - -"It was all Edmund's doing, Aslan," Peter was saying. "We'd have been -beaten if it hadn't been for him. The Witch was-turning our troops -into stone right and left. But nothing would stop him. He fought his -way through three ogres to where she was just turning one of your -leopards into a statue. And when he reached her he had the sense to -bring his sword smashing down on her wand instead of trying to go for -her directly and simply getting made a statue himself for his pains. -That was the mistake all the rest were making. Once her wand was -broken we began to have some chance--if we hadn't lost so many already. -He was terribly wounded. We must go and see him." - -They found Edmund in charge of Mrs. Beaver a little way back from the -fighting line. He was covered with blood, his mouth was open, and his -face a nasty green colour. - -"Quick, Lucy," said Aslan. - -And then, almost for the first time, Lucy remembered the precious -cordial that had been given her for a Christmas present. Her hands -trembled so much that she could hardly undo the stopper, but she -managed it in the end and poured a few drops into her brother's mouth. - -"There are other people wounded," said Aslan while she was still -looking eagerly into Edmund's pale face and wondering if the cordial -would have any result. - -"Yes, I know," said Lucy crossly. "Wait a minute." - -"Daughter of Eve," said Aslan in a graver voice, "others also are at -the point of death. Must more people die for Edmund?" - -"I'm sorry, Aslan," said Lucy getting up and going with him. And for -the next half hour they were busy--she attending to the wounded while -he restored those who had been turned into stone. When at last she was -free to come back to Edmund she found him standing on his feet and not -only healed of his wounds but looking better than she had seen him -look--oh, for ages; in fact ever since his first term at that horrid -school which was where he had begun to go wrong. He had become his -real old self again and could look you in the face. And there on the -field of battle Aslan made him a Knight. - -"Does he know," whispered Lucy to Susan, "what Aslan did for him? Does -he know what the arrangement with the Witch really was?" - -"Hush! No. Of course not," said Susan. - -"Oughtn't he to be told?" said Lucy. - -"Oh, surely not," said Susan. "It would be too awful for him. Think -how you'd feel if you were he." - -"All the same I think he ought to know," said Lucy. But at that moment -they were interrupted. - -That night they slept where they were. How Aslan provided food for -them all I don't know; but somehow or other they found themselves all -sitting down on the grass to a fine high tea at about eight o'clock. -Next day they began marching Eastward down the side of the great river. -And the next day after that, at about tea-time, they actually reached -the mouth. The castle of Cair Paravel on its little hill towered up -above them; before them were the sands, with rocks and little pools of -salt water, and sea weed, and the smell of the sea, and long miles of -bluish-green waves breaking forever and ever on the beach. And, oh, -the cry of the sea gulls! Have you heard it? Can you remember? - -That evening after tea the four children all managed to get down to the -beach again and get their shoes and stockings off and feel the sand -between their toes. But next day was more solemn. For then, in the -Great Hall of Cair Paravel--that wonderful hall with the ivory roof and -the west door all hung with peacock's feathers and the eastern door -which opens right onto the sea, in the presence of all their friends -and to the sound of trumpets, Aslan solemnly crowned them and led them -onto the four thrones amid deafening shouts of, "Long Live King Peter! -Long Live Queen Susan! Long Live King Edmund! Long Live Queen Lucy!" - -"Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen. Bear it well, -Sons of Adam! Bear it well, Daughters of Eve!" said Aslan. - -And through the Eastern door, which was wide open came the voices of -the mermen and the mermaids swimming close to the castle steps and -singing in honour of their new Kings and Queens. - -So the children sat in their thrones and sceptres were put into their -hands and they gave rewards and honours to all their friends, to Tumnus -the Faun, and to the Beavers, and Giant Rumblebuffin, to the leopards, -and the good centaurs and the good dwarfs, and to the lion. And that -night there was a great feast in Cair Paravel, and revelry and dancing, -and gold flashed and wine flowed, and answering to the music inside, -but stranger, sweeter, and more piercing, came the music of the sea -people. - -But amidst all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. -And when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn't there they said -nothing about it. For Mr. Beaver had warned them, "He'll be coming and -going" he had said. "One day you'll see him and another you won't. He -doesn't like being tied down--and of course he has other countries to -attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you -mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a _tame_ lion." - -And now, as you see, this story is nearly (but not quite) at an end. -These two Kings and two Queens governed Narnia well and long and happy -was their reign. At first much of their time was spent in seeking out -the remnants of the White Witch's army and destroying them, and indeed -for a long time there would be news of evil things lurking in the -wilder parts of the forest--a haunting here and a killing there, a -glimpse of a werewolf one month and a rumour of a hag the next. But in -the end all that foul brood was stamped out. And they made good laws -and kept the peace and saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut -down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to -school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged -ordinary people who wanted to live and let live. And they drove back -the fierce giants (quite a different sort from Giant Rumblebuffin) on -the North of Narnia when these ventured across the frontier. And they -entered into friendship and alliance with countries beyond the sea and -paid them visits of state and received visits of state from them. And -they themselves grew and changed as the years passed over them. And -Peter became a tall and deep chested man and a great warrior, and he -was called King Peter the Magnificent. And Susan grew into a tall and -gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet and the -Kings of the countries beyond the sea began to send ambassadors asking -for her hand in marriage. And she was called Queen Susan the Gentle. -Edmund was a graver and quieter man than Peter, and great in council -and judgement. He was called King Edmund the Just. But as for Lucy, -she was always gay and golden haired, and all Princes in those parts -desired her to be their Queen, and her own people called her Queen Lucy -the Valiant. - -So they lived in great joy and if ever they remembered their life in -this world it was only as one remembers a dream. And one year it fell -out that Tumnus (who was a middle-aged Faun by now and beginning to be -stout) came down river and brought them news that the White Stag had -once more appeared in his parts--the White Stag who would give you -wishes if you caught him. So these two Kings and two Queens with the -principal members of their court, rode a-hunting with horns and hounds -in the Western Woods to follow the White Stag. And they had not hunted -long before they had a sight of him. And he led them a great pace over -rough and smooth and through thick and thin, till the horses of all the -courtiers were tired out and only these four were still following. And -they saw the stag enter into a thicket where their horses could not -follow. Then said King Peter (for they talked in quite a different -style now, having been Kings and Queens for so long) "Fair Consorts, -let us now alight from our horses and follow this beast into the -thicket; for in all my days I never hunted a nobler quarry." - -"Sir," said the others, "even so let us do." - -So they alighted and tied their horses to trees and went on into the -thick wood on foot. And as soon as they had entered it Queen Susan -said, - -"Fair friends, here is a great marvel, for I seem to see a tree of -iron." - -"Madam," said King Edmund, "if you look well upon it you shall see it -is a pillar of iron with a lantern set on the top thereof." - -"Marry, a strange device," said King Peter, "to set a lantern here -where the trees cluster so thick about it and so high above it that if -it were lit it should give light to no man!" - -"Sir," said Queen Lucy. "By likelihood when this post and this lamp -were set here there were smaller trees in the place, or fewer, or none. -For this is a young wood and the iron post is old." And they stood -looking upon it. Then said King Edmund, - -"I know not how it is, but this lamp on the post worketh upon me -strangely. It runs in my mind that I have seen the like before; as it -were in a dream, or in the dream of a dream." - -"Sir," answered they all, "it is even so with us also." - -"And more," said Queen Lucy, "for it will not go out of my mind that if -we pass this post and lantern, either we shall find strange adventures -or else some great change of our fortunes." - -"Madam," said King Edmund, "the like foreboding stirreth in my heart -also." - -"And in mine, fair brother," said King Peter. - -"And in mine too," said Queen Susan. "Wherefore by my council we shall -lightly return to our horses and follow this White Stag no further." - -"Madam," said King Peter, "therein I pray thee to have me excused. For -never since we four were Kings and Queens in Narnia have we set our -hands to any high matter, as battles, quests, feats of arms, acts of -justice, and the like, and then given over; but always what we have -taken in hand, the same we have achieved." - -"Sister," said Queen Lucy, "my royal brother speaks rightly. And it -seems to me we should be shamed if for any fearing or foreboding we -turned back from following so noble a beast as now we have in chase." - -"And so say I," said King Edmund. "And I have such desire to find the -signification of this thing that I would not by my good will turn back -for the richest jewel in all Narnia and all the islands." - -"Then in the name of Aslan," said Queen Susan, "if ye will all have it -so, let us go on and take the adventure that shall fall to us." - -So these Kings and Queens entered the thicket, and before they had gone -a score of paces they all remembered that the thing they had seen was -called a lamp-post, and before they had gone twenty more, they noticed -that they were making their way not through branches but through coats. -And next moment they all came tumbling out of a wardrobe door into the -empty room, and they were no longer Kings and Queens in their hunting -array but just Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy in their old clothes. It -was the same day and the same hour of the day on which they had all -gone into the wardrobe to hide. Mrs. Macready and the visitors were -still talking in the passage; but luckily they never came into the -empty room and so the children weren't caught. - -And that would have been the very end of the story if it hadn't been -that they felt they really must explain to the Professor why four of -the coats out of his wardrobe were missing. And the Professor, who was -a very remarkable man, didn't tell them not to be silly or not to tell -lies, but believed the whole story. "No," he said, "I don't think it -will be any good trying to go back through the wardrobe door to get the -coats. You won't get into Narnia again by _that_ route. Nor would the -coats be much use by now if you did! Eh? What's that? Yes, of course -you'll get back to Narnia again some day. Once a King in Narnia, -always a King in Narnia. But don't go trying to use the same route -twice. Indeed, don't _try_ to get there at all. It'll happen when -you're not looking for it. And don't talk too much about it even among -yourselves. And don't mention it to anyone else unless you find that -they've had adventures of the same sort themselves. What's that? How -will you know? Oh, you'll _know_ all right. Odd things, they -say--even their looks--will let the secret out. Keep your eyes open. -Bless me, what _do_ they teach them at these schools?" - -And that is the very end of the adventures of the wardrobe. But if the -Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of -Narnia. - -_The End_ - - - - -[End of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis] +“What’s all this about, Ed?” said Peter. + +And now we come to one of the nastiest things in this story. Up to that +moment Edmund had been feeling sick, and sulky, and annoyed with Lucy for +being right, but he hadn’t made up his mind what to do. When Peter suddenly +asked him the question he decided all at once to do the meanest and most +spiteful thing he could think of. He decided to let Lucy down. + +“Tell us, Ed,” said Susan. + +And Edmund gave a very superior look as if he were far older than Lucy +(there was really only a year’s difference) and then a little snigger and said, “Oh, +yes, Lucy and I have been playing - pretending that all her story about a country +in the wardrobe is true, just for fun, of course. There’s nothing there really.” + +Poor Lucy gave Edmund one look and rushed out of the room. + +Edmund, who was becoming a nastier person every minute, thought that he +had scored a great success, and went on at once to say, “There she goes again. +What’s the matter with her? That’s the worst of young kids, they always -“ + +“Look here,” said Peter, turning on him savagely, “shut up! You’ve been +perfectly beastly to Lu ever since she started this nonsense about the wardrobe, +and now you go playing games with her about it and setting her off again. I +believe you did it simply out of spite.” + +“But it’s all nonsense,” said Edmund, very taken aback. + +“Of course it’s all nonsense,” said Peter, “that’s just the point. Lu was +perfectly all right when we left home, but since we’ve been down here she seems +to be either going queer in the head or else turning into a most frightful liar. But +whichever it is, what good do you think you’ll do by jeering and nagging at her +one day and encouraging her the next?” + +“I thought - I thought,” said Edmund; but he couldn’t think of anything to + + +say. + + + +“You didn’t think anything at all,” said Peter; “it’s just spite. You’ve always +liked being beastly to anyone smaller than yourself; we’ve seen that at school +before now.” + +“Do stop it,” said Susan; “it won’t make things any better having a row +between you two. Let’s go and find Lucy.” + +It was not surprising that when they found Lucy, a good deal later, everyone +could see that she had been crying. Nothing they could say to her made any +difference. She stuck to her story and said: + +“I don’t care what you think, and I don’t care what you say. You can tell the +Professor or you can write to Mother or you can do anything you like. I know +I’ve met a Faun in there and - I wish I’d stayed there and you are all beasts, +beasts.” + +It was an unpleasant evening. Lucy was miserable and Edmund was +beginning to feel that his plan wasn’t working as well as he had expected. The +two older ones were really beginning to think that Lucy was out of her mind. +They stood in the passage talking about it in whispers long after she had gone to +bed. + +The result was the next morning they decided that they really would go and +tell the whole thing to the Professor. “He’ll write to Father if he thinks there is +really something wrong with Lu,” said Peter; “it’s getting beyond us.” So they +went and knocked at the study door, and the Professor said “Come in,” and got +up and found chairs for them and said he was quite at their disposal. Then he sat +listening to them with the tips of his fingers pressed together and never +interrupting, till they had finished the whole story. After that he said nothing for +quite a long time. Then he cleared his throat and said the last thing either of them +expected: + +“How do you know,” he asked, “that your sister’s story is not true?” + +“Oh, but began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see from the old +man’s face that he was perfectly serious. Then Susan pulled herself together and +said, “But Edmund said they had only been pretending.” + +“That is a point,” said the Professor, “which certainly deserves consideration; +very careful consideration. For instance - if you will excuse me for asking the +question - does your experience lead you to regard your brother or your sister as +the more reliable? I mean, which is the more truthful?” + +“That’s just the funny thing about it, sir,” said Peter. “Up till now, I’d have +said Lucy every time.” + +“And what do you think, my dear?” said the Professor, turning to Susan. + +“Well,” said Susan, “in general, I’d say the same as Peter, but this couldn’t +be true - all this about the wood and the Faun.” + + + +“That is more than I know,” said the Professor, “and a charge of lying against +someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very +serious thing indeed.” + +“We were afraid it mightn’t even be lying,” said Susan; “we thought there +might be something wrong with Lucy.” + +“Madness, you mean?” said the Professor quite coolly. “Oh, you can make +your minds easy about that. One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that +she is not mad.” + +“But then,” said Susan, and stopped. She had never dreamed that a grown-up +would talk like the Professor and didn’t know what to think. + +“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at +these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, +or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is +obvious that she is not mad For the moment then and unless any further evidence +turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.” + +Susan looked at him very hard and was quite sure from the expression on his +face that he was no making fun of them. + +“But how could it be true, sir?” said Peter. + +“Why do you say that?” asked the Professor. + +“Well, for one thing,” said Peter, “if it was true why doesn’t everyone find +this country every time they go to the wardrobe? I mean, there was nothing there +when we looked; even Lucy didn’t pretend the was.” + +“What has that to do with it?” said the Professor. + +“Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.” + +“Are they?” said the Professor; and Peter did’nt know quite what to say. + +“But there was no time,” said Susan. “Lucy had no time to have gone +anywhere, even if there was such a place. She came running after us the very +moment we were out of the room. It was less than minute, and she pretended to +have been away for hours.” + +“That is the very thing that makes her story so likely to be true,” said the +Professor. “If there really a door in this house that leads to some other world +(and I should warn you that this is a very strange house, and even I know very +little about it) - if, I say, she had got into another world, I should not be at a +surprised to find that the other world had a separate time of its own; so that +however long you stay there it would never take up any of our time. On the other +hand, I don’t think many girls of her age would invent that idea for themselves. +If she had been pretending, she would have hidden for a reasonable time before +coming out and telling her story.” + +“But do you really mean, sir,” said Peter, “that there could be other worlds - + + + +all over the place, just round the corner - like that?” + +“Nothing is more probable,” said the Professor, taking off his spectacles and +beginning to polish them, while he muttered to himself, “I wonder what they do +teach them at these schools.” + +“But what are we to do?” said Susan. She felt that the conversation was +beginning to get off the point. + +“My dear young lady,” said the Professor, suddenly looking up with a very +sharp expression at both of them, “there is one plan which no one has yet +suggested and which is well worth trying.” + +“What’s that?” said Susan. + +“We might all try minding our own business,” said he. And that was the end +of that conversation. + +After this things were a good deal better for Lucy. Peter saw to it that +Edmund stopped jeering at her, and neither she nor anyone else felt inclined to +talk about the wardrobe at all. It had become a rather alarming subject. And so +for a time it looked as if all the adventures were coming to an end; but that was +not to be. + +This house of the Professor’s - which even he knew so little about - was so +old and famous that people from all over England used to come and ask +permission to see over it. It was the sort of house that is mentioned in guide +books and even in histories; and well it might be, for all manner of stories were +told about it, some of them even stranger than the one I am telling you now. And +when parties of sightseers arrived and asked to see the house, the Professor +always gave them permission, and Mrs Macready, the housekeeper, showed +them round, telling them about the pictures and the armour, and the rare books in +the library. Mrs Macready was not fond of children, and did not like to be +interrupted when she was telling visitors all the things she knew. She had said to +Susan and Peter almost on the first morning (along with a good many other +instructions), “And please remember you’re to keep out of the way whenever +I’m taking a party over the house.” + +“Just as if any of us would want to waste half the morning trailing round +with a crowd of strange grown-ups!” said Edmund, and the other three thought +the same. That was how the adventures began for the second time. + +A few mornings later Peter and Edmund were looking at the suit of armour +and wondering if they could take it to bits when the two girls rushed into the +room and said, “Look out! Here comes the Macready and a whole gang with +her.” + +“Sharp’s the word,” said Peter, and all four made off through the door at the +far end of the room. But when they had got out into the Green Room and beyond + + + +it, into the Library, they suddenly heard voices ahead of them, and realized that +Mrs Macready must be bringing her party of sightseers up the back stairs - +instead of up the front stairs as they had expected. And after that - whether it was +that they lost their heads, or that Mrs Macready was trying to catch them, or that +some magic in the house had come to life and was chasing them into Narnia they +seemed to find themselves being followed everywhere, until at last Susan said, +“Oh bother those trippers! Here - let’s get into the Wardrobe Room till they’ve +passed. No one will follow us in there.” But the moment they were inside they +heard the voices in the passage - and then someone fumbling at the door - and +then they saw the handle turning. + +“Quick!” said Peter, “there’s nowhere else,” and flung open the wardrobe. +All four of them bundled inside it and sat there, panting, in the dark. Peter held +the door closed but did not shut it; for, of course, he remembered, as every +sensible person does, that you should never never shut yourself up in a +wardrobe. + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +INTO THE FOREST + +“I wish the Macready would hurry up and take all these people away,” said +Susan presently, “I’m getting horribly cramped.” + +“And what a filthy smell of camphor!” said Edmund. + +“I expect the pockets of these coats are full of it,” said Susan, “to keep away +the moths.” + +“There’s something sticking into my back,” said Peter. + +“And isn’t it cold?” said Susan. + +“Now that you mention it, it is cold,” said Peter, “and hang it all, it’s wet too. +What’s the matter with this place? I’m sitting on something wet. It’s getting +wetter every minute.” He struggled to his feet. + +“Let’s get out,” said Edmund, “they’ve gone.” + +“O-o-oh!” said Susan suddenly, and everyone asked her what was the matter. + +“I’m sitting against a tree,” said Susan, “and look! It’s getting light - over +there.” + +“By Jove, you’re right,” said Peter, “and look there - and there. It’s trees all +round. And this wet stuff is snow. Why, I do believe we’ve got into Lucy’s wood +after all.” + +And now there was no mistaking it and all four children stood blinking in the +daylight of a winter day. Behind them were coats hanging on pegs, in front of +them were snow-covered trees. + +Peter turned at once to Lucy. + +“I apologize for not believing you,” he said, “I’m sorry. Will you shake +hands?” + +“Of course,” said Lucy, and did. + +“And now,” said Susan, “what do we do next?” + +“Do?” said Peter, “why, go and explore the wood, of course.” + +“Ugh!” said Susan, stamping her feet, “it’s pretty cold. What about putting +on some of these coats?” + +“They’re not ours,” said Peter doubtfully. + +“I am sure nobody would mind,” said Susan; “it isn’t as if we wanted to take +them out of the house; we shan’t take them even out of the wardrobe.” + +“I never thought of that, Su,” said Peter. “Of course, now you put it that way, +I see. No one could say you had bagged a coat as long as you leave it in the +wardrobe where you found it. And I suppose this whole country is in the + + + +wardrobe.” + +They immediately carried out Susan’s very sensible plan. The coats were +rather too big for them so that they came down to their heels and looked more +like royal robes than coats when they had put them on. But they all felt a good +deal warmer and each thought the others looked better in their new get-up and +more suitable to the landscape. + +“We can pretend we are Arctic explorers,” said Lucy. + +“This is going to be exciting enough without pretending,” said Peter, as he +began leading the way forward into the forest. There were heavy darkish clouds +overhead and it looked as if there might be more snow before night. + +“I say,” began Edmund presently, “oughtn’t we to be bearing a bit more to +the left, that is, if we are aiming for the lamp-post?” He had forgotten for the +moment that he must pretend never to have been in the wood before. The +moment the words were out of his mouth he realized that he had given himself +away. Everyone stopped; everyone stared at him. Peter whistled. + +“So you really were here,” he said, “that time Lu said she’d met you in here - +and you made out she was telling lies.” + +There was a dead silence. “Well, of all the poisonous little beasts -” said +Peter, and shrugged his shoulders and said no more. There seemed, indeed, no +more to say, and presently the four resumed their journey; but Edmund was +saying to himself, “I’ll pay you all out for this, you pack of stuck-up, +selfsatisfied prigs.” + +“Where are we going anyway?” said Susan, chiefly for the sake of changing +the subject. + +“I think Lu ought to be the leader,” said Peter; “goodness knows she deserves +it. Where will you take us, Lu?” + +“What about going to see Mr Tumnus?” said Lucy. “He’s the nice Faun I told +you about.” + +Everyone agreed to this and off they went walking briskly and stamping their +feet. Lucy proved a good leader. At first she wondered whether she would be +able to find the way, but she recognized an oddlooking tree on one place and a +stump in another and brought them on to where the ground became uneven and +into the little valley and at last to the very door of Mr Tumnus’s cave. But there a +terrible surprise awaited them. + +The door had been wrenched off its hinges and broken to bits. Inside, the +cave was dark and cold and had the damp feel and smell of a place that had not +been lived in for several days. Snow had drifted in from the doorway and was +heaped on the floor, mixed with something black, which turned out to be the +charred sticks and ashes from the fire. Someone had apparently flung it about the + + + +room and then stamped it out. The crockery lay smashed on the floor and the +picture of the Faun’s father had been slashed into shreds with a knife. + +“This is a pretty good wash-out,” said Edmund; “not much good coming +here.” + +“What is this?” said Peter, stooping down. He had just noticed a piece of +paper which had been nailed through the carpet to the floor. + +“Is there anything written on it?” asked Susan. + +“Yes, I think there is,” answered Peter, “but I can’t read it in this light. Let’s +get out into the open air.” + +They all went out in the daylight and crowded round Peter as he read out the +following words: + +The former occupant of these premises, the Faun Tumnus, is under arrest and +awaiting his trial on a charge of High Treason against her Imperial Majesty +Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands, +etc., also of comforting her said Majesty’s enemies, harbouring spies and +fraternizing with Humans. + +signed MAUGRIM, Captain of the Secret Police, LONG LIVE THE +QUEEN + +The children stared at each other. + +“I don’t know that I’m going to like this place after all,” said Susan. + +“Who is this Queen, Lu?” said Peter. “Do you know anything about her?” + +“She isn’t a real queen at all,” answered Lucy; “she’s a horrible witch, the +White Witch. Everyone all the wood people - hate her. She has made an +enchantment over the whole country so that it is always winter here and never +Christmas.” + +“I -1 wonder if there’s any point in going on,” said Susan. “I mean, it doesn’t +seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won’t be much fun either. And it’s +getting colder every minute, and we’ve brought nothing to eat. What about just +going home?” + +“Oh, but we can’t, we can’t,” said Lucy suddenly; “don’t you see? We can’t +just go home, not after this. It is all on my account that the poor Faun has got +into this trouble. He hid me from the Witch and showed me the way back. That’s +what it means by comforting the Queen’s enemies and fraternizing with Humans. +We simply must try to rescue him.” + +“A lot we could do! said Edmund, “when we haven’t even got anything to +eat!” + +“Shut up - you!” said Peter, who was still very angry with Edmund. “What +do you think, Susan?” + +“I’ve a horrid feeling that Lu is right,” said Susan. “I don’t want to go a step + + + +further and I wish we’d never come. But I think we must try to do something for +Mr Whatever-his-name is -1 mean the Faun.” + +“That’s what I feel too,” said Peter. “I’m worried about having no food with +us. I’d vote for going back and getting something from the larder, only there +doesn’t seem to be any certainty of getting into this country again when once +you’ve got out of it. I think we’ll have to go on.” + +“So do I,” said both the girls. + +“If only we knew where the poor chap was imprisoned!” said Peter. + +They were all still wondering what to do next, when Lucy said, “Look! +There’s a robin, with such a red breast. It’s the first bird I’ve seen here. I say! -1 +wonder can birds talk in Narnia? It almost looks as if it wanted to say something +to us.” Then she turned to the Robin and said, “Please, can you tell us where +Tumnus the Faun has been taken to?” As she said this she took a step towards +the bird. It at once flew away but only as far as to the next tree. There it perched +and looked at them very hard as if it understood all they had been saying. Almost +without noticing that they had done so, the four children went a step or two +nearer to it. At this the Robin flew away again to the next tree and once more +looked at them very hard. (You couldn’t have found a robin with a redder chest +or a brighter eye.) + +“Do you know,” said Lucy, “I really believe he means us to follow him.” + +“I’ve an idea he does,” said Susan. “What do you think, Peter?” + +“Well, we might as well try it,” answered Peter. + +The Robin appeared to understand the matter thoroughly. It kept going from +tree to tree, always a few yards ahead of them, but always so near that they could +easily follow it. In this way it led them on, slightly downhill. Wherever the +Robin alighted a little shower of snow would fall off the branch. Presently the +clouds parted overhead and the winter sun came out and the snow all around +them grew dazzlingly bright. They had been travelling in this way for about half +an hour, with the two girls in front, when Edmund said to Peter, “if you’re not +still too high and mighty to talk to me, I’ve something to say which you’d better +listen to.” + +“What is it?” asked Peter. + +“Hush! Not so loud,” said Edmund; “there’s no good frightening the girls. +But have you realized what we’re doing?” + +“What?” said Peter, lowering his voice to a whisper. + +“We’re following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which +side that bird is on? Why shouldn’t it be leading us into a trap?” + +“That’s a nasty idea. Still - a robin, you know. They’re good birds in all the +stories I’ve ever read. I’m sure a robin wouldn’t be on the wrong side.” + + + +“It if comes to that, which is the right side? How do we know that the Fauns +are in the right and the Queen (yes, I know we’ve been told she’s a witch) is in +the wrong? We don’t really know anything about either.” + +“The Faun saved Lucy.” + +“He said he did. But how do we know? And there’s another thing too. Has +anyone the least idea of the way home from here?” + +“Great Scott!” said Peter, “I hadn’t thought of that.” + +“And no chance of dinner either,” said Edmund. + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +A DAY WITH THE BEAVERS + +WHILE the two boys were whispering behind, both the girls suddenly cried +“Oh!” and stopped. + +“The robin!” cried Lucy, “the robin. It’s flown away.” And so it had - right +out of sight. + +“And now what are we to do?” said Edmund, giving Peter a look which was +as much as to say “What did I tell you?” + +“Sh! Look!” said Susan. + +“What?” said Peter. + +“There’s something moving among the trees over there to the left.” + +They all stared as hard as they could, and no one felt very comfortable. + +“There it goes again,” said Susan presently. + +“I saw it that time too,” said Peter. “It’s still there. It’s just gone behind that +big tree.” + +“What is it?” asked Lucy, trying very hard not to sound nervous. + +“Whatever it is,” said Peter, “it’s dodging us. It’s something that doesn’t +want to be seen.” + +“Let’s go home,” said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, +everyone suddenly realized the same fact that Edmund had whispered to Peter at +the end of the last chapter. They were lost. + +“What’s it like?” said Lucy. + +“It’s - it’s a kind of animal,” said Susan; and then, “Look! Look! Quick! +There it is.” + +They all saw it this time, a whiskered furry face which had looked out at +them from behind a tree. But this time it didn’t immediately draw back. Instead, +the animal put its paw against its mouth just as humans put their finger on their +lips when they are signalling to you to be quiet. Then it disappeared again. The +children, all stood holding their breath. + +A moment later the stranger came out from behind the tree, glanced all round +as if it were afraid someone was watching, said “Hush”, made signs to them to +join it in the thicker bit of wood where it was standing, and then once more +disappeared. + +“I know what it is,” said Peter; “it’s a beaver. I saw the tail.” + +“It wants us to go to it,” said Susan, “and it is warning us not to make a +noise.” + + + +“I know,” said Peter. “The question is, are we to go to it or not? What do you +think, Lu?” + +“I think it’s a nice beaver,” said Lucy. + +“Yes, but how do we know?” said Edmund. + +“Shan’t we have to risk it?” said Susan. “I mean, it’s no good just standing +here and I feel I want some dinner.” + +At this moment the Beaver again popped its head out from behind the tree +and beckoned earnestly to them. + +“Come on,” said Peter,’’let’s give it a try. All keep close together. We ought +to be a match for one beaver if it turns out to be an enemy.” + +So the children all got close together and walked up to the tree and in behind +it, and there, sure enough, they found the Beaver; but it still drew back, saying to +them in a hoarse throaty whisper, “Further in, come further in. Right in here. +We’re not safe in the open!” + +Only when it had led them into a dark spot where four trees grew so close +together that their boughs met and the brown earth and pine needles could be +seen underfoot because no snow had been able to fall there, did it begin to talk to +them. + +“Are you the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve?” it said. + +“We’re some of them,” said Peter. + +“S-s-s-sh!” said the Beaver, “not so loud please. We’re not safe even here.” + +“Why, who are you afraid of?” said Peter. “There’s no one here but +ourselves.” + +“There are the trees,” said the Beaver. “They’re always listening. Most of +them are on our side, but there are trees that would betray us to her; you know +who I mean,” and it nodded its head several times. + +“If it comes to talking about sides,” said Edmund, “how do we know you’re +a friend?” + +“Not meaning to be rude, Mr Beaver,” added Peter, “but you see, we’re +strangers.” + +“Quite right, quite right,” said the Beaver. “Here is my token.” With these +words it held up to them a little white object. They all looked at it in surprise, till +suddenly Lucy said, “Oh, of course. It’s my handkerchief - the one I gave to poor +Mr Tumnus.” + +“That’s right,” said the Beaver. “Poor fellow, he got wind of the arrest before +it actually happened and handed this over to me. He said that if anything +happened to him I must meet you here and take you on to Here the Beaver’s +voice sank into silence and it gave one or two very mysterious nods. Then +signalling to the children to stand as close around it as they possibly could, so + + + +that their faces were actually tickled by its whiskers, it added in a low whisper - + +“They say Aslan is on the move - perhaps has already landed.” + +And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who +Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these +words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in +a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the +dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which +turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to +put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all +your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like +that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in +its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly +brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful +strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when +you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or +the beginning of summer. + +“And what about Mr Tumnus,” said Lucy; “where is he?” + +“S-s-s-sh,” said the Beaver, “not here. I must bring you where we can have a +real talk and also dinner.” + +No one except Edmund felt any difficulty about trusting the beaver now, and +everyone, including Edmund, was very glad to hear the word “dinner”. + +They therefore all hurried along behind their new friend who led them at a +surprisingly quick pace, and always in the thickest parts of the forest, for over an +hour. Everyone was feeling very tired and very hungry when suddenly the trees +began to get thinner in front of them and the ground to fall steeply downhill. A +minute later they came out under the open sky (the sun was still shining) and +found themselves looking down on a fine sight. + +They were standing on the edge of a steep, narrow valley at the bottom of +which ran - at least it would have been running if it hadn’t been frozen - a fairly +large river. Just below them a dam had been built across this river, and when +they saw it everyone suddenly remembered that of course beavers are always +making dams and felt quite sure that Mr Beaver had made this one. They also +noticed that he now had a sort of modest expression on his, face - the sort of look +people have when you are visiting a garden they’ve made or reading a story +they’ve written. So it was only common politeness when Susan said, “What a +lovely dam!” And Mr Beaver didn’t say “Hush” this time but “Merely a trifle! +Merely a trifle! And it isn’t really finished!” + +Above the dam there was what ought to have been a deep pool but was now, +of course, a level floor of dark green ice. And below the dam, much lower down, + + + +was more ice, but instead of being smooth this was all frozen into the foamy and +wavy shapes in which the water had been rushing along at the very moment +when the frost came. And where the water had been trickling over and spurting +through the dam there was now a glittering wall of icicles, as if the side of the +dam had been covered all over with flowers and wreaths and festoons of the +purest sugar. And out in the middle, and partly on top of the dam was a funny +little house shaped rather like an enormous beehive and from a hole in the roof +smoke was going up, so that when you saw it (especially if you were hungry) +you at once thought of cooking and became hungrier than you were before. + +That was what the others chiefly noticed, but Edmund noticed something +else. A little lower down the river there was another small river which came +down another small valley to join it. And looking up that valley, Edmund could +see two small hills, and he was almost sure they were the two hills which the +White Witch had pointed out to him when he parted from her at the lamp-post +that other day. And then between them, he thought, must be her palace, only a +mile off or less. And he thought about Turkish Delight and about being a King +(’’And I wonder how Peter will like that?” he asked himself) and horrible ideas +came into his head. + +“Here we are,” said Mr Beaver, “and it looks as if Mrs Beaver is expecting +us. I’ll lead the way. But be careful and don’t slip.” + +The top of the dam was wide enough to walk on, though not (for humans) a +very nice place to walk because it was covered with ice, and though the frozen +pool was level with it on one side, there was a nasty drop to the lower river on +the other. Along this route Mr Beaver led them in single file right out to the +middle where they could look a long way up the river and a long way down it. +And when they had reached the middle they were at the door of the house. + +“Here we are, Mrs Beaver,” said Mr Beaver, “I’ve found them. Here are the +Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve’- and they all went in. + +The first thing Lucy noticed as she went in was a burring sound, and the first +thing she saw was a kindlooking old she-beaver sitting in the corner with a +thread in her mouth working busily at her sewing machine, and it was from it +that the sound came. She stopped her work and got up as soon as the children +came in. + +“So you’ve come at last!” she said, holding out both her wrinkled old paws. +“At last! To think that ever I should live to see this day! The potatoes are on +boiling and the kettle’s singing and I daresay, Mr Beaver, you’ll get us some +fish.” + +“That I will,” said Mr Beaver, and he went out of the house (Peter went with +him), and across the ice of the deep pool to where he had a little hole in the ice + + + +which he kept open every day with his hatchet. They took a pail with them. Mr +Beaver sat down quietly at the edge of the hole (he didn’t seem to mind it being +so chilly), looked hard into it, then suddenly shot in his paw, and before you +could say Jack Robinson had whisked out a beautiful trout. Then he did it all +over again until they had a fine catch of fish. + +Meanwhile the girls were helping Mrs Beaver to fill the kettle and lay the +table and cut the bread and put the plates in the oven to heat and draw a huge jug +of beer for Mr Beaver from a barrel which stood in one corner of the house, and +to put on the frying-pan and get the dripping hot. Lucy thought the Beavers had a +very snug little home though it was not at all like Mr Tumnus’s cave. There were +no books or pictures, and instead of beds there were bunks, like on board ship, +built into the wall. And there were hams and strings of onions hanging from the +roof, and against the walls were gum boots and oilskins and hatchets and pairs of +shears and spades and trowels and things for carrying mortar in and fishing-rods +and fishing-nets and sacks. And the cloth on the table, though very clean, was +very rough. + +Just as the frying-pan was nicely hissing Peter and Mr Beaver came in with +the fish which Mr Beaver had already opened with his knife and cleaned out in +the open air. You can think how good the new-caught fish smelled while they +were frying and how the hungry children longed for them to be done and how +very much hungrier still they had become before Mr Beaver said, “Now we’re +nearly ready.” Susan drained the potatoes and then put them all back in the +empty pot to dry on the side of the range while Lucy was helping Mrs Beaver to +dish up the trout, so that in a very few minutes everyone was drawing up their +stools (it was all three-legged stools in the Beavers’ house except for Mrs +Beaver’s own special rockingchair beside the fire) and preparing to enjoy +themselves. There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr Beaver stuck to +beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from +which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes, and all the +children thought - and I agree with them - that there’s nothing to beat good +freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come +out of the pan half a minute ago. And when they had finished the fish Mrs +Beaver brought unexpectedly out of the oven a great and gloriously sticky +marmalade roll, steaming hot, and at the same time moved the kettle on to the +fire, so that when they had finished the marmalade roll the tea was made and +ready to be poured out. And when each person had got his (or her) cup of tea, +each person shoved back his (or her) stool so as to be able to lean against the +wall and gave a long sigh of contentment. + +“And now,” said Mr Beaver, pushing away his empty beer mug and pulling + + + +his cup of tea towards him, “if you’ll just wait till I’ve got my pipe lit up and +going nicely - why, now we can get to business. It’s snowing again,” he added, +cocking his eye at the window. “That’s all the better, because it means we shan’t +have any visitors; and if anyone should have been trying to follow you, why he +won’t find any tracks.” + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +WHAT HAPPENED AFTER DINNER + +“AND now,” said Lucy, “do please tell us what’s happened to Mr Tumnus.” + +“Ah, that’s bad,” said Mr Beaver, shaking his head. “That’s a very, very bad +business. There’s no doubt he was taken off by the police. I got that from a bird +who saw it done.” + +“But where’s he been taken to?” asked Lucy. + +“Well, they were heading northwards when they were last seen and we all +know what that means.” + +“No, we don’t,” said Susan. Mr Beaver shook his head in a very gloomy +fashion. + +“I’m afraid it means they were taking him to her House,” he said. + +“But what’ll they do to him, Mr Beaver?” gasped Lucy. + +“Well,” said Mr Beaver, “you can’t exactly say for sure. But there’s not many +taken in there that ever comes out again. Statues. All full of statues they say it is +- in the courtyard and up the stairs and in the hall. People she’s turned” - (he +paused and shuddered) “turned into stone.” + +“But, Mr Beaver,” said Lucy, “can’t we - I mean we must do something to +save him. It’s too dreadful and it’s all on my account.” + +“I don’t doubt you’d save him if you could, dearie,” said Mrs Beaver, “but +you’ve no chance of getting into that House against her will and ever coming out +alive.” + +“Couldn’t we have some stratagem?” said Peter. “I mean couldn’t we dress +up as something, or pretend to be - oh, pedlars or anything - or watch till she was +gone out - or- oh, hang it all, there must be some way. This Faun saved my sister +at his own risk, Mr Beaver. We can’t just leave him to be - to be - to have that +done to him.” + +“It’s no good, Son of Adam,” said Mr Beaver, “no good your trying, of all +people. But now that Aslan is on the move-“ + +“Oh, yes! Tell us about Aslan!” said several voices at once; for once again +that strange feeling - like the first signs of spring, like good news, had come over +them. + +“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan. + +“Aslan?” said Mr Beaver. “Why, don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s the +Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never in my time or +my father’s time. But the word has reached us that he has come back. He is in + + + +Narnia at this moment. He’ll settle the White Queen all right. It is he, not you, +that will save Mr Tumnus.” + +“She won’t turn him into stone too?” said Edmund. + +“Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say!” answered Mr +Beaver with a great laugh. “Turn him into stone? If she can stand on her two feet +and look him in the face it’ll be the most she can do and more than I expect of +her. No, no. He’ll put all to rights as it says in an old rhyme in these parts: + +Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, + +At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, + +When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, + +And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again. + +You’ll understand when you see him.” + +“But shall we see him?” asked Susan. + +“Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you +where you shall meet him,” said Mr Beaver. + +“Is-is he a man?” asked Lucy. + +“Aslan a man!” said Mr Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the +King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you +know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion.” + +“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel +rather nervous about meeting a lion.” + +“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs Beaver; “if there’s anyone +who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver +than most or else just silly.” + +“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. + +“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who +said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I +tell you.” + +“I’m longing to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened when it +comes to the point.” + +“That’s right, Son of Adam,” said Mr Beaver, bringing his paw down on the +table with a crash that made all the cups and saucers rattle. “And so you shall. +Word has been sent that you are to meet him, tomorrow if you can, at the Stone +Table.’ + +“Where’s that?” said Lucy. + +“I’ll show you,” said Mr Beaver. “It’s down the river, a good step from here. +I’ll take you to it!” + +“But meanwhile what about poor Mr Tumnus?” said Lucy. + +“The quickest way you can help him is by going to meet Aslan,” said Mr + + + +Beaver, “once he’s with us, then we can begin doing things. Not that we don’t +need you too. For that’s another of the old rhymes: + +When Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone + +Sits at Cair Paravel in throne, + +The evil time will be over and done. + +So things must be drawing near their end now he’s come and you’ve come. +We’ve heard of Aslan coming into these parts before - long ago, nobody can say +when. But there’s never been any of your race here before.” + +“That’s what I don’t understand, Mr Beaver,” said Peter, “I mean isn’t the +Witch herself human?” + +“She’d like us to believe it,” said Mr Beaver, “and it’s on that that she bases +her claim to be Queen. But she’s no Daughter of Eve. She comes of your father +Adam’s” - (here Mr Beaver bowed) “your father Adam’s first wife, her they +called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn. That’s what she comes from on one +side. And on the other she comes of the giants. No, no, there isn’t a drop of real +human blood in the Witch.” + +“That’s why she’s bad all through, Mr Beaver,” said Mrs Beaver. + +“True enough, Mrs Beaver,” replied he, “there may be two views about +humans (meaning no offence to the present company). But there’s no two views +about things that look like humans and aren’t.” + +“I’ve known good Dwarfs,” said Mrs Beaver. + +“So’ve I, now you come to speak of it,” said her husband, “but precious few, +and they were the ones least like men. But in general, take my advice, when you +meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once +and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel +for your hatchet. And that’s why the Witch is always on the lookout for any +humans in Narnia. She’s been watching for you this many a year, and if she +knew there were four of you she’d be more dangerous still.” + +“What’s that to do with it?” asked Peter. + +“Because of another prophecy,” said Mr Beaver. “Down at Cair Paravel - +that’s the castle on the sea coast down at the mouth of this river which ought to +be the capital of the whole country if all was as it should be - down at Cair +Paravel there are four thrones and it’s a saying in Narnia time out of mind that +when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit in those four thrones, then +it will be the end not only of the White Witch’s reign but of her life, and that is +why we had to be so cautious as we came along, for if she knew about you four, +your lives wouldn’t be worth a shake of my whiskers!” + +All the children had been attending so hard to what Mr Beaver was telling +them that they had noticed nothing else for a long time. Then during the moment + + + +of silence that followed his last remark, Lucy suddenly said: + +“I say-where’s Edmund?” + +There was a dreadful pause, and then everyone began asking “Who saw him +last? How long has he been missing? Is he outside? and then all rushed to the +door and looked out. The snow was falling thickly and steadily, the green ice of +the pool had vanished under a thick white blanket, and from where the little +house stood in the centre of the dam you could hardly see either bank. Out they +went, plunging well over their ankles into the soft new snow, and went round the +house in every direction. “Edmund! Edmund!” they called till they were hoarse. +But the silently falling snow seemed to muffle their voices and there was not +even an echo in answer. + +“How perfectly dreadful!” said Susan as they at last came back in despair. +“Oh, how I wish we’d never come.” + +“What on earth are we to do, Mr Beaver?” said Peter. + +“Do?” said Mr Beaver, who was already putting on his snow-boots, “do? We +must be off at once. We haven’t a moment to spare!” + +“We’d better divide into four search parties,” said Peter, “and all go in +different directions. Whoever finds him must come back here at once and-“ + +“Search parties, Son of Adam?” said Mr Beaver; “what for?” + +“Why, to look for Edmund, of course!” + +“There’s no point in looking for him,” said Mr Beaver. + +“What do you mean?” said Susan. “He can’t be far away yet. And we’ve got +to find him. What do you mean when you say there’s no use looking for him?” + +“The reason there’s no use looking,” said Mr Beaver, “is that we know +already where he’s gone!” Everyone stared in amazement. “Don’t you +understand?” said Mr Beaver. “He’s gone to her, to the White Witch. He has +betrayed us all.” + +“Oh, surely-oh, really!” said Susan, “he can’t have done that.” + +“Can’t he?” said Mr Beaver, looking very hard at the three children, and +everything they wanted to say died on their lips, for each felt suddenly quite +certain inside that this was exactly what Edmund had done. + +“But will he know the way?” said Peter. + +“Has he been in this country before?” asked Mr Beaver. “Has he ever been +here alone?” + +“Yes,” said Lucy, almost in a whisper. “I’m afraid he has.” + +“And did he tell you what he’d done or who he’d met?” + +“Well, no, he didn’t,” said Lucy. + +“Then mark my words,” said Mr Beaver, “he has already met the White +Witch and joined her side, and been told where she lives. I didn’t like to mention + + + +it before (he being your brother and all) but the moment I set eyes on that brother +of yours I said to myself 'Treacherous’. He had the look of one who has been +with the Witch and eaten her food. You can always tell them if you’ve lived long +in Narnia; something about their eyes.” + +“All the same,” said Peter in a rather choking sort of voice, “we’ll still have +to go and look for him. He is our brother after all, even if he is rather a little +beast. And he’s only a kid.” + +“Go to the Witch’s House?” said Mrs Beaver. “Don’t you see that the only +chance of saving either him or yourselves is to keep away from her?” + +“How do you mean?” said Lucy. + +“Why, all she wants is to get all four of you (she’s thinking all the time of +those four thrones at Cair Paravel). Once you were all four inside her House her +job would be done - and there’d be four new statues in her collection before +you’d had time to speak. But she’ll keep him alive as long as he’s the only one +she’s got, because she’ll want to use him as a decoy; as bait to catch the rest of +you with.” + +“Oh, can no one help us?” wailed Lucy. + +“Only Aslan,” said Mr Beaver, “we must go on and meet him. That’s our +only chance now.” + +“It seems to me, my dears,” said Mrs Beaver, “that it is very important to +know just when he slipped away. How much he can tell her depends on how +much he heard. For instance, had we started talking of Aslan before he left? If +not, then we may do very well, for she won’t know that Aslan has come to +Narnia, or that we are meeting him, and will be quite off her guard as far as that +is concerned.” + +“I don’t remember his being here when we were talking about Aslan +began Peter, but Lucy interrupted him. + +“Oh yes, he was,” she said miserably; “don’t you remember, it was he who +asked whether the Witch couldn’t turn Aslan into stone too?” + +“So he did, by Jove,” said Peter; “just the sort of thing he would say, too!” + +“Worse and worse,” said Mr Beaver, “and the next thing is this. Was he still +here when I told you that the place for meeting Aslan was the Stone Table?” + +And of course no one knew the answer to this question. + +“Because, if he was,” continued Mr Beaver, “then she’ll simply sledge down +in that direction and get between us and the Stone Table and catch us on our way +down. In fact we shall be cut off from Aslan. “ + +“But that isn’t what she’ll do first,” said Mrs Beaver, “not if I know her. The +moment that Edmund tells her that we’re all here she’ll set out to catch us this +very night, and if he’s been gone about half an hour, she’ll be here in about + + + +another twenty minutes.” + +“You’re right, Mrs Beaver,” said her husband, “we must all get away from +here. There’s not a moment to lose.” + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +IN THE WITCH’S HOUSE + +AND now of course you want to know what had happened to Edmund. He +had eaten his share of the dinner, but he hadn’t really enjoyed it because he was +thinking all the time about Turkish Delight - and there’s nothing that spoils the +taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food. And +he had heard the conversation, and hadn’t enjoyed it much either, because he +kept on thinking that the others were taking no notice of him and trying to give +him the cold shoulder. They weren’t, but he imagined it. And then he had +listened until Mr Beaver told them about Aslan and until he had heard the whole +arrangement for meeting Aslan at the Stone Table. It was then that he began very +quietly to edge himself under the curtain which hung over the door. For the +mention of Aslan gave him a mysterious and horrible feeling just as it gave the +others a mysterious and lovely feeling. + +Just as Mr Beaver had been repeating the rhyme about Adam’s flesh and +Adam’s bone Edmund had been very quietly turning the doorhandle; and just +before Mr Beaver had begun telling them that the White Witch wasn’t really +human at all but half a Jinn and half a giantess, Edmund had got outside into the +snow and cautiously closed the door behind him. + +You mustn’t think that even now Edmund was quite so bad that he actually +wanted his brother and sisters to be turned into stone. He did want Turkish +Delight and to be a Prince (and later a King) and to pay Peter out for calling him +a beast. As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn’t want her to be +particularly nice to them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; +but he managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn’t do +anything very bad to them, “Because,” he said to himself, “all these people who +say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half of it isn’t true. She +was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than they are. I expect she is the +rightful Queen really. Anyway, she’ll be better than that awful Aslan!” At least, +that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn’t a +very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the +White Witch was bad and cruel. + +The first thing he realized when he got outside and found the snow falling all +round him, was that he had left his coat behind in the Beavers’ house. And of +course there was no chance of going back to get it now. The next thing he +realized was that the daylight was almost gone, for it had been nearly three + + + +o’clock when they sat down to dinner and the winter days were short. He hadn’t +reckoned on this; but he had to make the best of it. So he turned up his collar and +shuffled across the top of the dam (luckily it wasn’t so slippery since the snow +had fallen) to the far side of the river. + +It was pretty bad when he reached the far side. It was growing darker every +minute and what with that and the snowflakes swirling all round him he could +hardly see three feet ahead. And then too there was no road. He kept slipping +into deep drifts of snow, and skidding on frozen puddles, and tripping over fallen +tree-trunks, and sliding down steep banks, and barking his shins against rocks, +till he was wet and cold and bruised all over. The silence and the loneliness were +dreadful. In fact I really think he might have given up the whole plan and gone +back and owned up and made friends with the others, if he hadn’t happened to +say to himself, “When I’m King of Narnia the first thing I shall do will be to +make some decent roads.” And of course that set him off thinking about being a +King and all the other things he would do and this cheered him up a good deal. +He had just settled in his mind what sort of palace he would have and how many +cars and all about his private cinema and where the principal railways would run +and what laws he would make against beavers and dams and was putting the +finishing touches to some schemes for keeping Peter in his place, when the +weather changed. First the snow stopped. Then a wind sprang up and it became +freezing cold. Finally, the clouds rolled away and the moon came out. It was a +full moon and, shining on all that snow, it made everything almost as bright as +day - only the shadows were rather confusing. + +He would never have found his way if the moon hadn’t come out by the time +he got to the other river you remember he had seen (when they first arrived at the +Beavers’) a smaller river flowing into the great one lower down. He now reached +this and turned to follow it up. But the little valley down which it came was +much steeper and rockier than the one he had just left and much overgrown with +bushes, so that he could not have managed it at all in the dark. Even as it was, he +got wet through for he had to stoop under branches and great loads of snow +came sliding off on to his back. And every time this happened he thought more +and more how he hated Peter - just as if all this had been Peter’s fault. + +But at last he came to a part where it was more level and the valley opened +out. And there, on the other side of the river, quite close to him, in the middle of +a little plain between two hills, he saw what must be the White Witch’s House. +And the moon was shining brighter than ever. The House was really a small +castle. It seemed to be all towers; little towers with long pointed spires on them, +sharp as needles. They looked like huge dunce’s caps or sorcerer’s caps. And +they shone in the moonlight and their long shadows looked strange on the snow. + + + +Edmund began to be afraid of the House. + +But it was too late to think of turning back now. + +He crossed the river on the ice and walked up to the House. There was +nothing stirring; not the slightest sound anywhere. Even his own feet made no +noise on the deep newly fallen snow. He walked on and on, past corner after +corner of the House, and past turret after turret to find the door. He had to go +right round to the far side before he found it. It was a huge arch but the great iron +gates stood wide open. + +Edmund crept up to the arch and looked inside into the courtyard, and there +he saw a sight that nearly made his heart stop beating. Just inside the gate, with +the moonlight shining on it, stood an enormous lion crouched as if it was ready +to spring. And Edmund stood in the shadow of the arch, afraid to go on and +afraid to go back, with his knees knocking together. He stood there so long that +his teeth would have been chattering with cold even if they had not been +chattering with fear. How long this really lasted I don’t know, but it seemed to +Edmund to last for hours. + +Then at last he began to wonder why the lion was standing so still - for it +hadn’t moved one inch since he first set eyes on it. Edmund now ventured a little +nearer, still keeping in the shadow of the arch as much as he could. He now saw +from the way the lion was standing that it couldn’t have been looking at him at +all. (’’But supposing it turns its head?” thought Edmund.) In fact it was staring at +something else namely a little: dwarf who stood with his back to it about four +feet away. “Aha!” thought Edmund. “When it springs at the dwarf then will be +my chance to escape.” But still the lion never moved, nor did the dwarf. And +now at last Edmund remembered what the others had said about the White Witch +turning people into stone. Perhaps this was only a stone lion. And as soon as he +had thought of that he noticed that the lion’s back and the top of its head were +covered with snow. Of course it must be only a statue! No living animal would +have let itself get covered with snow. Then very slowly and with his heart +beating as if it would burst, Edmund ventured to go up to the lion. Even now he +hardly dared to touch it, but at last he put out his hand, very quickly, and did. It +was cold stone. He had been frightened of a mere statue! + +The relief which Edmund felt was so great that in spite of the cold he +suddenly got warm all over right down to his toes, and at the same time there +came into his head what seemed a perfectly lovely idea. “Probably,” he thought, +“this is the great Lion Aslan that they were all talking about. She’s caught him +already and turned him into stone. So that’s the end of all their fine ideas about +him! Pooh! Who’s afraid of Aslan?” + +And he stood there gloating over the stone lion, and presently he did + + + +something very silly and childish. He took a stump of lead pencil out of his +pocket and scribbled a moustache on the lion’s upper lip and then a pair of +spectacles on its eyes. Then he said, “Yah! Silly old Aslan! How do you like +being a stone? You thought yourself mighty fine, didn’t you?” But in spite of the +scribbles on it the face of the great stone beast still looked so terrible, and sad, +and noble, staring up in the moonlight, that Edmund didn’t really get any fun out +of jeering at it. He turned away and began to cross the courtyard. + +As he got into the middle of it he saw that there were dozens of statues all +about - standing here and there rather as the pieces stand on a chess-board when +it is half-way through the game. There were stone satyrs, and stone wolves, and +bears and foxes and cat-amountains of stone. There were lovely stone shapes +that looked like women but who were really the spirits of trees. There was the +great shape of a centaur and a winged horse and a long lithe creature that +Edmund took to be a dragon. They all looked so strange standing there perfectly +life-like and also perfectly still, in the bright cold moonlight, that it was eerie +work crossing the courtyard. Right in the very middle stood a huge shape like a +man, but as tall as a tree, with a fierce face and a shaggy beard and a great club +in its right hand. Even though he knew that it was only a stone giant and not a +live one, Edmund did not like going past it. + +He now saw that there was a dim light showing from a doorway on the far +side of the courtyard. He went to it; there was a flight of stone steps going up to +an open door. Edmund went up them. Across the threshold lay a great wolf. + +“It’s all right, it’s all right,” he kept saying to himself; “it’s only a stone wolf. +It can’t hurt me”, and he raised his leg to step over it. Instantly the huge creature +rose, with all the hair bristling along its back, opened a great, red mouth and said +in a growling voice: + +“Who’s there? Who’s there? Stand still, stranger, and tell me who you are.” + +“If you please, sir,” said Edmund, trembling so that he could hardly speak, +“my name is Edmund, and I’m the Son of Adam that Her Majesty met in the +wood the other day and I’ve come to bring her the news that my brother and +sisters are now in Narnia - quite close, in the Beavers’ house. She - she wanted to +see them.” + +“I will tell Her Majesty,” said the Wolf. “Meanwhile, stand still on the +threshold, as you value your life.” Then it vanished into the house. + +Edmund stood and waited, his fingers aching with cold and his heart +pounding in his chest, and presently the grey wolf, Maugrim, the Chief of the +Witch’s Secret Police, came bounding back and said, “Come in! Come in! +Fortunate favourite of the Queen - or else not so fortunate.” + +And Edmund went in, taking great care not to tread on the Wolf’s paws. + + + +He found himself in a long gloomy hall with many pillars, full, as the +courtyard had been, of statues. The one nearest the door was a little faun with a +very sad expression on its face, and Edmund couldn’t help wondering if this +might be Lucy’s friend. The only light came from a single lamp and close beside +this sat the White Witch. + +“I’m come, your Majesty,” said Edmund, rushing eagerly forward. + +“How dare you come alone?” said the Witch in a terrible voice. “Did I not +tell you to bring the others with you?” + +“Please, your Majesty,” said Edmund, “I’ve done the best I can. I’ve brought +them quite close. They’re in the little house on top of the dam just up the +riverwith Mr and Mrs Beaver.” + +A slow cruel smile came over the Witch’s face. + +“Is this all your news?” she asked. + +“No, your Majesty,” said Edmund, and proceeded to tell her all he had heard +before leaving the Beavers’ house. + +“What! Aslan?” cried the Queen, “Aslan! Is this true? If I find you have lied +to me -“ + +“Please, I’m only repeating what they said,” stammered Edmund. + +But the Queen, who was no longer attending to him, clapped her hands. +Instantly the same dwarf whom Edmund had seen with her before appeared. + +“Make ready our sledge,” ordered the Witch, “and use the harness without +bells.” + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +THE SPELL BEGINS TO BREAK + +Now we must go back to Mr and Mrs Beaver and the three other children. As +soon as Mr Beaver said, “There’s no time to lose,” everyone began bundling +themselves into coats, except Mrs Beaver, who started picking up sacks and +laying them on the table and said: “Now, Mr Beaver, just reach down that ham. +And here’s a packet of tea, and there’s sugar, and some matches. And if someone +will get two or three loaves out of the crock over there in the corner.” + +“What are you doing, Mrs Beaver?” exclaimed Susan. + +“Packing a load for each of us, dearie,” said Mrs Beaver very coolly. “You +didn’t think we’d set out on a journey with nothing to eat, did you?” + +“But we haven’t time!” said Susan, buttoning the collar of her coat. “She +may be here any minute.” + +“That’s what I say,” chimed in Mr Beaver. + +“Get along with you all,” said his wife. “Think it over, Mr Beaver. She can’t +be here for quarter of an hour at least.” + +“But don’t we want as big a start as we can possibly get,” said Peter, “if +we’re to reach the Stone Table before her?” + +“You’ve got to remember that, Mrs Beaver,” said Susan. “As soon as she has +looked in here and finds we’re gone she’ll be off at top speed.” + +“That she will,” said Mrs Beaver. “But we can’t get there before her +whatever we do, for she’ll be on a sledge and we’ll be walking.” + +“Then - have we no hope?” said Susan. + +“Now don’t you get fussing, there’s a dear,” said Mrs Beaver, “but just get +half a dozen clean handkerchiefs out of the drawer. ‘Course we’ve got a hope. +We can’t get there before her but we can keep under cover and go by ways she +won’t expect and perhaps we’ll get through.” + +“That’s true enough, Mrs Beaver,” said her husband. “But it’s time we were +out of this.” + +“And don’t you start fussing either, Mr Beaver,” said his wife. “There. That’s +better. There’s five loads and the smallest for the smallest of us: that’s you, my +dear,” she added, looking at Lucy. + +“Oh, do please come on,” said Lucy. + +“Well, I’m nearly ready now,” answered Mrs Beaver at last, allowing her +husband to help her into; her snow-boots. “I suppose the sewing machine’s took +heavy to bring?” + + + +“Yes. It is,” said Mr Beaver. “A great deal too heavy. And you don’t think +you’ll be able to use it while we’re on the run, I suppose?” + +“I can’t abide the thought of that Witch fiddling with it,” said Mrs Beaver, +“and breaking it or stealing it, as likely as not.” + +“Oh, please, please, please, do hurry!” said the three children. And so at last +they all got outside and Mr Beaver locked the door (’’It’ll delay her a bit,” he +said) and they set off, all carrying their loads over their shoulders. + +The snow had stopped and the moon had come out when they began their +journey. They went in single file - first Mr Beaver, then Lucy, then Peter, then +Susan, and Mrs Beaver last of all. Mr Beaver led them across the dam and on to +the right bank of the river and then along a very rough sort of path among the +trees right down by the river-bank. The sides of the valley, shining in the +moonlight, towered up far above them on either hand. “Best keep down here as +much as possible,” he said. “She’ll have to keep to the top, for you couldn’t +bring a sledge down here.” + +It would have been a pretty enough scene to look at it through a window +from a comfortable armchair; and even as things were, Lucy enjoyed it at first. +But as they went on walking and walking - and walking and as the sack she was +carrying felt heavier and heavier, she began to wonder how she was going to +keep up at all. And she stopped looking at the dazzling brightness of the frozen +river with all its waterfalls of ice and at the white masses of the tree-tops and the +great glaring moon and the countless stars and could only watch the little short +legs of Mr Beaver going pad-pad-pad-pad through the snow in front of her as if +they were never going to stop. Then the moon disappeared and the snow began +to fall once more. And at last Lucy was so tired that she was almost asleep and +walking at the same time when suddenly she found that Mr Beaver had turned +away from the river-bank to the right and was leading them steeply uphill into +the very thickest bushes. And then as she came fully awake she found that Mr +Beaver was just vanishing into a little hole in the bank which had been almost +hidden under the bushes until you were quite on top of it. In fact, by the time she +realized what was happening, only his short flat tail was showing. + +Lucy immediately stooped down and crawled in after him. Then she heard +noises of scrambling and puffing and panting behind her and in a moment all +five of them were inside. + +“Wherever is this?” said Peter’s voice, sounding tired and pale in the +darkness. (I hope you know what I mean by a voice sounding pale.) + +“It’s an old hiding-place for beavers in bad times,” said Mr Beaver, “and a +great secret. It’s not much of a place but we must get a few hours’ sleep.” + +“If you hadn’t all been in such a plaguey fuss when we were starting, I’d + + + +have brought some pillows,” said Mrs Beaver. + +It wasn’t nearly such a nice cave as Mr Tumnus’s, Lucy thought - just a hole +in the ground but dry and earthy. It was very small so that when they all lay +down they were all a bundle of clothes together, and what with that and being +warmed up by their long walk they were really rather snug. If only the floor of +the cave had been a little smoother! Then Mrs Beaver handed round in the dark a +little flask out of which everyone drank something - it made one cough and +splutter a little and stung the throat, but it also made you feel deliciously warm +after you’d swallowed it and everyone went straight to sleep. + +It seemed to Lucy only the next minute (though really it was hours and hours +later) when she woke up feeling a little cold and dreadfully stiff and thinking +how she would like a hot bath. Then she felt a set of long whiskers tickling her +cheek and saw the cold daylight coming in through the mouth of the cave. But +immediately after that she was very wide awake indeed, and so was everyone +else. In fact they were all sitting up with their mouths and eyes wide open +listening to a sound which was the very sound they’d all been thinking of (and +sometimes imagining they heard) during their walk last night. It was a sound of +jingling bells. + +Mr Beaver was out of the cave like a flash the moment he heard it. Perhaps +you think, as Lucy thought for a moment, that this was a very silly thing to do? +But it was really a very sensible one. He knew he could scramble to the top of +the bank among bushes and brambles without being seen; and he wanted above +all things to see which way the Witch’s sledge went. The others all sat in the +cave waiting and wondering. They waited nearly five minutes. Then they heard +something that frightened them very much. They heard voices. “Oh,” thought +Lucy, “he’s been seen. She’s caught him!” + +Great was their surprise when a little later, they heard Mr Beaver’s voice +calling to them from just outside the cave. + +“It’s all right,” he was shouting. “Come out, Mrs Beaver. Come out, Sons +and Daughters of Adam. It’s all right! It isn’t Her!” This was bad grammar of +course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited; I mean, in Narnia - in +our world they usually don’t talk at all. + +So Mrs Beaver and the children came bundling out of the cave, all blinking +in the daylight, and with earth all over them, and looking very frowsty and +unbmshed and uncombed and with the sleep in their eyes. + +“Come on!” cried Mr Beaver, who was almost dancing with delight. “Come +and see! This is a nasty knock for the Witch! It looks as if her power is already +crumbling.” + +“What do you mean, Mr Beaver?” panted Peter as they all scrambled up the + + + +steep bank of the valley together. + +“Didn’t I tell you,” answered Mr Beaver, “that she’d made it always winter +and never Christmas? Didn’t I tell you? Well, just come and see!” + +And then they were all at the top and did see. + +It was a sledge, and it was reindeer with bells on their harness. But they were +far bigger than the Witch’s reindeer, and they were not white but brown. And on +the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. +He was a huge man. in a bright red robe (bright as hollyberries) with a hood that +had fur inside it and a great white beard, that fell like a foamy waterfall over his +chest. + +Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in +Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world - +the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in +Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our +world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually +stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so +glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also +solemn. + +“I’ve come at last,” said he. “She has kept me out for a long time, but I have +got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.” + +And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you +only get if you are being solemn and still. + +“And now,” said Father Christmas, “for your presents. There is a new and +better sewing machine for you, Mrs Beaver. I will drop it in your house as, I +pass.” + +“If you please, sir,” said Mrs Beaver, making a curtsey. “It’s locked up.” + +“Locks and bolts make no difference to me,” said Father Christmas. “And as +for you, Mr Beaver, when you get home you will find your dam finished and +mended and all the leaks stopped and a new sluicegate fitted.” + +Mr Beaver was so pleased that he opened his mouth very wide and then +found he couldn’t say anything at all. + +“Peter, Adam’s Son,” said Father Christmas. + +“Here, sir,” said Peter. + +“These are your presents,” was the answer, “and they are tools not toys. The +time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well.” With these words he +handed to Peter a shield and a sword. The shield was the colour of silver and +across it there ramped a red lion, as bright as a ripe strawberry at the moment +when you pick it. The hilt of the sword was of gold and it had a sheath and a +sword belt and everything it needed, and it was just the right size and weight for + + + +Peter to use. Peter was silent and solemn as he received these gifts, for he felt +they were a very serious kind of present. + +“Susan, Eve’s Daughter,” said Father Christmas. “These are for you,” and he +handed her a bow and a quiver full of arrows and a little ivory horn. “You must +use the bow only in great need,” he said, “for I do not mean you to fight in the +battle. It does not easily miss. And when you put this horn to your lips; and blow +it, then, wherever you are, I think help of some kind will come to you.” + +Last of all he said, “Lucy, Eve’s Daughter,” and Lucy came forward. He gave +her a little bottle of what looked like glass (but people said afterwards that it was +made of diamond) and a small dagger. “In this bottle,” he said, “there is cordial +made of the juice of one of the fireflowers that grow in the mountains of the sun. +If you or any of your friends is hurt, a few drops of this restore them. And the +dagger is to defend yourse at great need. For you also are not to be in battle.” + +“Why, sir?” said Lucy. “I think - I don’t know but I think I could be brave +enough.” + +“That is not the point,” he said. “But battles are ugly when women fight. And +now” - here he suddenly looked less grave - “here is something for the moment +for you all!” and he brought out (I suppose from the big bag at his back, but +nobody quite saw him do it) a large tray containing five cups and saucers, a bowl +of lump sugar, a jug of cream, and a great big teapot all sizzling and piping hot. +Then he cried out “Merry Christmas! Long live the true King!” and cracked his +whip, and he and the reindeer and the sledge and all were out of sight before +anyone realized that they had started. + +Peter had just drawn his sword out of its sheath and was showing it to Mr +Beaver, when Mrs Beaver said: + +“Now then, now then! Don’t stand talking there till the tea’s got cold. Just +like men. Come and help to carry the tray down and we’ll have breakfast. What +a mercy I thought of bringing the bread-knife.” + +So down the steep bank they went and back to the cave, and Mr Beaver cut +some of the bread and ham into sandwiches and Mrs Beaver poured out the tea +and everyone enjoyed themselves. But long before they had finished enjoying +themselves Mr Beaver said, “Time to be moving on now.” + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +ASLAN IS NEARER + +EDMUND meanwhile had been having a most disappointing time. When the +dwarf had gone to get the sledge ready he expected that the Witch would start +being nice to him, as she had been at their last meeting. But she said nothing at +all. And when at last Edmund plucked up his courage to say, “Please, your +Majesty, could I have some Turkish Delight? You - you - said she answered, +“Silence, fool!” Then she appeared to change her mind and said, as if to herself, +a “And yet it will not do to have the brat fainting on the way,” and once more +clapped her hands. Another, dwarf appeared. + +“Bring the human creature food and drink,” she said. + +The dwarf went away and presently returned bringing an iron bowl with +some water in it and an iron plate with a hunk of dry bread on it. He grinned in a +repulsive manner as he set them down on the floor beside Edmund and said: + +“Turkish Delight for the little Prince. Ha! Ha! Ha!” + +“Take it away,” said Edmund sulkily. “I don’t want dry bread.” But the Witch +suddenly turned on him with such a terrible expression on her face that he, +apologized and began to nibble at the bread, though, it was so stale he could +hardly get it down. + +“You may be glad enough of it before you taste bread again,” said the Witch. + +While he was still chewing away the first dwarf came back and announced +that the sledge was ready. The White Witch rose and went out, ordering Edmund +to go with her. The snow was again falling as they came into the courtyard, but +she took no notice of that and made Edmund sit beside her on the sledge. But +before they drove off she called Maugrim and he came bounding like an +enormous dog to the side of the sledge. + +“Take with you the swiftest of your wolves and go at once to the house of the +Beavers,” said the Witch, “and kill whatever you find there. If they are already +gone, then make all speed to the Stone Table, but do not be seen. Wait for me +there in hiding. I meanwhile must go many miles to the West before I find a +place where I can drive across the river. You may overtake these humans before +they reach the Stone Table. You will know what to do if you find them!” + +“I hear and obey, O Queen,” growled the Wolf, and immediately he shot +away into the snow and darkness, as quickly as a horse can gallop. In a few +minutes he had called another wolf and was with him down on the dam sniffing +at the Beavers’ house. But of course they found it empty. It would have been a + + + +dreadful thing for the Beavers and the children if the night had remained fine, for +the wolves would then have been able to follow their trail - and ten to one would +have overtaken them before they had got to the cave. But now that the snow had +begun again the scent was cold and even the footprints were covered up. + +Meanwhile the dwarf whipped up the reindeer, and the Witch and Edmund +drove out under the archway and on and away into the darkness and the cold. +This was a terrible journey for Edmund, who had no coat. Before they had been +going quarter of an hour all the front of him was covered with snow - he soon +stopped trying to shake it off because, as quickly as he did that, a new lot +gathered, and he was so tired. Soon he was wet to the skin. And oh, how +miserable he was! It didn’t look now as if the Witch intended to make him a +King. All the things he had said to make himself believe that she was good and +kind and that her side was really the right side sounded to him silly now. He +would have given anything to meet the others at this moment - even Peter! The +only way to comfort himself now was to try to believe that the whole thing was a +dream and that he might wake up at any moment. And as they went on, hour +after hour, it did come to seem like a dream. + +This lasted longer than I could describe even if I wrote pages and pages +about it. But I will skip on to the time when the snow had stopped and the +morning had come and they were racing along in the daylight. And still they +went on and on, with no sound but the everlasting swish of the snow and the +creaking of the reindeer’s harness. And then at last the Witch said, “What have +we here? Stop!” and they did. + +How Edmund hoped she was going to say something about breakfast! But +she had stopped for quite a different reason. A little way off at the foot of a tree +sat a merry party, a squirrel and his wife with their children and two satyrs and a +dwarf and an old dogfox, all on stools round a table. Edmund couldn’t quite see +what they were eating, but it smelled lovely and there seemed to be decorations +of holly and he wasn’t at all sure that he didn’t see something like a plum +pudding. At the moment when the sledge stopped, the Fox, who was obviously +the oldest person present, had just risen to its feet, holding a glass in its right paw +as if it was going to say something. But when the whole party saw the sledge +stopping and who was in it, all the gaiety went out of their faces. The father +squirrel stopped eating with his fork half-way to his mouth and one of the satyrs +stopped with its fork actually in its mouth, and the baby squirrels squeaked with +terror. + +“What is the meaning of this?” asked the Witch Queen. Nobody answered. + +“Speak, vermin!” she said again. “Or do you want my dwarf to find you a +tongue with his whip? What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this + + + +selfindulgence? Where did you get all these things?” + +“Please, your Majesty,” said the Fox, “we were given them. And if I might +make so bold as to drink your Majesty’s very good health - “ + +“Who gave them to you?” said the Witch. + +“F-F-F-Father Christmas,” stammered the Fox. + +“What?” roared the Witch, springing from the sledge and taking a few strides +nearer to the terrified animals. “He has not been here! He cannot have been here! +How dare you - but no. Say you have been lying and you shall even now be +forgiven.” + +At that moment one of the young squirrels lost its head completely. + +“He has - he has - he has!” it squeaked, beating its little spoon on the table. +Edmund saw the Witch bite her lips so that a drop of blood appeared on her +white cheek. Then she raised her wand. “Oh, don’t, don’t, please don’t,” shouted +Edmund, but even while he was shouting she had waved her wand and instantly +where the merry party had been there were only statues of creatures (one with its +stone fork fixed forever half-way to its stone mouth) seated round a stone table +on which there were stone plates and a stone plum pudding. + +“As for you,” said the Witch, giving Edmund a stunning blow on the face as +she re-mounted the sledge, “let that teach you to ask favour for spies and traitors. +Drive on!” And Edmund for the first time in this story felt sorry for someone +besides himself. It seemed so pitiful to think of those little stone figures sitting +there all the silent days and all the dark nights, year after year, till the moss grew +on them and at last even their faces crumbled away. + +Now they were steadily racing on again. And soon Edmund noticed that the +snow which splashed against them as they rushed through it was much wetter +than it had been all last night. At the same time he noticed that he was feeling +much less cold. It was also becoming foggy. In fact every minute it grew foggier +and warmer. And the sledge was not running nearly as well as it had been +running up till now. At first he thought this was because the reindeer were tired, +but soon he saw that that couldn’t be the real reason. The sledge jerked, and +skidded and kept on jolting as if it had struck against stones. And however the +dwarf whipped the poor reindeer the sledge went slower and slower. There also +seemed to be a curious noise all round them, but the noise of their driving and +jolting and the dwarf’s shouting at the reindeer prevented Edmund from hearing +what it was, until suddenly the sledge stuck so fast that it wouldn’t go on at all. +When that happened there was a moment’s silence. And in that silence Edmund +could at last listen to the other noise properly. A strange, sweet, rustling, +chattering noise - and yet not so strange, for he’d heard it before - if only he +could remember where! Then all at once he did remember. It was the noise of + + + +running water. All round them though out of sight, there were streams, +chattering, murmuring, bubbling, splashing and even (in the distance) roaring. +And his heart gave a great leap (though he hardly knew why) when he realized +that the frost was over. And much nearer there was a drip-drip-drip from the +branches of all the trees. And then, as he looked at one tree he saw a great load +of snow slide off it and for the first time since he had entered Narnia he saw the +dark green of a fir tree. But he hadn’t time to listen or watch any longer, for the +Witch said: + +“Don’t sit staring, fool! Get out and help.” + +And of course Edmund had to obey. He stepped out into the snow - but it +was really only slush by now - and began helping the dwarf to get the sledge out +of the muddy hole it had got into. They got it out in the end, and by being very +cruel to the reindeer the dwarf managed to get it on the move again, and they +drove a little further. And now the snow was really melting in earnest and +patches of green grass were beginning to appear in every direction. Unless you +have looked at a world of snow as long as Edmund had been looking at it, you +will hardly be able to imagine what a relief those green patches were after the +endless white. Then the sledge stopped again. + +“It’s no good, your Majesty,” said the dwarf. “We can’t sledge in this thaw.” + +“Then we must walk,” said the Witch. + +“We shall never overtake them walking,” growled the dwarf. “Not with the +start they’ve got.” + +“Are you my councillor or my slave?” said the Witch. “Do as you’re told. +Tie the hands of the human creature behind it and keep hold of the end of the +rope. And take your whip. And cut the harness of the reindeer; they’ll find their +own way home.” + +The dwarf obeyed, and in a few minutes Edmund found himself being forced +to walk as fast as he could with his hands tied behind him. He kept on slipping in +the slush and mud and wet grass, and every time he slipped the dwarf gave him a +curse and sometimes a flick with the whip. The Witch walked behind the dwarf +and kept on saying, “Faster! Faster!” + +Every moment the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of spow +grew smaller. Every moment more and more of the trees shook off their robes of +snow. Soon, wherever you looked, instead of white shapes you saw the dark +green of firs or the black prickly branches of bare oaks and beeches and elms. +Then the mist turned from white to gold and presently cleared away altogether. +Shafts of delicious sunlight struck down on to the forest floor and overhead you +could see a blue sky between the tree tops. + +Soon there were more wonderful things happening. Coming suddenly round + + + +a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all +directions with little yellow flowers - celandines. The noise of water grew +louder. Presently they actually crossed a stream. Beyond it they found +snowdrops growing. + +“Mind your own business!” said the dwarf when he saw that Edmund had +turned his head to look at them; and he gave the rope a vicious jerk. + +But of course this didn’t prevent Edmund from seeing. Only five minutes +later he noticed a dozen crocuses growing round the foot of an old tree - gold +and purple and white. Then came a sound even more delicious than the sound of +the water. Close beside the path they were following a bird suddenly chirped +from the branch of a tree. It was answered by the chuckle of another bird a little +further off. And then, as if that had been a signal, there was chattering and +chirruping in every direction, and then a moment of full song, and within five +minutes the whole wood was ringing with birds’ music, and wherever Edmund’s +eyes turned he saw birds alighting on branches, or sailing overhead or chasing +one another or having their little quarrels or tidying up their feathers with their +beaks. + +“Faster! Faster!” said the Witch. + +There was no trace of the fog now. The sky became bluer and bluer, and now +there were white clouds hurrying across it from time to time. In the wide glades +there were primroses. A light breeze sprang up which scattered drops of moisture +from the swaying branches and carried cool, delicious scents against the faces of +the travellers. The trees began to come fully alive. The larches and birches were +covered with green, the laburnums with gold. Soon the beech trees had put forth +their delicate, transparent leaves. As the travellers walked under them the light +also became green. A bee buzzed across their path. + +“This is no thaw,” said the dwarf, suddenly stopping. “This is Spring. What +are we to do? Your winter has been destroyed, I tell you! This is Aslan’s doing.” + +“If either of you mention that name again,” said the Witch, “he shall instantly +be killed.” + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +PETER’S FIRST BATTLE + +WHILE the dwarf and the White Witch were saying this, miles away the +Beavers and the children were walking on hour after hour into what seemed a +delicious dream. Long ago they had left the coats behind them. And by now they +had even stopped saying to one another, “Look! there’s a kingfisher,” or “I say, +bluebells!” or “What was that lovely smell?” or “Just listen to that thrush!” They +walked on in silence drinking it all in, passing through patches of warm sunlight +into cool, green thickets and out again into wide mossy glades where tall elms +raised the leafy roof far overhead, and then into dense masses of flowering +currant and among hawthorn bushes where the sweet smell was almost +overpowering. + +They had been just as surprised as Edmund when they saw the winter +vanishing and the whole wood passing in a few hours or so from January to May. +They hadn’t even known for certain (as the Witch did) that this was what would +happen when Aslan came to Narnia. But they all knew that it was her spells +which had produced the endless winter; and therefore they all knew when this +magic spring began that something had gone wrong, and badly wrong, with the +Witch’s schemes. And after the thaw had been going on for some time they all +realized that the Witch would no longer be able to use her sledge. After that they +didn’t hurry so much and they allowed themselves more rests and longer ones. +They were pretty tired by now of course; but not what I’d call bitterly tired - +only slow and feeling very dreamy and quiet inside as one does when one is +coming to the end of a long day in the open. Susan had a slight blister on one +heel. + +They had left the course of the big river some time ago; for one had to turn a +little to the right (that meant a little to the south) to reach the place of the Stone +Table. Even if this had not been their way they couldn’t have kept to the river +valley once the thaw began, for with all that melting snow the river was soon in +flood - a wonderful, roaring, thundering yellow flood - and their path would +have been under water. + +And now the sun got low and the light got redder and the shadows got longer +and the flowers began to think about closing. + +“Not long now,” said Mr Beaver, and began leading them uphill across some +very deep, springy moss (it felt nice under their tired feet) in a place where only +tall trees grew, very wide apart. The climb, coming at the end of the long day, + + + +made them all pant and blow. And just as Lucy was wondering whether she +could really get to the top without another long rest, suddenly they were at the +top. And this is what they saw. + +They were on a green open space from which you could look down on the +forest spreading as far as one could see in every direction - except right ahead. +There, far to the East, was something twinkling and moving. “By gum!” +whispered Peter to Susan, “the sea!” In the very middle of this open hill-top was +the Stone Table. It was a great grim slab of grey stone supported on four upright +stones. It looked very old; and it was cut all over with strange lines and figures +that might be the letters of an unknown language. They gave you a curious +feeling when you looked at them. The next thing they saw was a pavilion pitched +on one side of the open place. A wonderful pavilion it was - and especially now +when the light of the setting sun fell upon it - with sides of what looked like +yellow silk and cords of crimson and tent-pegs of ivory; and high above it on a +pole a banner which bore a red rampant lion fluttering in the breeze which was +blowing in their faces from the far-off sea. While they were looking at this they +heard a sound of music on their right; and turning in that direction they saw what +they had come to see. + +Aslan stood in the centre of a crowd of creatures who had grouped +themselves round him in the shape of a half-moon. There were Tree-Women +there and Well-Women (Dryads and Naiads as they used to be called in our +world) who had stringed instruments; it was they who had made the music. +There were four great centaurs. The horse part of them was like huge English +farm horses, and the man part was like stern but beautiful giants. There was also +a unicorn, and a bull with the head of a man, and a pelican, and an eagle, and a +great Dog. And next to Aslan stood two leopards of whom one carried his crown +and the other his standard. + +But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to +do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes +think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children +had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at +Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, +solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and +went all trembly. + +“Go on,” whispered Mr Beaver. + +“No,” whispered Peter, “you first.” + +“No, Sons of Adam before animals,” whispered Mr Beaver back again. + +“Susan,” whispered Peter, “What about you? Ladies first.” + +“No, you’re the eldest,” whispered Susan. And of course the longer they + + + +went on doing this the more awkward they felt. Then at last Peter realized that it +was up to him. He drew his sword and raised it to the salute and hastily saying to +the others “Come on. Pull yourselves together,” he advanced to the Lion and +said: + +“We have come - Aslan.” + +“Welcome, Peter, Son of Adam,” said Aslan. “Welcome, Susan and Lucy, +Daughters of Eve. Welcome He-Beaver and She-Beaver.” + +His voice was deep and rich and somehow took the fidgets out of them. They +now felt glad and quiet and it didn’t seem awkward to them to stand and say +nothing. + +“But where is the fourth?” asked Aslan. + +“He has tried to betray them and joined the White Witch, O Aslan,” said Mr +Beaver. And then something made Peter say, + +“That was partly my fault, Aslan. I was angry with him and I think that +helped him to go wrong.” + +And Aslan said nothing either to excuse Peter or to blame him but merely +stood looking at him with his great unchanging eyes. And it seemed to all of +them that there was nothing to be said. + +“Please - Aslan,” said Lucy, “can anything be done to save Edmund?” + +“All shall be done,” said Aslan. “But it may be harder than you think.” And +then he was silent again for some time. Up to that moment Lucy had been +thinking how royal and strong and peaceful his face looked; now it suddenly +came into her head that he looked sad as well. But next minute that expression +was quite gone. The Lion shook his mane and clapped his paws together +(’’Terrible paws,” thought Lucy, “if he didn’t know how to velvet them!”) and +said, + +“Meanwhile, let the feast be prepared. Ladies, take these Daughters of Eve to +the pavilion and minister to them.” + +When the girls had gone Aslan laid his paw - and though it was velveted it +was very heavy - on Peter’s shoulder and said, “Come, Son of Adam, and I will +show you a far-off sight of the castle where you are to be King.” + +And Peter with his sword still drawn in his hand went with the Lion to the +eastern edge of the hilltop. There a beautiful sight met their eyes. The sun was +setting behind their backs. That meant that the whole country below them lay in +the evening light - forest and hills and valleys and, winding away like a silver +snake, the lower part of the great river. And beyond all this, miles away, was the +sea, and beyond the sea the sky, full of clouds which were just turning rose +colour with the reflection of the sunset. But just where the land of Narnia met the +sea - in fact, at the mouth of the great river - there was something on a little hill, + + + +shining. It was shining because it was a castle and of course the sunlight was +reflected from all the windows which looked towards Peter and the sunset; but to +Peter it looked like a great star resting on the seashore. + +“That, O Man,” said Aslan, “is Cair Paravel of the four thrones, in one of +which you must sit as King. I show it to you because you are the first-born and +you will be High King over all the rest.” + +And once more Peter said nothing, for at that moment a strange noise woke +the silence suddenly. It was like a bugle, but richer. + +“It is your sister’s horn,” said Aslan to Peter in a low voice; so low as to be +almost a purr, if it is not disrespectful to think of a Lion purring. + +For a moment Peter did not understand. Then, when he saw all the other +creatures start forward and heard Aslan say with a wave of his paw, “Back! Let +the Prince win his spurs,” he did understand, and set off running as hard as he +could to the pavilion. And there he saw a dreadful sight. + +The Naiads and Dryads were scattering in every direction. Lucy was running +towards him as fast as her short legs would carry her and her face was as white +as paper. Then he saw Susan make a dash for a tree, and swing herself up, +followed by a huge grey beast. At first Peter thought it was a bear. Then he saw +that it looked like an Alsatian, though it was far too big to be a dog. Then he +realized that it was a wolf - a wolf standing on its hind legs, with its front paws +against the tree-trunk, snapping and snarling. All the hair on its back stood up on +end. Susan had not been able to get higher than the second big branch. One of +her legs hung down so that her foot was only an inch or two above the snapping +teeth. Peter wondered why she did not get higher or at least take a better grip; +then he realized that she was just going to faint and that if she fainted she would +fall off. + +Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that +made no difference to what he had to do. He rushed straight up to the monster +and aimed a slash of his sword at its side. That stroke never reached the Wolf. +Quick as lightning it turned round, its eyes flaming, and its mouth wide open in a +howl of anger. If it had not been so angry that it simply had to howl it would +have got him by the throat at once. As it was - though all this happened too +quickly for Peter to think at all - he had just time to duck down and plunge his +sword, as hard as he could, between the brute’s forelegs into its heart. Then came +a horrible, confused moment like something in a nightmare. He was tugging and +pulling and the Wolf seemed neither alive nor dead, and its bared teeth knocked +against his forehead, and everything was blood and heat and hair. A moment +later he found that the monster lay dead and he had drawn his sword out of it and +was straightening his back and rubbing the sweat off his face and out of his eyes. + + + +He felt tired all over. + +Then, after a bit, Susan came down the tree. She and Peter felt pretty shaky +when they met and I won’t say there wasn’t kissing and crying on both sides. +But in Narnia no one thinks any the worse of you for that. + +“Quick! Quick!” shouted the voice of Aslan. “Centaurs! Eagles! I see +another wolf in the thickets. There - behind you. He has just darted away. After +him, all of you. He will be going to his mistress. Now is your chance to find the +Witch and rescue the fourth Son of Adam.” And instantly with a thunder of +hoofs and beating of wings a dozen or so of the swiftest creatures disappeared +into the gathering darkness. + +Peter, still out of breath, turned and saw Aslan close at hand. + +“You have forgotten to clean your sword,” said Aslan. + +It was true. Peter blushed when he looked at the bright blade and saw it all +smeared with the Wolf’s hair and blood. He stooped down and wiped it quite +clean on the grass, and then wiped it quite dry on his coat. + +“Hand it to me and kneel, Son of Adam,” said Aslan. And when Peter had +done so he struck him with the flat of the blade and said, “Rise up, Sir Peter +Wolf ’s-Bane. And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword.” + +Now we must get back to Edmund. When he had been made to walk far +further than he had ever known that anybody could walk, the Witch at last halted +in a dark valley all overshadowed with fir trees and yew trees. Edmund simply +sank down and lay on his face doing nothing at all and not even caring what was +going to happen next provided they would let him lie still. He was too tired even +to notice how hungry and thirsty he was. The Witch and the dwarf were talking +close beside him in low tones. + +“No,” said the dwarf, “it is no use now, O Queen. They must have reached +the Stone Table by now.” + +“Perhaps the Wolf will smell us out and bring us news,” said the Witch. + +“It cannot be good news if he does,” said the dwarf. + +“Four thrones in Cair Paravel,” said the Witch. “How if only three were +filled? That would not fulfil the prophecy.” + +“What difference would that make now that He is here?” said the dwarf. He +did not dare, even now, to mention the name of Aslan to his mistress. + +“He may not stay long. And then - we would fall upon the three at Cair.” + +“Yet it might be better,” said the dwarf, “to keep this one” (here he kicked +Edmund) “for bargaining with.” + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +DEEP MAGIC FROM THE DAWN OF TIME + +“Yes! and have him rescued,” said the Witch scornfully. + +“Then,” said the dwarf, “we had better do what we have to do at once.” + +“I would like to have it done on the Stone Table itself,” said the Witch. “That +is the proper place. That is where it has always been done before.” + +“It will be a long time now before the Stone Table can again be put to its +proper use,” said the dwarf. + +“True,” said the Witch; and then, “Well, I will begin.” + +At that moment with a rush and a snarl a Wolf rushed up to them. + +“I have seen them. They are all at the Stone Table, with Him. They have +killed my captain, Maugrim. I was hidden in the thickets and saw it all. One of +the Sons of Adam killed him. Fly! Fly!” + +“No,” said the Witch. “There need be no flying. Go quickly. Summon all our +people to meet me here as speedily as they can. Call out the giants and the +werewolves and the spirits of those trees who are on our side. Call the Ghouls, +and the Boggles, the Ogres and the Minotaurs. Call the Cruels, the Hags, the +Spectres, and the people of the Toadstools. We will fight. What? Have I not still +my wand? Will not their ranks turn into stone even as they come on? Be off +quickly, I have a little thing to finish here while you are away.” + +The great brute bowed its head, turned, and galloped away. + +“Now!” she said, “we have no table - let me see. We had better put it against +the trunk of a tree.” + +Edmund found himself being roughly forced to his feet. Then the dwarf set +him with his back against a tree and bound him fast. He saw the Witch take off +her outer mantle. Her arms were bare underneath it and terribly white. Because +they were so very white he could see them, but he could not see much else, it +was so dark in this valley under the dark trees. + +“Prepare the victim,”, said the Witch. And the dwarf undid Edmund’s collar +and folded back his shirt at the neck. Then he took Edmund’s hair and pulled his +head back so that he had to raise his chin. After that Edmund heard a strange +noise - whizz whizz - whizz. For a moment he couldn’t think what it was. Then +he realized. It was the sound of a knife being sharpened. + +At that very moment he heard loud shouts from every direction - a drumming +of hoofs and a beating of wings - a scream from the Witch - confusion all round +him. And then he found he was being untied. Strong arms were round him and + + + +he heard big, kind voices saying things like - + +“Let him lie down - give him some wine - drink this - steady now - you’ll be +all right in a minute.” + +Then he heard the voices of people who were not talking to him but to one +another. And they were saying things like “Who’s got the Witch?” “I thought +you had her.” “I didn’t see her after I knocked the knife out of her hand - I was +after the dwarf - do you mean to say she’s escaped?” “- A chap can’t mind +everything at once - what’s that? Oh, sorry, it’s only an old stump!” But just at +this point Edmund went off in a dead faint. + +Presently the centaurs and unicorns and deer and birds (they were of course +the rescue party which Aslan had sent in the last chapter) all set off to go back to +the Stone Table, carrying Edmund with them. But if they could have seen what +happened in that valley after they had gone, I think they might have been +surprised. + +It was perfectly still and presently the moon grew bright; if you had been +there you would have seen the moonlight shining on an old tree-stump and on a +fairsized boulder. But if you had gone on looking you would gradually have +begun to think there was something odd about both the stump and the boulder. +And next you would have thought that the stump did look really remarkably like +a little fat man crouching on the ground. And if you had watched long enough +you would have seen the stump walk across to the boulder and the boulder sit up +and begin talking to the stump; for in reality the stump and the boulder were +simply the Witch and the dwarf. For it was part of her magic that she could make +things look like what they aren’t, and she had the presence of mind to do so at +the very moment when the knife was knocked out of her hand. She had kept hold +of her wand, so it had been kept safe, too. + +When the other children woke up next morning (they had been sleeping on +piles of cushions in the pavilion) the first thing they heard -from Mrs Beaver - +was that their brother had been rescued and brought into camp late last night; +and was at that moment with Aslan. As soon as they had breakfasted4 they all +went out, and there they saw Aslan and Edmund walking together in the dewy +grass, apart from the rest of the court. There is no need to tell you (and no one +ever heard) what Aslan was saying, but it was a conversation which Edmund +never forgot. As the others drew nearer Aslan turned to meet them, bringing +Edmund with him. + +“Here is your brother,” he said, “and - there is no need to talk to him about +what is past.” + +Edmund shook hands with each of the others and said to each of them in +turn, “I’m sorry,” and everyone said, “That’s all right.” And then everyone + + + +wanted very hard to say something which would make it quite clear that they +were all friends with him again -something ordinary and natural -and of course +no one could think of anything in the world to say. But before they had time to +feel really awkward one of the leopards approached Aslan and said, + +“Sire, there is a messenger from the enemy who craves audience.” + +“Let him approach,” said Aslan. + +The leopard went away and soon returned leading the Witch’s dwarf. + +“What is your message, Son of Earth?” asked Aslan. + +“The Queen of Narnia and Empress of the Lone Islands desires a safe +conduct to come and speak with you,” said the dwarf, “on a matter which is as +much to your advantage as to hers.” + +“Queen of Narnia, indeed!” said Mr Beaver. “Of all the cheek -“ + +“Peace, Beaver,” said Aslan. “All names will soon be restored to their proper +owners. In the meantime we will not dispute about them. Tell your mistress, Son +of Earth, that I grant her safe conduct on condition that she leaves her wand +behind her at that great oak.” + +This was agreed to and two leopards went back with the dwarf to see that the +conditions were properly carried out. “But supposing she turns the two leopards +into stone?” whispered Lucy to Peter. I think the same idea had occurred to the +leopards themselves; at any rate, as they walked off their fur was all standing up +on their backs and their tails were bristling - like a cat’s when it sees a strange +dog. + +“It’ll be all right,” whispered Peter in reply. “He wouldn’t send them if it +weren’t.” + +A few minutes later the Witch herself walked out on to the top of the hill and +came straight across and stood before Aslan. The three children who had not +seen her before felt shudders running down their backs at the sight of her face; +and there were low growls among all the animals present. Though it was bright +sunshine everyone felt suddenly cold. The only two people present who seemed +to be quite at their ease were Aslan and the Witch herself. It was the oddest thing +to see those two faces - the golden face and the dead-white face so close +together. Not that the Witch looked Aslan exactly in his eyes; Mrs Beaver +particularly noticed this. + +“You have a traitor there, Aslan,” said the Witch. Of course everyone present +knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking about himself +after all he’d been through and after the talk he’d had that morning. He just went +on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the Witch said. + +“Well,” said Aslan. “His offence was not against you.” + +“Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?” asked the Witch. + + + +“Let us say I have forgotten it,” answered Aslan gravely. “Tell us of this +Deep Magic.” + +“Tell you?” said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly shriller. “Tell you +what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you +what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the firestones on the Secret +Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the sceptre of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea? +You at least know the Magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very +beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that +for every treachery I have a right to a kill.” + +“Oh,” said Mr Beaver. “So that’s how you came to imagine yourself a queen +- because you were the Emperor’s hangman. I see.” + +“Peace, Beaver,” said Aslan, with a very low growl. “And so,” continued the +Witch, “that human creature is mine. His life is forfeit to me. His blood is my +property.” + +“Come and take it then,” said the Bull with the man’s head in a great +bellowing voice. + +“Fool,” said the Witch with a savage smile that was almost a snarl, “do you +really think your master can rob me of my rights by mere force? He knows the +Deep Magic better than that. He knows that unless I have blood as the Law says +all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water.” + +“It is very true,” said Aslan, “I do not deny it.” + +“Oh, Aslan!” whispered Susan in the Lion’s ear, “can’t we - I mean, you +won’t, will you? Can’t we do something about the Deep Magic? Isn’t there +something you can work against it?” + +“Work against the Emperor’s Magic?” said Aslan, turning to her with +something like a frown on his face. And nobody ever made that suggestion to +him again. + +Edmund was on the other side of Aslan, looking all the time at Aslan’s face. +He felt a choking feeling and wondered if he ought to say something; but a +moment later he felt that he was not expected to do anything except to wait, and +do what he was told. + +“Fall back, all of you,” said Aslan, “and I will talk to the Witch alone.” + +They all obeyed. It was a terrible time this - waiting and wondering while the +Lion and the Witch talked earnestly together in low voices. Lucy said, “Oh, +Edmund!” and began to cry. Peter stood with his back to the others looking out +at the distant sea. The Beavers stood holding each other’s paws with their heads +bowed. The centaurs stamped uneasily with their hoofs. But everyone became +perfectly still in the end, so that you noticed even small sounds like a bumble¬ +bee flying past, or the birds in the forest down below them, or the wind rustling + + + +the leaves. And still the talk between Aslan and the White Witch went on. + +At last they heard Aslan’s voice, “You can all come back,” he said. “I have +settled the matter. She has renounced the claim on your brother’s blood.” And all +over the hill there was a noise as if everyone had been holding their breath and +had now begun breathing again, and then a murmur of talk. + +The Witch was just turning away with a look of fierce joy on her face when +she stopped and said, + +“But how do I know this promise will be kept?” + +“Haa-a-arrh!” roared Aslan, half rising from his throne; and his great mouth +opened wider and wider and the roar grew louder and louder, and the Witch, +after staring for a moment with her lips wide apart, picked up her skirts and +fairly ran for her life. + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +THE TRIUMPH OF THE WITCH + +As soon as the Witch had gone Aslan said, “We must move from this place at +once, it will be wanted for other purposes. We shall encamp tonight at the Fords +of Beruna. + +Of course everyone was dying to ask him how he had arranged matters with +the witch; but his face was stern and everyone’s ears were still ringing with the +sound of his roar and so nobody dared. + +After a meal, which was taken in the open air on the hill-top (for the sun had +got strong by now and dried the grass), they were busy for a while taking the +pavilion down and packing things up. Before two o’clock they were on the +march and set off in a northeasterly direction, walking at an easy pace for they +had not far to go. + +During the first part of the journey Aslan explained to Peter his plan of +campaign. “As soon as she has finished her business in these parts,” he said, “the +Witch and her crew will almost certainly fall back to her House and prepare for a +siege. You may or may not be able to cut her off and prevent her from reaching +it.” He then went on to outline two plans of battle - one for fighting the Witch +and her people in the wood and another for assaulting her castle. And all the time +he was advising Peter how to conduct the operations, saying things like, “You +must put your Centaurs in such and such a place” or “You must post scouts to +see that she doesn’t do so-and-so,” till at last Peter said, + +“But you will be there yourself, Aslan.” + +“I can give you no promise of that,” answered the Lion. And he continued +giving Peter his instructions. + +For the last part of the journey it was Susan and Lucy who saw most of him. +He did not talk very much and seemed to them to be sad. + +It was still afternoon when they came down to a place where the river valley +had widened out and the river was broad and shallow. This was the Fords of +Beruna and Aslan gave orders to halt on this side of the water. But Peter said, + +“Wouldn’t it be better to camp on the far side - for fear she should try a night +attack or anything?” + +Aslan, who seemed to have been thinking about something else, roused +himself with a shake of his magnificent mane and said, “Eh? What’s that?” Peter +said it all over again. + +“No,” said Aslan in a dull voice, as if it didn’t matter. “No. She will not + + + +make an attack to-night.” And then he sighed deeply. But presently he added, +“All the same it was well thought of. That is how a soldier ought to think. But it +doesn’t really matter.” So they proceeded to pitch their camp. + +Aslan’s mood affected everyone that evening. Peter was feeling +uncomfortable too at the idea of fighting the battle on his own; the news that +Aslan might not be there had come as a great shock to him. Supper that evening +was a quiet meal. Everyone felt how different it had been last night or even that +morning. It was as if the good times, having just begun, were already drawing to +their end. + +This feeling affected Susan so much that she couldn’t get to sleep when she +went to bed. And after she had lain counting sheep and turning over and over she +heard Lucy give a long sigh and turn over just beside her in the darkness. + +“Can’t you get to sleep either?” said Susan. + +“No,” said Lucy. “I thought you were asleep. I say, Susan!” + +“What?” + +“I’ve a most Horrible feeling - as if something were hanging over us.” + +“Have you? Because, as a matter of fact, so have I.” + +“Something about Aslan,” said Lucy. “Either some dreadful thing is going to +happen to him, or something dreadful that he’s going to do.” + +“There’s been something wrong with him all afternoon,” said Susan. “Lucy! +What was that he said about not being with us at the battle? You don’t think he +could be stealing away and leaving us tonight, do you?” + +“Where is he now?” said Lucy. “Is he here in the pavilion?” + +“I don’t think so.” + +“Susan! let’s go outside and have a look round. We might see him.” + +“All right. Let’s,” said Susan; “we might just as well be doing that as lying +awake here.” + +Very quietly the two girls groped their way among the other sleepers and +crept out of the tent. The moonlight was bright and everything was quite still +except for the noise of the river chattering over the stones. Then Susan suddenly +caught Lucy’s arm and said, “Look!” On the far side of the camping ground, just +where the trees began, they saw the Lion slowly walking away from them into +the wood. Without a word they both followed him. + +He led them up the steep slope out of the river valley and then slightly to the +right - apparently by the very same route which they had used that afternoon in +coming from the Hill of the Stone Table. On and on he led them, into dark +shadows and out into pale moonlight, getting their feet wet with the heavy dew. +He looked somehow different from the Aslan they knew. His tail and his head +hung low and he walked slowly as if he were very, very tired. Then, when they + + + +were crossing a wide open place where there where no shadows for them to hide +in, he stopped and looked round. It was no good trying to run away so they came +towards him. When they were closer he said, + +“Oh, children, children, why are you following me?” + +“We couldn’t sleep,” said Lucy - and then felt sure that she need say no more +and that Aslan knew all they had been thinking. + +“Please, may we come with you - wherever you’re going?” asked Susan. + +“Well said Aslan, and seemed to be thinking. Then he said, “I should be +glad of company tonight. Yes, you may come, if you will promise to stop when I +tell you, and after that leave me to go on alone.” + +“Oh, thank you, thank you. And we will,” said the two girls. + +Forward they went again and one of the girls walked on each side of the +Lion. But how slowly he walked! And his great, royal head drooped so that his +nose nearly touched the grass. Presently he stumbled and gave a low moan. + +“Aslan! Dear Aslan!” said Lucy, “what is wrong? Can’t you tell us?” + +“Are you ill, dear Aslan?” asked Susan. + +“No,” said Aslan. “I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane so that I +can feel you are there and let us walk like that.” + +And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without his +permission, but what they had longed to do ever since they first saw him buried +their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked it and, so doing, walked +with him. And presently they saw that they were going with him up the slope of +the hill on which the Stone Table stood. They went up at the side where the trees +came furthest up, and when they got to the last tree (it was one that had some +bushes about it) Aslan stopped and said, + +“Oh, children, children. Here you must stop. And whatever happens, do not +let yourselves be seen. Farewell.” + +And both the girls cried bitterly (though they hardly knew why) and clung to +the Lion and kissed his mane and his nose and his paws and his great, sad eyes. +Then he turned from them and walked out on to the top of the hill. And Lucy and +Susan, crouching in the bushes, looked after him, and this is what they saw. + +A great crowd of people were standing all round the Stone Table and though +the moon was shining many of them carried torches which burned with evil¬ +looking red flames and black smoke. But such people! Ogres with monstrous +teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous +plants; and other creatures whom I won’t describe because if I did the grownups +would probably not let you read this book - Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, +Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins. In fact here were +all those who were on the Witch’s side and whom the Wolf had summoned at her + + + +command. And right in the middle, standing by the Table, was the Witch herself. + +A howl and a gibber of dismay went up from the creatures when they first +saw the great Lion pacing towards them, and for a moment even the Witch +seemed to be struck with fear. Then she recovered herself and gave a wild fierce +laugh. + +“The fool!” she cried. “The fool has come. Bind him fast.” + +Lucy and Susan held their breaths waiting for Aslan’s roar and his spring +upon his enemies. But it never came. Four Hags, grinning and leering, yet also +(at first) hanging back and half afraid of what they had to do, had approached +him. “Bind him, I say!” repeated the White Witch. The Hags made a dart at him +and shrieked with triumph when they found that he made no resistance at all. +Then others - evil dwarfs and apes - rushed in to help them, and between them +they rolled the huge Lion over on his back and tied all his four paws together, +shouting and cheering as if they had done something brave, though, had the Lion +chosen, one of those paws could have been the death of them all. But he made no +noise, even when the enemies, straining and tugging, pulled the cords so tight +that they cut into his flesh. Then they began to drag him towards the Stone Table. + +“Stop!” said the Witch. “Let him first be shaved.” + +Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a +pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan’s head. Snip-snip-snip +went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall to the ground. Then the +ogre stood back and the children, watching from their hiding-place, could see the +face of Aslan looking all small and different without its mane. The enemies also +saw the difference. + +“Why, he’s only a great cat after all!” cried one. + +“Is that what we were afraid of?” said another. + +And they surged round Aslan, jeering at him, saying things like “Puss, Puss! +Poor Pussy,” and “How many mice have you caught today, Cat?” and “Would +you like a saucer of milk, Pussums?” + +“Oh, how can they?” said Lucy, tears streaming down her cheeks. “The +brutes, the brutes!” for now that the first shock was over the shorn face of Aslan +looked to her braver, and more beautiful, and more patient than ever. + +“Muzzle him!” said the Witch. And even now, as they worked about his face +putting on the muzzle, one bite from his jaws would have cost two or three of +them their hands. But he never moved. And this seemed to enrage all that rabble. +Everyone was at him now. Those who had been afraid to come near him even +after he was bound began to find their courage, and for a few minutes the two +girls could not even see him - so thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd +of creatures kicking him, hitting him, spitting on him, jeering at him. + + + +At last the rabble had had enough of this. They began to drag the bound and +muzzled Lion to the Stone Table, some pulling and some pushing. He was so +huge that even when they got him there it took all their efforts to hoist him on to +the surface of it. Then there was more tying and tightening of cords. + +“The cowards! The cowards!” sobbed Susan. “Are they still afraid of him, +even now?” + +When once Aslan had been tied (and tied so that he was really a mass of +cords) on the flat stone, a hush fell on the crowd. Four Hags, holding four +torches, stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch bared her arms as she had +bared them the previous night when it had been Edmund instead of Aslan. Then +she began to whet her knife. It looked to the children, when the gleam of the +torchlight fell on it, as if the knife were made of stone, not of steel, and it was of +a strange and evil shape. + +As last she drew near. She stood by Aslan’s head. Her face was working and +twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still quiet, neither angry nor +afraid, but a little sad. Then, just before she gave the blow, she stooped down and +said in a quivering voice, + +“And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save +the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the +Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from +killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hand then? Understand +that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have +not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.” + +The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They couldn’t bear +to look and had covered their eyes. + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +DEEPER MAGIC FROM BEFORE THE DAWN OF TIME + +WHILE the two girls still crouched in the bushes with their hands over their +faces, they heard the voice of the Witch calling out, + +“Now! Follow me all and we will set about what remains of this war! It will +not take us long to crush the human vermin and the traitors now that the great +Fool, the great Cat, lies dead.” + +At this moment the children were for a few seconds in very great danger. For +with wild cries and a noise of skirling pipes and shrill horns blowing, the whole +of that vile rabble came sweeping off the hill-top and down the slope right past +their hiding-place. They felt the Spectres go by them like a cold wind and they +felt the ground shake beneath them under the galloping feet of the Minotaurs; +and overhead there went a flurry of foul wings and a blackness of vultures and +giant bats. At any other time they would have trembled with fear; but now the +sadness and shame and horror of Aslan’s death so filled their minds that they +hardly thought of it. + +As soon as the wood was silent again Susan and Lucy crept out onto the +open hill-top. The moon was getting low and thin clouds were passing across +her, but still they could see the shape of the Lion lying dead in his bonds. And +down they both knelt in the wet grass and kissed his cold face and stroked his +beautiful fur - what was left of it - and cried till they could cry no more. And +then they looked at each other and held each other’s hands for mere loneliness +and cried again; and then again were silent. At last Lucy said, + +“I can’t bear to look at that horrible muzzle. I wonder could we take if off?” + +So they tried. And after a lot of working at it (for their fingers were cold and +it was now the darkest part of the night) they succeeded. And when they saw his +face without it they burst out crying again and kissed it and fondled it and wiped +away the blood and the foam as well as they could. And it was all more lonely +and hopeless and horrid than I know how to describe. + +“I wonder could we untie him as well?” said Susan presently. But the +enemies, out of pure spitefulness, had drawn the cords so tight that the girls +could make nothing of the knots. + +I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and +Lucy were that night; but if you have been - if you’ve been up all night and cried +till you have no more tears left in you - you will know that there comes in the +end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again. At + + + +any rate that was how it felt to these two. Hours and hours seemed to go by in +this dead calm, and they hardly noticed that they were getting colder and colder. +But at last Lucy noticed two other things. One was that the sky on the east side +of the hill was a little less dark than it had been an hour ago. The other was some +tiny movement going on in the grass at her feet. At first she took no interest in +this. What did it matter? Nothing mattered now! But at last she saw that +whatever-it-was had begun to move up the upright stones of the Stone Table. +And now whatever-they-were were moving about on Aslan’s body. She peered +closer. They were little grey things. + +“Ugh!” said Susan from the other side of the Table. “How beastly! There are +horrid little mice crawling over him. Go away, you little beasts.” And she raised +her hand to frighten them away. + +“Wait!” said Lucy, who had been looking at them more closely still. “Can +you see what they’re doing?” + +Both girls bent down and stared. + +“I do believe said Susan. “But how queer! They’re nibbling away at the +cords!” + +“That’s what I thought,” said Lucy. “I think they’re friendly mice. Poor little +things - they don’t realize he’s dead. They think it’ll do some good untying him.” + +It was quite definitely lighter by now. Each of the girls noticed for the first +time the white face of the other. They could see the mice nibbling away; dozens +and dozens, even hundreds, of little field mice. And at last, one by one, the ropes +were all gnawed through. + +The sky in the east was whitish by now and the stars were getting fainter - all +except one very big one low down on the eastern horizon. They felt colder than +they had been all night. The mice crept away again. + +The girls cleared away the remains of the gnawed ropes. Aslan looked more +like himself without them. Every moment his dead face looked nobler, as the +light grew and they could see it better. + +In the wood behind them a bird gave a chuckling sound. It had been so still +for hours and hours that it startled them. Then another bird answered it. Soon +there were birds singing all over the place. + +It was quite definitely early morning now, not late night. + +“I’m so cold,” said Lucy. + +“So am I,” said Susan. “Let’s walk about a bit.” + +They walked to the eastern edge of the hill and looked down. The one big +star had almost disappeared. The country all looked dark grey, but beyond, at the +very end of the world, the sea showed pale. The sky began to turn red. They +walked to ands fro more times than they could count between the dead Aslan and + + + +the eastern ridge, trying to keep warm; and oh, how tired their legs felt. Then at +last, as they stood for a moment looking out towards they sea and Cair Paravel +(which they could now just make out) the red turned to gold along the line where +the sea and the sky met and very slowly up came the edge of the sun. At that +moment they heard from behind them a loud noise - a great cracking, deafening +noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate. + +“What’s that?” said Lucy, clutching Susan’s arm. + +“I -1 feel afraid to turn round,” said Susan; “something awful is happening.” + +“They’re doing something worse to Him,” said Lucy. “Come on!” And she +turned, pulling Susan round with her. + +The rising of the sun had made everything look so different - all colours and +shadows were changed that for a moment they didn’t see the important thing. +Then they did. The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that +ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan. + +“Oh, oh, oh!” cried the two girls, rushing back to the Table. + +“Oh, it’s too bad,” sobbed Lucy; “they might have left the body alone.” + +“Who’s done it?” cried Susan. “What does it mean? Is it magic?” + +“Yes!” said a great voice behind their backs. “It is more magic.” They looked +round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, +shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself. + +“Oh, Aslan!” cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much +frightened as they were glad. + +“Aren’t you dead then, dear Aslan?” said Lucy. + +“Not now,” said Aslan. + +“You’re not - not a - ?” asked Susan in a shaky voice. She couldn’t bring +herself to say the word ghost. Aslan stooped his golden head and licked her +forehead. The warmth of his breath and a rich sort of smell that seemed to hang +about his hair came all over her. + +“Do I look it?” he said. + +“Oh, you’re real, you’re real! Oh, Aslan!” cried Lucy, and both girls flung +themselves upon him and covered him with kisses. + +“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. + +“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there +is a magic deeper still which she did not know: Her knowledge goes back only to +the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the +stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a +different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had +committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and +Death itself would start working backwards. And now -“ + + + +“Oh yes. Now?” said Lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands. + +“Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, +children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his +limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over +their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she +didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A +mad chase began. Round and round the hill-top he led them, now hopelessly out +of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, +now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and +catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them +rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was +such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more +like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make +up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together +panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty. + +“And now,” said Aslan presently, “to business. I feel I am going to roar. You +had better put your fingers in your ears.” + +And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his +face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And they saw all the +trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a +meadow before the wind. Then he said, + +“We have a long journey to go. You must ride on me.” And he crouched +down and the children climbed on to his warm, golden back, and Susan sat first, +holding on tightly to his mane and Lucy sat behind holding on tightly to Susan. +And with a great heave he rose underneath them and then shot off, faster than +any horse could go, down hill and into the thick of the forest. + +That ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in +Narnia. Have you ever had a gallop on a horse? Think of that; and then take +away the heavy noise of the hoofs and the jingle of the bits and imagine instead +the almost noiseless padding of the great paws. Then imagine instead of the +black or grey or chestnut back of the horse the soft roughness of golden fur, and +the mane flying back in the wind. And then imagine you are going about twice +as fast as the fastest racehorse. But this is a mount that doesn’t need to be guided +and never grows tired. He rushes on and on, never missing his footing, never +hesitating, threading his way with perfect skill between tree trunks, jumping over +bush and briar and the smaller streams, wading the larger, swimming the largest +of all. And you are riding not on a road nor in a park nor even on the downs, but +right across Narnia, in spring, down solemn avenues of beech and across sunny +glades of oak, through wild orchards of snow-white cherry trees, past roaring + + + +waterfalls and mossy rocks and echoing caverns, up windy slopes alight with +gorse bushes, and across the shoulders of heathery mountains and along giddy +ridges and down, down, down again into wild valleys and out into acres of blue +flowers. + +It was nearly midday when they found themselves looking down a steep +hillside at a castle - a little toy castle it looked from where they stood - which +seemed to be all pointed towers. But the Lion was rushing down at such a speed +that it grew larger every moment and before they had time even to ask +themselves what it was they were already on a level with it. And now it no +longer looked like a toy castle but rose frowning in front of them. No face +looked over the battlements and the gates were fast shut. And Aslan, not at all +slacking his pace, rushed straight as a bullet towards it. + +“The Witch’s home!” he cried. “Now, children, hold tight.” + +Next moment the whole world seemed to turn upside down, and the children +felt as if they had left their insides behind them; for the Lion had gathered +himself together for a greater leap than any he had yet made and jumped - or you +may call it flying rather than jumping - right over the castle wall. The two girls, +breathless but unhurt, found themselves tumbling off his back in the middle of a +wide stone courtyard full of statues. + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +WHAT HAPPENED ABOUT THE STATUES + +“WHAT an extraordinary place!” cried Lucy. “All those stone animals -and +people too! It’s -it’s like a museum.” + +“Hush,” said Susan, “Aslan’s doing something.” + +He was indeed. He had bounded up to the stone lion and breathed on him. +Then without waiting a moment he whisked round - almost as if he had been a +cat chasing its tail -and breathed also on the stone dwarf, which (as you +remember) was standing a few feet from the lion with his back to it. Then he +pounced on a tall stone dryad which stood beyond the dwarf, turned rapidly +aside to deal with a stone rabbit on his right, and rushed on to two centaurs. But +at that moment Lucy said, + +“Oh, Susan! Look! Look at the lion.” + +I expect you’ve seen someone put a lighted match to a bit of newspaper +which is propped up in a grate against an unlit fire. And for a second nothing +seems to have happened; and then you notice a tiny streak of flame creeping +along the edge of the newspaper. It was like that now. For a second after Aslan +had breathed upon him the stone lion looked just the same. Then a tiny streak of +gold began to run along his white marble back then it spread - then the colour +seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper - then, while +his hindquarters were still obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the +heavy, stone folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened a great red mouth, +warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now his hind legs had come +to life. He lifted one of them and scratched himself. Then, having caught sight of +Aslan, he went bounding after him and frisking round him whimpering with +delight and jumping up to lick his face. + +Of course the children’s eyes turned to follow the lion; but the sight they saw +was so wonderful that they soon forgot about him. Everywhere the statues were +coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more +like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was +almost hidden in the crowd. Instead of all that deadly white the courtyard was +now a blaze of colours; glossy chestnut sides of centaurs, indigo horns of +unicorns, dazzling plumage of birds, reddy-brown of foxes, dogs and satyrs, +yellow stockings and crimson hoods of dwarfs; and the birch-girls in silver, and +the beech-girls in fresh, transparent green, and the larch-girls in green so bright +that it was almost yellow. And instead of the deadly silence the whole place rang + + + +with the sound of happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, +cooings, neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs and laughter. + +“Oh!” said Susan in a different tone. “Look! I wonder -1 mean, is it safe?” + +Lucy looked and saw that Aslan had just breathed on the feet of the stone +giant. + +“It’s all right!” shouted Aslan joyously. “Once the feet are put right, all the +rest of him will follow.” + +“That wasn’t exactly what I meant,” whispered Susan to Lucy. But it was too +late to do anything about it now even if Aslan would have listened to her. The +change was already creeping up the Giant’s legs. Now he was moving his feet. A +moment later he lifted his club off his shoulder, rubbed his eyes and said, + +“Bless me! I must have been asleep. Now! Where’s that dratted little Witch +that was running about on the ground. Somewhere just by my feet it was.” But +when everyone had shouted up to him to explain what had really happened, and +when the Giant had put his hand to his ear and got them to repeat it all again so +that at last he understood, then he bowed down till his head was no further off +than the top of a haystack and touched his cap repeatedly to Aslan, beaming all +over his honest ugly face. (Giants of any sort are now so rare in England and so +few giants are good-tempered that ten to one you have never seen a giant when +his face is beaming. It’s a sight well worth looking at.) + +“Now for the inside of this house!” said Aslan. “Look alive, everyone. Up +stairs and down stairs and in my lady’s chamber! Leave no corner unsearched. +You never know where some poor prisoner may be concealed.” + +And into the interior they all rushed and for several minutes the whole of that +dark, horrible, fusty old castle echoed with the opening of windows and with +everyone’s voices crying out at once, “Don’t forget the dungeons - Give us a +hand with this door! Here’s another little winding stair - Oh! I say. Here’s a poor +kangaroo. Call Aslan - Phew! How it smells in here - Look out for trap-doors - +Up here! There are a whole lot more on the landing!” But the best of all was +when Lucy came rushing upstairs shouting out, + +“Aslan! Aslan! I’ve found Mr Tumnus. Oh, do come quick.” + +A moment later Lucy and the little Faun were holding each other by both +hands and dancing round and round for joy. The little chap was none the worse +for having been a statue and was of course very interested in all she had to tell +him. + +But at last the ransacking of the Witch’s fortress was ended. The whole castle +stood empty with every door and window open and the light and the sweet +spring air flooding into all the dark and evil places which needed them so badly. +The whole crowd of liberated statues surged back into the courtyard. And it was + + + +then that someone (Tumnus, I think) first said, + +“But how are we going to get out?” for Aslan had got in by a jump and the +gates were still locked. + +“That’ll be all right,” said Aslan; and then, rising on his hind-legs, he bawled +up at the Giant. “Hi! You up there,” he roared. “What’s your name?” + +“Giant Rumblebuffin, if it please your honour,” said the Giant, once more +touching his cap. + +“Well then, Giant Rumblebuffin,” said Aslan, “just let us out of this, will +you?” + +“Certainly, your honour. It will be a pleasure,” said Giant Rumblebuffin. +“Stand well away from the gates, all you little ‘uns.” Then he strode to the gate +himself and bang - bang - bang - went his huge club. The gates creaked at the +first blow, cracked at the second, and shivered at the third. Then he tackled the +towers on each side of them and after a few minutes of crashing and thudding +both the towers and a good bit of the wall on each side went thundering down in +a mass of hopeless rubble; and when the dust cleared it was odd, standing in that +dry, grim, stony yard, to see through the gap all the grass and waving trees and +sparkling streams of the forest, and the blue hills beyond that and beyond them +the sky. + +“Blowed if I ain’t all in a muck sweat,” said the Giant, puffing like the +largest railway engine. “Comes of being out of condition. I suppose neither of +you young ladies has such a thing as a pocket-handkerchee about you?” + +“Yes, I have,” said Lucy, standing on tip-toes and holding her handkerchief +up as far as she could reach. + +“Thank you, Missie,” said Giant Rumblebuffin, stooping down. Next +moment Lucy got rather a fright for she found herself caught up in mid-air +between the Giant’s finger and thumb. But just as she was getting near his face +he suddenly started and then put her gently back on the ground muttering, “Bless +me! I’ve picked up the little girl instead. I beg your pardon, Missie, I thought +you was the handkerchee!” + +“No, no,” said Lucy laughing, “here it is!” This time he managed to get it but +it was only about the same size to him that a saccharine tablet would be to you, +so that when she saw him solemnly rubbing it to and fro across his great red +face, she said, “I’m afraid it’s not much use to you, Mr Rumblebuffin.” + +“Not at all. Not at all,” said the giant politely. “Never met a nicer +handkerchee. So fine, so handy. So -1 don’t know how to describe it.” + +“What a nice giant he is!” said Lucy to Mr Tumnus. + +“Oh yes,” replied the Faun. “All the Buffins always were. One of the most +respected of all the giant families in Narnia. Not very clever, perhaps (I never + + + +knew a giant that was), but an old family. With traditions, you know. If he’d +been the other sort she’d never have turned him into stone.” + +At this point Aslan clapped his paws together and called for silence. + +“Our day’s work is not yet over,” he said, “and if the Witch is to be finally +defeated before bed-time we must find the battle at once.” + +“And join in, I hope, sir!” added the largest of the Centaurs. + +“Of course,” said Aslan. “And now! Those who can’t keep up - that is, +children, dwarfs, and small animals - must ride on the backs of those who can - +that is, lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants and eagles. Those who are good +with their noses must come in front with us lions to smell out where the battle is. +Look lively and sort yourselves.” + +And with a great deal of bustle and cheering they did. The most pleased of +the lot was the other lion who kept running about everywhere pretending to be +very busy but really in order to say to everyone he met. “Did you hear what he +said? Us Lions. That means him and me. Us Lions. That’s what I like about +Aslan. No side, no stand-off-ishness. Us Lions. That meant him and me.” At +least he went on saying this till Aslan had loaded him up with three dwarfs, one +dryad, two rabbits, and a hedgehog. That steadied him a bit. + +When all were ready (it was a big sheep-dog who actually helped Aslan most +in getting them sorted into their proper order) they set out through the gap in the +castle wall. At first the lions and dogs went nosing about in all directions. But +then suddenly one great hound picked up the scent and gave a bay. There was no +time lost after that. Soon all the dogs and lions and wolves and other hunting +animals were going at full speed with their noses to the ground, and all the +others, streaked out for about half a mile behind them, were following as fast as +they could. The noise was like an English fox-hunt only better because every +now and then with the music of the hounds was mixed the roar of the other lion +and sometimes the far deeper and more awful roar of Aslan himself. Faster and +faster they went as the scent became easier and easier to follow. And then, just as +they came to the last curve in a narrow, winding valley, Lucy heard above all +these noises another noise - a different one, which gave her a queer feeling +inside. It was a noise of shouts and shrieks and of the clashing of metal against +metal. + +Then they came out of the narrow valley and at once she saw the reason. +There stood Peter and Edmund and all the rest of Aslan’s army fighting +desperately against the crowd of horrible creatures whom she had seen last night; +only now, in the daylight, they looked even stranger and more evil and more +deformed. There also seemed to be far more of them. Peter’s army - which had +their backs to her looked terribly few. And there werestatues dotted all over the + + + +battlefield, so apparently the Witch had been using her wand. But she did not +seem to be using it now. She was fighting with her stone knife. It was Peter she +was fightin - both of them going at it so hard that Lucy could hardly make out +what was happening; she only saw the stone knife and Peter’s sword flashing so +quickly that they looked like three knives and three swords. That pair were in the +centre. On each side the line stretched out. Horrible things were happening +wherever she looked. + +“Off my back, children,” shouted Aslan. And they both tumbled off. Then +with a roar that shook all Narnia from the western lamp-post to the shores of the +eastern sea the great beast flung himself upon the White Witch. Lucy saw her +face lifted towards him for one second with an expression of terror and +amazement. Then Lion and Witch had rolled over together but with the Witch +underneath; and at the same moment all war-like creatures whom Aslan had led +from the Witch’s house rushed madly on the enemy lines, dwarfs with their +battleaxes, dogs with teeth, the Giant with his club (and his feet also crushed +dozens of the foe), unicorns with their horns, centaurs with swords and hoofs. +And Peter’s tired army cheered, and the newcomers roared, and the enemy +squealed and gibbered till the wood re-echoed with the din of that onset. + + + +Narnia 1 - The Lion, The Witch and + +The Wardrobe + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + + +THE HUNTING OF THE WHITE STAG + +THE battle was all over a few minutes after their arrival. Most of the enemy +had been killed in the first charge of Aslan and his -companions; and when those +who were still living saw that the Witch was dead they either gave themselves up +or took to flight. The next thing that Lucy knew was that Peter and Aslan were +shaking hands. It was strange to her to see Peter looking as he looked now - his +face was so pale and stern and he seemed so much older. + +“It was all Edmund’s doing, Aslan,” Peter was saying. “We’d have been +beaten if it hadn’t been for him. The Witch was turning our troops into stone +right and left. But nothing would stop him. He fought his way through three +ogres to where she was just turning one of your leopards into a statue. And when +he reached her he had sense to bring his sword smashing down on her wand +instead of trying to go for her directly and simply getting made a statue himself +for his pains. That was the mistake all the rest were making. Once her wand was +broken we began to have some chance - if we hadn’t lost so many already. He +was terribly wounded. We must go and see him.” + +They found Edmund in charge of Mrs Beaver a little way back from the +fighting line. He was covered with blood, his mouth was open, and his face a +nasty green colour. + +“Quick, Lucy,” said Aslan. + +And then, almost for the first time, Lucy remembered the precious cordial +that had been given her for a Christmas present. Her hands trembled so much +that she could hardly undo the stopper, but she managed it in the end and poured +a few drops into her brother’s mouth. + +“There are other people wounded,” said Aslan while she was still looking +eagerly into Edmund’s pale face and wondering if the cordial would have any +result. + +“Yes, I know,” said Lucy crossly. “Wait a minute.” + +“Daughter of Eve,” said Aslan in a graver voice, “others also are at the point +of death. Must more people die for Edmund?” + +“I’m sorry, Aslan,” said Lucy, getting up and going with him. And for the +next half-hour they were busy - she attending to the wounded while he restored +those who had been turned into stone. When at last she was free to come back to +Edmund she found him standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds +but looking better than she had seen him look - oh, for ages; in fact ever since his + + + +first term at that horrid school which was where he had begun to go wrong. He +had become his real old self again and could look you in the face. And there on +the field of battle Aslan made him a knight. + +“Does he know,” whispered Lucy to Susan, “what Aslan did for him? Does +he know what the arrangement with the Witch really was?” + +“Hush! No. Of course not,” said Susan. + +“Oughtn’t he to be told?” said Lucy. + +“Oh, surely not,” said Susan. “It would be too awful for him. Think how +you’d feel if you were he.” + +“All the same I think he ought to know,” said Lucy. But at that moment they +were interrupted. + +That night they slept where they were. How Aslan provided food for them all +I don’t know; but somehow or other they found themselves all sitting down on +the grass to a fine high tea at about eight o’clock. Next day they began marching +eastward down the side of the great river. And the next day after that, at about +teatime, they actually reached the mouth. The castle of Cair Paravel on its little +hill towered up above them; before them were the sands, with rocks and little +pools of salt water, and seaweed, and the smell of the sea and long miles of +bluish-green waves breaking for ever and ever on the beach. And oh, the cry of +the sea-gulls! Have you heard it? Can you remember? + +That evening after tea the four children all managed to get down to the beach +again and get their shoes and stockings off and feel the sand between their toes. +But next day was more solemn. For then, in the Great Hall of Cair Paravel - that +wonderful hall with the ivory roof and the west wall hung with peacock’s +feathers and the eastern door which looks towards the sea, in the presence of all +their friends and to the sound of trumpets, Aslan solemnly crowned them and led +them to the four thrones amid deafening shouts of, “Long Live King Peter! Long +Live Queen Susan! Long Live King Edmund! Long Live Queen Lucy!” + +“Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen. Bear it well, Sons +of Adam! Bear it well, Daughters of Eve!” said Aslan. + +And through the eastern door, which was wide open, came the voices of the +mermen and the mermaids swimming close to the shore and singing in honour of +their new Kings and Queens. + +So the children sat on their thrones and sceptres were put into their hands and +they gave rewards and honours to all their friends, to Tumnus the Faun, and to +the Beavers, and Giant Rumblebuffin, to the leopards, and the good centaurs, +and the good dwarfs, and to the lion. And that night there was a great feast in +Cair Paravel, and revelry and dancing, and gold flashed and wine flowed, and +answering to the music inside, but stranger, sweeter, and more piercing, came the + + + +music of the sea people. + +But amidst all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And +when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn’t there they said nothing about +it. For Mr Beaver had warned them, “He’ll be coming and going,” he had said. +“One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down +and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often +drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild,’ you know. Not like a tame +lion.” + +And now, as you see, this story is nearly (but not quite) at an end. These two +Kings and two Queens governed Narnia well, and long and happy was their +reign. At first much of their time was spent in seeking out the remnants of the +White Witch’s army and destroying them, and indeed for a long time there would +be news of evil things lurking in the wilder parts of the forest - a haunting here +and a killing there, a glimpse of a werewolf one month and a rumour of a hag the +next. But in the end all that foul brood was stamped out. And they made good +laws and kept the peace and saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut +down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, +and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary +people who wanted to live and let live. And they drove back the fierce giants +(quite a different sort from Giant Rumblebuffin) on the north of Narnia when +these ventured across the frontier. And they entered into friendship and alliance +with countries beyond the sea and paid them visits of state and received visits of +state from them. And they themselves grew and changed as the years passed +over them. And Peter became a tall and deep-chested man and a great warrior, +and he was called King Peter the Magnificent. And Susan grew into a tall and +gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet and the kings of the +countries beyond the sea began to send ambassadors asking for her hand in +marriage. And she was called Susan the Gentle. Edmund was a graver and +quieter man than Peter, and great in council and judgement. He was called King +Edmund the Just. But as for Lucy, she was always gay and golden-haired, and all +princes in those parts desired her to be their Queen, and her own people called +her Queen Lucy the Valiant. + +So they lived in great joy and if ever they remembered their life in this world +it was only as one remembers a dream. And one year it fell out that Tumnus +(who was a middle-aged Faun by now and beginning to be stout) came down +river and brought them news that the White Stag had once more appeared in his +parts - the White Stag who would give you wishes if you caught him. So these +two Kings and two Queens with the principal members of their court, rode a- +hunting with horns and hounds in the Western Woods to follow the White Stag. + + + +And they had not hunted long before they had a sight of him. And he led them a +great pace over rough and smooth and through thick and thin, till the horses of +all the courtiers were tired out and these four were still following. And they saw +the stag enter into a thicket where their horses could not follow. Then said King +Peter (for they talked in quite a different style now, having been Kings and +Queens for so long), “Fair Consorts, let us now alight from our horses and +follow this beast into the thicket; for in all my days I never hunted a nobler +quarry.” + +“Sir,” said the others, “even so let us do.” + +So they alighted and tied their horses to trees and went on into the thick +wood on foot. And as soon as they had entered it Queen Susan said, + +“Fair friends, here is a great marvel, for I seem to see a tree of iron.” + +“Madam,” said,King Edmund, “if you look well upon it you shall see it is a +pillar of iron with a lantern set on the top thereof.” + +“By the Lion’s Mane, a strange device,” said King Peter, “to set a lantern +here where the trees cluster so thick about it and so high above it that if it were +lit it should give light to no man!” + +“Sir,” said Queen Lucy. “By likelihood when this post and this lamp were set +here there were smaller trees in the place, or fewer, or none. For this is a young +wood and the iron post is old.” And they stood looking upon it. Then said King +Edmund, + +“I know not how it is, but this lamp on the post worketh upon me strangely. +It runs in my mind that I have seen the like before; as it were in a dream, or in +the dream of a dream.” + +“Sir,” answered they all, “it is even so with us also.” + +“And more,” said Queen Lucy, “for it will not go out of my mind that if we +pass this post and lantern either we shall find strange adventures or else some +great change of our fortunes.” + +“Madam,” said King Edmund, “the like foreboding stirreth in my heart also.” + +“And in mine, fair brother,” said King Peter. + +“And in mine too,” said Queen Susan. “Wherefore by my counsel we shall +lightly return to our horses and follow this White Stag no further.” + +“Madam,” said King Peter, “therein I pray thee to have me excused. For +never since we four were Kings and Queens in Narnia have we set our hands to +any high matter, as battles, quests, feats of arms, acts of justice, and the like, and +then given over; but always what we have taken in hand, the same we have +achieved.” + +“Sister,” said Queen Lucy, “my royal brother speaks rightly. And it seems to +me we should be shamed if for any fearing or foreboding we turned back from + + + +following so noble a beast as now we have in chase.” + +“And so say I,” said King Edmund. “And I have such desire to find the +signification of this thing that I would not by my good will turn back for the +richest jewel in all Narnia and all the islands.” + +“Then in the name of Aslan,” said Queen Susan, “if ye will all have it so, let +us go on and take the adventure that shall fall to us.” + +So these Kings and Queens entered the thicket, and before they had gone a +score of paces they all remembered that the thing they had seen was called a +lamppost, and before they had gone twenty more they noticed that they were, +making their way not through branches but through coats. And next moment +they all came tumbling out of a wardrobe door into the empty room, and They +were no longer Kings and Queens in their hunting array but just Peter, Susan, +Edmund and Lucy in their old clothes. It was the same day and the same hour of +the day on which they had all gone into the wardrobe to hide. Mrs Macready and +the visitors were still talking in the passage; but luckily they never came into the +empty room and so the children weren’t caught. + +And that would have been the very end of the story if it hadn’t been that they +felt they really must explain to the Professor why four of the coats out of his +wardrobe were missing. And the Professor, who was a very remarkable man, +didn’t tell them not to be silly or not to tell lies, but believed the whole story. +“No,” he said, “I don’t think it will be any good trying to go back through the +wardrobe door to get the coats. You won’t get into Narnia again by that +route. Nor would the coats be much use by now if you did! + +Eh? What’s that? Yes, of course you’ll get back to Narnia +again some day. Once a King in Narnia, always a King in +Narnia. But don’t go trying to use the same route twice. + +Indeed, don’t try to get there at all. It’ll happen when +you’re not looking for it. And don’t talk too much about it +even among yourselves. And don’t mention it to anyone else +unless you find that they’ve + +had adventures of the same sort themselves. What’s that? How +will you know? Oh, you’ll know all right. Odd things they +say - even their looks - will let the secret out. Keep your +eyes open. Bless me, what do they teach them at these +schools? + +And that is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. + +But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of +the adventures of Narnia. + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + +CHAPTER ONE + + +THE ISLAND + +ONCE there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, +and Lucy, and it has been told in another book called The Lion, the Witch and +the Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure. They had opened the door +of a magic wardrobe and found themselves in a quite different world from ours, +and in that different world they had become Kings and Queens in a country +called Narnia. While they were in Narnia they seemed to reign for years and +years; but when they came back through the door and found themselves in +England again, it all seemed to have taken no time at all. At any rate, no one +noticed that they had ever been away, and they never told anyone except one +very wise grown-up. + +That had all happened a year ago, and now all four of them were sitting on a +seat at a railway station with trunks and playboxes piled up round them. They +were, in fact, on their way back to school. They had travelled together as far as +this station, which was a junction; and here, in a few minutes, one train would +arrive and take the girls away to one school, and in about half an hour another +train would arrive and the boys would go off to another school. The first part of +the journey, when they were all together, always seemed to be part of the +holidays; but now when they would be saying good-bye and going different +ways so soon, everyone felt that the holidays were really over and everyone felt +their term-time feelings beginning again, and they were all rather gloomy and no +one could think of anything to say. Lucy was going to boarding school for the +first time. + +It was an empty, sleepy, country station and there was hardly anyone on the +platform except themselves. Suddenly Lucy gave a sharp little cry, like someone +who has been stung by a wasp. + +“What’s up, Lu?” said Edmund - and then suddenly broke off and made a +noise like “Ow!” + +“What on earth-“,began Peter, and then he too suddenly changed what he had +been going to say. Instead, he said, “Susan, let go! What are you doing? Where +are you dragging me to?” + +“I’m not touching you,” said Susan. “Someone is pulling me. Oh - oh -oh - +stop it!” + +Everyone noticed that all the others’ faces had gone very white. + +“I felt just the same,” said Edmund in a breathless voice. “As if I were being + + + +dragged along. A most frightful pulling-ugh! it’s beginning again.” + +“Me too,” said Lucy. “Oh, I can’t bear it.” + +“Look sharp!” shouted Edmund. “All catch hands and keep together. This is +magic -1 can tell by the feeling. Quick!” + +“Yes,” said Susan. “Hold hands. Oh, I do wish it would stop-oh!” + +Next moment the luggage, the seat, the platform, and the station had +completely vanished. The four children, holding hands and panting, found +themselves standing in a woody place - such a woody place that branches were +sticking into them and there was hardly room to move. They all rubbed their +eyes and took a deep breath. + +“Oh, Peter!” exclaimed Lucy. “Do you think we can possibly have got back +to Narnia?” + +“It might be anywhere,” said Peter. “I can’t see a yard in all these trees. Let’s +try to get into the open - if there is any open.” + +With some difficulty, and with some stings from nettles and pricks from +thorns, they struggled out of the thicket. Then they had another surprise. +Everything became much brighter, and after a few steps they found themselves +at the edge of the wood, looking down on a sandy beach. A few yards away a +very calm sea was falling on the sand with such tiny ripples that it made hardly +any sound. There was no land in sight and no clouds in the sky. The sun was +about where it ought to be at ten o’clock in the morning, and the sea was a +dazzling blue. They stood sniffing in the sea-smell. + +“By Jove!” said Peter. “This is good enough.” + +Five minutes later everyone was barefooted and wading in the cool clear +water. + +“This is better than being in a stuffy train on the way back to Latin and +French and Algebra!” said Edmund. And then for quite a long time there was no +more talking, only splashing and looking for shrimps and crabs. + +“All the same,” said Susan presently, “I suppose we’ll have to make some +plans. We shall want something to eat before long.” + +“We’ve got the sandwiches Mother gave us for the journey,” said Edmund. +“At least I’ve got mine.” + +“Not me,” said Lucy. “Mine were in my little bag.” + +“So were mine,” said Susan. + +“Mine are in my coat-pocket, there on the beach,” said Peter. “That’ll be two +lunches among four. This isn’t going to be such fun.” + +“At present,” said Lucy, “I want something to drink more than something to +eat.” + +Everyone else now felt thirsty, as one usually is after wading in salt water + + + +under a hot sun. + +“It’s like being shipwrecked,” remarked Edmund. “In the books they always +find springs of clear, fresh water on the island. We’d better go and look for +them.” + +“Does that mean we have to go back into all that thick wood?” said Susan. + +“Not a bit of it,” said Peter. “If there are streams they’re bound to come +down to the sea, and if we walk along the beach we’re bound to come to them.” + +They all now waded back and went first across the smooth, wet sand and +then up to the dry, crumbly sand that sticks to one’s toes, and began putting on +their shoes and socks. Edmund and Lucy wanted to leave them behind and do +their exploring with bare feet, but Susan said this would be a mad thing to do. +“We might never find them again,” she pointed out, “and we shall want them if +we’re still here when night comes and it begins to be cold.” + +When they were dressed again they set out along the shore with the sea on +their left hand and the wood on their right. Except for an occasional seagull it +was a very quiet place. The wood was so thick and tangled that they could hardly +see into it at all; and nothing in it moved - not a bird, not even an insect. + +Shells and seaweed and anemones, or tiny crabs in rockpools, are all very +well, but you soon get tired of them if you are thirsty. The children’s feet, after +the change from the cool water, felt hot and heavy. Susan and Lucy had raincoats +to carry. Edmund had put down his coat on the station seat just before the magic +overtook them, and he and Peter took it in turns to carry Peter’s great-coat. + +Presently the shore began to curve round to the right. About quarter of an +hour later, after they had crossed a rocky ridge which ran out into a point, it +made quite a sharp turn. Their backs were now to the part of the sea which had +met them when they first came out of the wood, and now, looking ahead, they +could see across the water another shore, thickly wooded like the one they were +exploring. + +“I wonder, is that an island or do we join on to it presently?” said Lucy. + +“Don’t know,” said Peter and they all plodded on in silence. + +The shore that they were walking on drew nearer and nearer to the opposite +shore, and as they came round each promontory the children expected to find the +place where the two joined. But in this they were disappointed. They came to +some rocks which they had to climb and from the top they could see a fairway +ahead and - “Oh bother!” said Edmund, “it’s no good. We shan’t be able to get to +those other woods at all. We’re on an island!” + +It was true. At this point the channel between them and the opposite coast +was only about thirty or forty yards wide; but they could now see that this was +its narrowest place. After that, their own coast bent round to the right again and + + + +they could see open sea between it and the mainland. It was obvious that they +had already come much more than halfway round the island. + +“Look!” said Lucy suddenly. “What’s that?” She pointed to a long, silvery, +snake-like thing that lay across the beach. + +“A stream! A stream!” shouted the others, and, tired as they were, they lost +no time in clattering down the rocks and racing to the fresh water. They knew +that the stream would be better to drink farther up, away from the beach, so they +went at once to the spot where it came out of the wood. The trees were as thick +as ever, but the stream had made itself a deep course between high mossy banks +so that by stooping you could follow it up in a sort of tunnel of leaves. They +dropped on their knees by the first brown, dimply pool and drank and drank, and +dipped their faces in the water, and then dipped their arms in up to the elbow. + +“Now,” said Edmund, “what about those sandwiches?” + +“Oh, hadn’t we better have them?” said Susan. “We may need them far +worse later on.” + +“I do wish,” said Lucy, “now that we’re not thirsty, we could go on feeling as +not-hungry as we did when we were thirsty.” + +“But what about those sandwiches?” repeated Edmund. “There’s no good +saving them till they go bad. You’ve got to remember it’s a good deal hotter here +than in England and we’ve been carrying them about in pockets for hours.” So +they got out the two packets and divided them into four portions, and nobody +had quite enough, but it was a great deal better than nothing. Then they talked +about their plans for the next meal. Lucy wanted to go back to the sea and catch +shrimps, until someone pointed out that they had no nets. Edmund said they +must gather gulls’ eggs from the rocks, but when they came to think of it they +couldn’t remember having seen any gulls’ eggs and wouldn’t be able to cook +them if they found any. Peter thought to himself that unless they had some stroke +of luck they would soon be glad to eat eggs raw, but he didn’t see any point in +saying this out loud. Susan said it was a pity they had eaten the sandwiches so +soon. One or two tempers very nearly got lost at this stage. Finally Edmund said: + +“Look here. There’s only one thing to be done. We must explore the wood. +Hermits and knights-errant and people like that always manage to live somehow +if they’re in a forest. They find roots and berries and things.” + +“What sort of roots?” asked Susan. + +“I always thought it meant roots of trees,” said Lucy. + +“Come on,” said Peter, “Ed is right. And we must try to do something. And +it’ll be better than going out into the glare and the sun again.” + +So they all got up and began to follow the stream. It was very hard work. +They had to stoop under branches and climb over branches, and they blundered + + + +through great masses of stuff like rhododendrons and tore their clothes and got +their feet wet in the stream; and still there was no noise at all except the noise of +the stream and the noises they were making themselves. They were beginning to +get very tired of it when they noticed a delicious smell, and then a flash of bright +colour high above them at the top of the right bank. + +“I say!” exclaimed Lucy. “I do believe that’s an apple tree.” + +It was. They panted up the steep bank, forced their way through some +brambles, and found themselves standing round an old tree that was heavy with +large yellowishgolden apples as firm and juicy as you could wish to see. + +“And this is not the only tree,” said Edmund with his mouth full of apple. +“Look there-and there.” + +“Why, there are dozens of them,” said Susan, throwing away the core of her +first apple and picking her second. “This must have been an orchard - long, long +ago, before the place went wild and the wood grew up.” + +“Then this was once an inhabited island,” said Peter. + +“And what’s that?” said Lucy, pointing ahead. + +“By Jove, it’s a wall,” said Peter. “An old stone wall.” + +Pressing their way between the laden branches they reached the wall. It was +very old, and broken down in places, with moss and wallflowers growing on it, +but it was higher than all but the tallest trees. And when they came quite close to +it they found a great arch which must once have had a gate in it but was now +almost filled up with the largest of all the apple trees. They had to break some of +the branches to get past, and when they had done so they all blinked because the +daylight became suddenly much brighter. They found themselves in a wide open +place with walls all round it. In here there were no trees, only level grass and +daisies, and ivy, and grey walls. It was a bright, secret, quiet place, and rather +sad; and all four stepped out into the middle of it, glad to be able to straighten +their backs and move their limbs freely. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +THE ANCIENT TREASURE HOUSE + +“THIS wasn’t a garden,” said Susan presently. “It was a castle and this must +have been the courtyard.” + +“I see what you mean,” said Peter. “Yes. That is the remains of a tower. And +there is what used to be a flight of steps going up to the top of the walls. And +look at those other steps - the broad, shallow ones - going up to that doorway. It +must have been the door into the great hall.” + +“Ages ago, by the look of it,” said Edmund. + +“Yes, ages ago,” said Peter. “I wish we could find out who the people were +that lived in this castle; and how long ago.” + +“It gives me a queer feeling,” said Lucy. + +“Does it, Lu?” said Peter, turning and looking hard at her. “Because it does +the same to me. It is the queerest thing that has happened this queer day. I +wonder where we are and what it all means?” + +While they were talking they had crossed the courtyard and gone through the +other doorway into what had once been the hall. This was now very like the +courtyard, for the roof had long since disappeared and it was merely another +space of grass and daisies, except that it was shorter and narrower and the walls +were higher. Across the far end there was a kind of terrace about three feet +higher than the rest. + +“I wonder, was it really the hall?” said Susan. “What is that terrace kind of +thing?” + +“Why, you silly,” said Peter (who had become strangely excited), “don’t you +see? That was the dais where the High Table was, where the King and the great +lords sat. Anyone would think you had forgotten that we ourselves were once +Kings and Queens and sat on a dais just like that, in our great hall.” + +“In our castle of Cair Paravel,” continued Susan in a dreamy and rather sing¬ +song voice, “at the mouth of the great river of Narnia. How could I forget?” + +“How it all comes back!” said Lucy. “We could pretend we were in Cair +Paravel now. This hall must have been very like the great hall we feasted in.” + +“But unfortunately without the feast,” said Edmund. “It’s getting late, you +know. Look how long the shadows are. And have you noticed that it isn’t so +hot?” + +“We shall need a camp-fire if we’ve got to spend the night here,” said Peter. +“I’ve got matches. Let’s go and see if we can collect some dry wood.” + + + +Everyone saw the sense of this, and for the next halfhour they were busy. +The orchard through which they had first come into the ruins turned out not to be +a good place for firewood. They tried the other side of the castle, passing out of +the hall by a little side door into a maze of stony humps and hollows which must +once have been passages and smaller rooms but was now all nettles and wild +roses. Beyond this they found a wide gap in the castle wall and stepped through +it into a wood of darker and bigger trees where they found dead branches and +rotten wood and sticks and dry leaves and fir-cones in plenty. They went to and +fro with bundles until they had a good pile on the dais. At the fifth journey they +found the well, just outside the hall, hidden in weeds, but clean and fresh and +deep when they had cleared these away. + +The remains of a stone pavement ran half-way round it. Then the girls went +out to pick some more apples and the boys built the fire, on the dais and fairly +close to the corner between two walls, which they thought would be the snuggest +and warmest place. They had great difficulty in lighting it and used a lot of +matches, but they succeeded in the end. Finally, all four sat down with their +backs to the wall and their faces to the fire. They tried roasting some of the +apples on the ends of sticks. But roast apples are not much good without sugar, +and they are too hot to eat with your fingers till they are too cold to be worth +eating. So they had to content themselves with raw apples, which, as Edmund +said, made one realize that school suppers weren’t so bad after all - “I shouldn’t +mind a good thick slice of bread and margarine this minute,” he added. But the +spirit of adventure was rising in them all, and no one really wanted to be back at +school. + +Shortly after the last apple had been eaten, Susan went out to the well to get +another drink. When she came back she was carrying something in her hand. + +“Look,” she said in a rather choking kind of voice. “I found it by the well.” +She handed it to Peter and sat down. The others thought she looked and sounded +as if she might be going to cry. Edmund and Lucy eagerly bent forward to see +what was in Peter’s hand - a little, bright thing that gleamed in the firelight. + +“Well, I’m - I’m jiggered,” said Peter, and his voice also sounded queer. +Then he handed it to the others. + +All now saw what it was - a little chess-knight, ordinary in size but +extraordinarily heavy because it was made of pure gold; and the eyes in the +horse’s head were two tiny little rubies or rather one was, for the other had been +knocked out. + +“Why!” said Lucy, “it’s exactly like one of the golden chessmen we used to +play with when we were Kings and Queens at Cair Paravel.” + +“Cheer up, Su,” said Peter to his other sister. + + + +“I can’t help it,” said Susan. “It brought back - oh, such lovely times. And I +remembered playing chess with fauns and good giants, and the mer-people +singing in the sea, and my beautiful horse - and - and + +“Now,” said Peter in a quite different voice, “it’s about time we four started +using our brains.” + +“What about?” asked Edmund. + +“Have none of you guessed where we are?” said Peter. + +“Go on, go on,” said Lucy. “I’ve felt for hours that there was some wonderful +mystery hanging over this place.” + +“Fire ahead, Peter,” said Edmund. “We’re all listening.” + +“We are in the ruins of Cair Paravel itself,” said Peter. + +“But, I say,” replied Edmund. “I mean, how do you make that out? This +place has been ruined for ages. Look at all those big trees growing right up to the +gates. Look at the very stones. Anyone can see that nobody has lived here for +hundreds of years.” + +“I know,” said Peter. “That is the difficulty. But let’s leave that out for the +moment. I want to take the points one by one. First point: this hall is exactly the +same shape and size as the hall at Cair Paravel. Just picture a roof on this, and a +coloured pavement instead of grass, and tapestries on the walls, and you get our +royal banqueting hall.” + +No one said anything. + +“Second point,” continued Peter. “The castle well is exactly where our well +was, a little to the south of the great hall; and it is exactly the same size and +shape.” + +Again there was no reply. + +“Third point: Susan has just found one of our old chessmen - or something as +like one of them as two peas.” + +Still nobody answered. + +“Fourth point. Don’t you remember - it was the very day before the +ambassadors came from the King of Calormen don’t you remember planting the +orchard outside the north gate of Cair Paravel? The greatest of all the wood- +people, Pomona herself, came to put good spells on it. It was those very decent +little chaps the moles who did the actual digging. Can you have forgotten that +funny old Lilygloves, the chief mole, leaning on his spade and saying, 'Believe +me, your Majesty, you’ll be glad of these fruit trees one day.’ And by Jove he +was right.” + +“I do! I do!” said Lucy, and clapped her hands. + +“But look here, Peter,” said Edmund. “This must be all rot. To begin with, +we didn’t plant the orchard slap up against the gate. We wouldn’t have been such + + + +fools.” + +“No, of course not,” said Peter. “But it has grown up to the gate since.” + +“And for another thing,” said Edmund, “Cair Paravel wasn’t on an island.” + +“Yes, I’ve been wondering about that. But it was a what-do-you-call-it, a +peninsula. Jolly nearly an island. Couldn’t it have been made an island since our +time? Somebody has dug a channel.” + +“But half a moment!” said Edmund. “You keep on saying since our time. But +it’s only a year ago since we came back from Narnia. And you want to make out +that in one year castles have fallen down, and great forests have grown up, and +little trees we saw planted ourselves have turned into a big old orchard, and +goodness knows what else. It’s all impossible.” + +“There’s one thing,” said Lucy. “If this is Cair Paravel there ought to be a +door at this end of the dais. In fact we ought to be sitting with our backs against +it at this moment. You know - the door that led down to the treasure chamber.” + +“I suppose there isn’t a door,” said Peter, getting up. + +The wall behind them was a mass of ivy. + +“We can soon find out,” said Edmund, taking up one of the sticks that they +had laid ready for putting on the fire. He began beating the ivied wall. Tap-tap +went the stick against the stone; and again, tap-tap; and then, all at once, +boomboom, with a quite different sound, a hollow, wooden sound. + +“Great Scott!” said Edmund. + +“We must clear this ivy away,” said Peter. + +“Oh, do let’s leave it alone,” said Susan. “We can try it in the morning. If +we’ve got to spend the night here I don’t want an open door at my back and a +great big black hole that anything might come out of, besides the draught and the +damp. And it’ll soon be dark.” + +“Susan! How can you?” said Lucy with a reproachful glance. But both the +boys were too much excited to take any notice of Susan’s advice. They worked +at the ivy with their hands and with Peter’s pocket-knife till the knife broke. +After that they used Edmund’s. Soon the whole place where they had been +sitting was covered with ivy; and at last they had the door cleared. + +“Locked, of course,” said Peter. + +“But the wood’s all rotten,” said Edmund. “We can pull it to bits in no time, +and it will make extra firewood. Come on.” + +It took them longer than they expected and, before they had done, the great +hall had grown dusky and the first star or two had come out overhead. Susan was +not the only one who felt a slight shudder as the boys stood above the pile of +splintered wood, rubbing the dirt off their hands and staring into the cold, dark +opening they had made. + + + +“Now for a torch,” said Peter. + +“Oh, what is the good?” said Susan. “And as Edmund said -“ + +“I’m not saying it now,” Edmund interrupted. “I still don’t understand, but +we can settle that later. I suppose you’re coming down, Peter?” + +“We must,” said Peter. “Cheer up, Susan. It’s no good behaving like kids +now that we are back in Narnia. + +You’re a Queen here. And anyway no one could go to sleep with a mystery +like this on their minds.” + +They tried to use long sticks as torches but this was not a success. If you held +them with the lighted end up they went out, and if you held them the other way +they scorched your hand and the smoke got in your eyes. In the end they had to +use Edmund’s electric torch; luckily it had been a birthday present less than a +week ago and the battery was almost new. He went first, with the light. Then +came Lucy, then Susan, and Peter brought up the rear. + +“I’ve come to the top of the steps,” said Edmund. + +“Count them,” said Peter. + +“One - two - three,” said Edmund, as he went cautiously down, and so up to +sixteen. “And this is the bottom,” he shouted back. + +“Then it really must be Cair Paravel,” said Lucy. “There were sixteen.” +Nothing more was said till all four were standing in a knot together at the foot of +the stairway. Then Edmund flashed his torch slowly round. + +“O - o - o - oh!!” said all the children at once. + +For now all knew that it was indeed the ancient treasure chamber of Cair +Paravel where they had once reigned as Kings and Queens of Narnia. There was +a kind of path up the middle (as it might be in a greenhouse), and along each side +at intervals stood rich suits of armour, like knights guarding the treasures. In +between the suits of armour, and on each side of the path, were shelves covered +with precious things - necklaces and arm rings and finger rings and golden bowls +and dishes and long tusks of ivory, brooches and coronets and chains of gold, +and heaps of unset stones lying piled anyhow as if they were marbles or potatoes +- diamonds, rubies, carbuncles, emeralds, topazes, and amethysts. Under the +shelves stood great chests of oak strengthened with iron bars and heavily +padlocked. And it was bitterly cold, and so still that they could hear themselves +breathing, and the treasures were so covered with dust that unless they had +realized where they were and remembered most of the things, they would hardly +have known they were treasures. There was something sad and a little +frightening about the place, because it all seemed so forsaken and long ago. That +was why nobody said anything for at least a minute. + +Then, of course, they began walking about and picking things up to look at. + + + +It was like meeting very old friends. If you had been there you would have heard +them saying things like, “Oh look! Our coronation rings - do you remember first +wearing this? - Why, this is the little brooch we all thought was lost -1 say, isn’t +that the armour you wore in the great tournament in the Lone Islands? - do you +remember the dwarf making that for me? - do you remember drinking out of that +horn? - do you remember, do you remember?” + +But suddenly Edmund said, “Look here. We mustn’t waste the battery: +goodness knows how often we shall need it. Hadn’t we better take what we want +and get out again?” + +“We must take the gifts,” said Peter. For long ago at a Christmas in Narnia he +and Susan and Lucy had been given certain presents which they valued more +than their whole kingdom. Edmund had had no gift, because he was not with +them at the time. (This was his own fault, and you can read about it in the other +book.) + +They all agreed with Peter and walked up the path to the wall at the far end +of the treasure chamber, and there, sure enough, the gifts were still hanging. +Lucy’s was the smallest for it was only a little bottle. But the bottle was made of +diamond instead of glass, and it was still more than half full of the magical +cordial which would heal almost every wound and every illness. Lucy said +nothing and looked very solemn as she took her gift down from its place and +slung the belt over her shoulder and once more felt the bottle at her side where it +used to hang in the old days. Susan’s gift had been a bow and arrows and a horn. +The bow was still there, and the ivory quiver, full of wellfeathered arrows, but - +“Oh, Susan,” said Lucy. “Where’s the horn?” + +“Oh bother, bother, bother,” said Susan after she had thought for a moment. +“I remember now. I took it with me the last day of all, the day we went hunting +the White Stag. It must have got lost when we blundered back into that other +place - England, I mean.” + +Edmund whistled. It was indeed a shattering loss; for this was an enchanted +horn and, whenever you blew it, help was certain to come to you, wherever you +were. + +“Just the sort of thing that might come in handy in a place like this,” said +Edmund. + +“Never mind,” said Susan, “I’ve still got the bow.” And she took it. + +“Won’t the string be perished, Su?” said Peter. + +But whether by some magic in the air of the treasure chamber or not, the bow +was still in working order. Archery and swimming were the things Susan was +good at. In a moment she had bent the bow and then she gave one little pluck to +the string. It twanged: a chirruping twang that vibrated through the whole room. + + + +And that one small noise brought back the old days to the children’s minds more +than anything that had happened yet. All the battles and hunts and feasts came +mshing into their heads together. + +Then she unstrung the bow again and slung the quiver at her side. + +Next, Peter took down his gift - the shield with the great red lion on it, and +the royal sword. He blew, and rapped them on the floor, to get off the dust. He +fitted the shield on his arm and slung the sword by his side. He was afraid at first +that it might be rusty and stick to the sheath. But it was not so. With one swift +motion he drew it and held it up, shining in the torchlight. + +“It is my sword Rhindon,” he said; “with it I killed the Wolf.” There was a +new tone in his voice, and the others all felt that he was really Peter the High +King again. Then, after a little pause, everyone remembered that they must save +the battery. + +They climbed the stair again and made up a good fire and lay down close +together for warmth. The ground was very hard and uncomfortable, but they fell +asleep in the end. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +THE DWARF + +THE worst of sleeping out of doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early. +And when you wake you have to get up because the ground is so hard that you +are uncomfortable. And it makes matters worse if there is nothing but apples for +breakfast and you have had nothing but apples for supper the night before. When +Lucy had said - truly enough that it was a glorious morning, there did not seem +to be anything else nice to be said. Edmund said what everyone was feeling, +“We’ve simply got to get off this island.” + +When they had drunk from the well and splashed their faces they all went +down the stream again to the shore and stared at the channel which divided them +from the mainland. + +“We’ll have to swim,” said Edmund. + +“It would be all right for Su,” said Peter (Susan had won prizes for +swimming at school). “But I don’t know about the rest of us.” By “the rest of us” +he really meant Edmund who couldn’t yet do two lengths at the school baths, +and Lucy, who could hardly swim at all. + +“Anyway,” said Susan, “there may be currents. Father says it’s never wise to +bathe in a place you don’t know.” + +“But, Peter,” said Lucy, “look here. I know I can’t swim for nuts at home - in +England, I mean. But couldn’t we all swim long ago - if it was long ago - when +we were Kings and Queens in Narnia? We could ride then too, and do all sorts of +things. Don’t you think -?” + +“Ah, but we were sort of grown-up then,” said Peter. + +“We reigned for years and years and learned to do things. Aren’t we just +back at our proper ages again now?” + +“Oh!” said Edmund in a voice which made everyone stop talking and listen +to him. + +“I’ve just seen it all,” he said. + +“Seen what?” asked Peter. + +“Why, the whole thing,” said Edmund. “You know what we were puzzling +about last night, that it was only a year ago since we left Narnia but everything +looks as if no one had lived in Cair Paravel for hundreds of years? Well, don’t +you see? You know that, however long we seemed to have lived in Narnia, when +we got back through the wardrobe it seemed to have taken no time at all?” + +“Go on,” said Susan. “I think I’m beginning to understand.” + + + +“And that means,” continued Edmund, “that, once you’re out of Narnia, you +have no idea how Narnian time is going. Why shouldn’t hundreds of years have +gone past in Narnia while only one year has passed for us in England?” + +“By Jove, Ed,” said Peter. “I believe you’ve got it. In that sense it really was +hundreds of years ago that we lived in Cair Paravel. And now we’re coming +back to Narnia just as if we were Crusaders or Anglo-Saxons or Ancient Britons +or someone coming back to modern England?” + +“How excited they’ll be to see us began Lucy, but at the same moment +everyone else said, “Hush!” or “Look!” For now something was happening. + +There was a wooded point on the mainland a little to their right, and they all +felt sure that just beyond that point must be the mouth of the river. And now, +round that point there came into sight a boat. When it had cleared the point, it +turned and began coming along the channel towards them. There were two +people on board, one rowing, the other sitting in the stern and holding a bundle +that twitched and moved as if it were alive. Both these people seemed to be +soldiers. They had steel caps on their heads and light shirts of chain-mail. Their +faces were bearded and hard. The children drew back from the beach into the +wood and watched without moving a finger. + +“This’ll do,” said the soldier in the stern when the boat had come about +opposite to them. + +“What about tying a stone to his feet, Corporal?” said the other, resting on +his oars. + +“Garn!” growled the other. “We don’t need that, and we haven’t brought one. +He’ll drown sure enough without a stone, as long as we’ve tied the cords right.” +With these words he rose and lifted his bundle. Peter now saw that it was really +alive and was in fact a Dwarf, bound hand and foot but struggling as hard as he +could. Next moment he heard a twang just beside his ear, and all at once the +soldier threw up his arms, dropping the Dwarf into the bottom of the boat, and +fell over into the water. He floundered away to the far bank and Peter knew that +Susan’s arrow had struck on his helmet. He turned and saw that she was very +pale but was already fitting a second arrow to the string. But it was never used. +As soon as he saw his companion fall, the other soldier, with a loud cry, jumped +out of the boat on the far side, and lie also floundered through the water (which +was apparently just in his depth) and disappeared into the woods of the +mainland. + +“Quick! Before she drifts!” shouted Peter. He and Susan, fully dressed as +they were, plunged in, and before the water was up to their shoulders their hands +were on the side of the boat. In a few seconds they had hauled her to the bank +and lifted the Dwarf out, and Edmund was busily engaged in cutting his bonds + + + +with the pocket knife. (Peter’s sword would have been sharper, but a sword is +very inconvenient for this sort of work because you can’t hold it anywhere lower +than the hilt.) When at last the Dwarf was free, he sat up, rubbed his arms and +legs, and exclaimed: + +“Well, whatever they say, you don’t feel like ghosts.” + +Like most Dwarfs he was very stocky and deep-chested. He would have been +about three feet high if he had been standing up, and an immense beard and +whiskers of coarse red hair left little of his face to be seen except a beak-like +nose and twinkling black eyes. + +“Anyway,” he continued, “ghosts or not, you’ve saved my life and I’m +extremely obliged to you.” + +“But why should we be ghosts?” asked Lucy. + +“I’ve been told all my life,” said the Dwarf, “that these woods along the +shore were as full of ghosts as they were of trees. That’s what the story is. And +that’s why, when they want to get rid of anyone, they usually bring him down +here (like they were doing with me) and say they’ll leave him to the ghosts. But I +always wondered if they didn’t really drown 'em or cut their throats. I never +quite believed in the ghosts. But those two cowards you’ve just shot believed all +right. They were more frightened of taking me to my death than I was of going!” + +“Oh,” said Susan. “So that’s why they both ran away.” + +“Eh? What’s that?” said the Dwarf. + +“They got away,” said Edmund. “To the mainland.” + +“I wasn’t shooting to kill, you know,” said Susan. She would not have liked +anyone to think she could miss at such a short range. + +“Hm,” said the Dwarf. “That’s not so good. That may mean trouble later on. +Unless they hold their tongues for their own sake.” + +“What were they going to drown you for?” asked Peter. + +“Oh, I’m a dangerous criminal, I am,” said the Dwarf cheerfully. “But that’s +a long story. Meantime, I was wondering if perhaps you were going to ask me to +breakfast? You’ve no idea what an appetite it gives one, being executed.” + +“There’s only apples,” said Lucy dolefully. + +“Better than nothing, but not so good as fresh fish,” said the Dwarf. “It looks +as if I’ll have to ask you to breakfast instead. I saw some fishing tackle in that +boat. And anyway, we must take her round to the other side of the island. We +don’t want anyone from the mainland coming down and seeing her.” + +“I ought to have thought of that myself,” said Peter. + +The four children and the Dwarf went down to the water’s edge, pushed off +the boat with some difficulty, and scrambled aboard. The Dwarf at once took +charge. The oars were of course too big for him to use, so Peter rowed and the + + + +Dwarf steered them north along the channel and presently eastward round the tip +of the island. From here the children could see right up the river, and all the bays +and headlands of the coast beyond it. They thought they could recognize bits of +it, but the woods, which had grown up since their time, made everything look +very different. + +When they had come round into open sea on the east of the island, the Dwarf +took to fishing. They had an excellent catch of pavenders, a beautiful rainbow- +coloured fish which they all remembered eating in Cair Paravel in the old days. +When they had caught enough they ran the boat up into a little creek and moored +her to a tree. The Dwarf, who was a most capable person (and, indeed, though +one meets bad Dwarfs, I never heard of a Dwarf who was a fool), cut the fish +open, cleaned them, and said: + +“Now, what we want next is some firewood.” + +“We’ve got some up at the castle,” said Edmund. + +The Dwarf gave a low whistle. “Beards and bedsteads!” he said. “So there +really is a castle, after all?” + +“It’s only a ruin,” said Lucy. + +The Dwarf stared round at all four of them with a very curious expression on +his face. “And who on earth - ?” he began, but then broke off and said, “No +matter. Breakfast first. But one thing before we go on. Can you lay your hand on +your hearts and tell me I’m really alive? Are you sure I wasn’t drowned and +we’re not all ghosts together?” + +When they had all reassured him, the next question was how to carry the +fish. They had nothing to string them on and no basket. They had to use +Edmund’s hat in the end because no one else had a hat. He would have made +much more fuss about this if he had not by now been so ravenously hungry. + +At first the Dwarf did not seem very comfortable in the castle. He kept +looking round and sniffing and saying, “H’m. Looks a bit spooky after all. +Smells like ghosts, too.” But he cheered up when it came to lighting the fire and +showing them how to roast the fresh pavenders in the embers. Eating hot fish +with no forks, and one pocket knife between five people, is a messy business and +there were several burnt fingers before the meal was ended; but, as it was now +nine o’clock and they had been up since five, nobody minded the burns so much +as you might have expected. When everyone had finished off with a drink from +the well and an apple or so, the Dwarf produced a pipe about the size of his own +arm, filled it, lit it, blew a great cloud of fragrant smoke, and said, “Now.” + +“You tell us your story first,” said Peter. “And then we’ll tell you ours.” + +“Well,” said the Dwarf, “as you’ve saved my life it is only fair you should +have your own way. But I hardly know where to begin. First of all I’m a + + + +messenger of King Caspian’s.” + +“Who’s he?” asked four voices all at once. + +“Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia, and long may he reign!” answered the +Dwarf. “That is to say, he ought to be King of Narnia and we hope he will be. At +present he is only King of us Old Narnians - “ + +“What do you mean by old Narnians, please?” asked Lucy. + +“Why, that’s us,” said the Dwarf. “We’re a kind of rebellion, I suppose.” + +“I see,” said Peter. “And Caspian is the chief Old Narnian.” + +“Well, in a manner of speaking,” said the Dwarf, scratching his head. “But +he’s really a New Narnian himself, a Telmarine, if you follow me.” + +“I don’t,” said Edmund. + +“It’s worse than the Wars of the Roses,” said Lucy. + +“Oh dear,” said the Dwarf. “I’m doing this very badly. Look here: I think I’ll +have to go right back to the beginning and tell you how Caspian grew up in his +uncle’s court and how he comes to be on our side at all. But it’ll be a long story.” + +“All the better,” said Lucy. “We love stories.” + +So the Dwarf settled down and told his tale. I shall not give it to you in his +words, putting in all the children’s questions and interruptions, because it would +take too long and be confusing, and, even so, it would leave out some points that +the children only heard later. But the gist of the story, as they knew it in the end, +was as follows. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +THE DWARF TELLS OF PRINCE CASPIAN + +PRINCE CASPIAN lived in a great castle in the centre of Narnia with his +uncle, Miraz, the King of Narnia, and his aunt, who had red hair and was called +Queen Prunaprismia. His father and mother were dead and the person whom +Caspian loved best was his nurse, and though (being a prince) he had wonderful +toys which would do almost anything but talk, he liked best the last hour of the +day when the toys had all been put back in their cupboards and Nurse would tell +him stories. + +He did not care much for his uncle and aunt, but about twice a week his +uncle would send for him and they would walk up and down together for half an +hour on the terrace at the south side of the castle. One day, while they were +doing this, the King said to him, + +“Well, boy, we must soon teach you to ride and use a sword. You know that +your aunt and I have no children, so it looks as if you might have to be King +when I’m gone. How shall you like that, eh?” + +“I don’t know, Uncle,” said Caspian. + +“Don’t know, eh?” said Miraz. “Why, I should like to know what more +anyone could wish for!” + +“All the same, I do wish,” said Caspian. + +“What do you wish?” asked the King. + +“I wish - I wish - I wish I could have lived in the Old Days,” said Caspian. +(He was only a very little boy at the time.) + +Up till now King Miraz had been talking in the tiresome way that some +grown-ups have, which makes it quite clear that they are not really interested in +what you are saying, but now he suddenly gave Caspian a very sharp look. + +“Eh? What’s that?” he said. “What old days do you mean?” + +“Oh, don’t you know, Uncle?” said Caspian. “When everything was quite +different. When all the animals could talk, and there were nice people who lived +in the streams and the trees. Naiads and Dryads they were called. And there were +Dwarfs. And there were lovely little Fauns in all the woods. They had feet like +goats. And -“ + +“That’s all nonsense, for babies,” said the King sternly. “Only fit for babies, +do you hear? You’re getting too old for that sort of stuff. At your age you ought +to be thinking of battles and adventures, not fairy tales.” + +“Oh, but there were battles and adventures in those days,” said Caspian. + + + +“Wonderful adventures. Once there was a White Witch and she made herself +Queen of the whole country. And she made it so that it was always winter. And +then two boys and two girls came from somewhere and so they killed the Witch +and they were made Kings and Queens of Narnia, and their names were Peter +and Susan and Edmund and Lucy. And so they reigned for ever so long and +everyone had a lovely time, and it was all because of Aslan + +“Who’s he?” said Miraz. And if Caspian had been a very little older, the tone +of his uncle’s voice would have warned him that it would be wiser to shut up. +But he babbled on, + +“Oh, don’t you know?” he said. “Aslan is the great Lion who comes from +over the sea.” + +“Who has been telling you all this nonsense?” said the King in a voice of +thunder. Caspian was frightened and said nothing. + +“Your Royal Highness,” said King Miraz, letting go of Caspian’s hand, +which he had been holding till now, “I insist upon being answered. Look me in +the face. Who has been telling you this pack of lies?” + +“N - Nurse,” faltered Caspian, and burst into tears. + +“Stop that noise,” said his uncle, taking Caspian by the shoulders and giving +ham a shake. “Stop it. And never let me catch you talking - or thinking either - +about all those silly stories again. There never were those Kings and Queens. +How could there be two Kings at the same time? And there’s no such person as +Aslan. And there are no such things as lions. And there never was a time when +animals could talk. Do you hear?” + +“Yes, Uncle,” sobbed Caspian. + +“Then let’s have no more of it,” said the King. Then he called to one of the +gentlemen-in-waiting who were standing at the far end of the terrace and said in +a cold voice, “Conduct His Royal Highness to his apartments and send His +Royal Highness’s nurse to me AT ONCE.” + +Next day Caspian found what a terrible thing he had done, for Nurse had +been sent away without even being allowed to say good-bye to him, and he was +told he was to have a Tutor. + +Caspian missed his nurse very much and shed many tears; and because he +was so miserable, he thought about the old stories of Narnia far more than +before. He dreamed of Dwarfs and Dryads every night and tried very hard to +make the dogs and cats in the castle talk to him. But the dogs only wagged their +tails and the cats only purred. + +Caspian felt sure that he would hate the new Tutor, buy when the new Tutor +arrived about a week later he turns out to be the sort of person it is almost +impossible not to like. He was the smallest, and also the fattest, man Caspian had + + + +ever seen. He had a long, silvery, pointed beard which came down to his waist, +and his face, which was brown and covered with wrinkles, looked very wise, +very ugly, and very kind. His voice was grave and his eyes were merry so that, +until you got to know him really well, it was hard to know when he was joking +and when he was serious. His name was Doctor Cornelius. + +Of all his lessons with Doctor Cornelius the one that Caspian liked best was +History. Up till now, except for Nurse’s stories, he had known nothing about the +History of Narnia, and he was very surprised to learn that the royal family were +newcomers in the country. + +“It was your Highness’s ancestor, Caspian the First,” said Doctor Cornelius, +“who first conquered Narnia and made it his kingdom. It was he who brought all +your nation into the country. You are not native Narnians at all. You are all +Telmarines - that is, you all came from the Land of Telmar, far beyond the +Western Mountains. That is why Caspian the First is called Caspian the +Conqueror.” + +“Please, Doctor,” asked Caspian one day, “who lived in Narnia before we all +came here out of Telmar?” + +“No men - or very few - lived in Narnia before the Telmarines took it,” said +Doctor Cornelius. + +“Then who did my great-great-grandcesters conquer?” + +“Whom, not who, your Highness,” said Doctor Cornelius. “Perhaps it is time +to turn from History to Grammar.” + +“Oh please, not yet!” said Caspian. + +“I mean, wasn’t there a battle? Why is he called Caspian the Conqueror if +there was nobody to fight with him?” + +“I said there were very few men in Narnia,” said the Doctor, looking at the +little boy very strangely through his great spectacles. + +For a moment Caspian was puzzled and then suddenly his heart gave a leap. +“Do you mean,” he gasped, “that there were other things? Do you mean it was +like in the stories? Were there-?” + +“Hush!” said Doctor Cornelius, laying his head very close to Caspian’s. “Not +a word more. Don’t you know your Nurse was sent away for telling you about +Old Narnia? The King doesn’t like it. If he found me telling you secrets, you’d +be whipped and I should have my head cut off.” + +“But why?” asked Caspian. + +“It is high time we turned to Grammar now,” said Doctor Cornelius in a loud +voice. “Will your Royal Highness be pleased to open Pulverulentus Siccus at the +fourth page of his Grammatical garden or the Arbour of Accidence pleasantlie +open’d to Tender Wits?” + + + +After that it was all nouns and verbs till lunchtime, but I don’t think Caspian +learned much. He was too excited. He felt sure that Doctor Cornelius would not +have said so much unless he meant to tell him more sooner or later. + +In this he was not disappointed. A few days later his Tutor said, “Tonight I +am going to give you a lesson in Astronomy. At dead of night two noble planets, +Tarva and Alambil, will pass within one degree of each other. Such a conjunction +has not occurred for two hundred years, and your Highness will not live to see it +again. It will be best if you go to bed a little earlier than usual. When the time of +the conjunction draws near I will come and wake you.” + +This didn’t seem to have anything to do with Old Narnia, which was what +Caspian really wanted to hear about, but getting up in the middle of the night is +always interesting and he was moderately pleased. When he went to bed that +night, he thought at first that he would not be able to sleep; but he soon dropped +off and it seemed only a few minutes before he felt someone gently shaking him. + +He sat up in bed and saw that the room was full of moonlight. Doctor +Cornelius, muffled in a hooded robe and holding a small lamp in his hand, stood +by the bedside. + +Caspian remembered at once what they were going to do. He got up and put +on some clothes. Athough it was a summer night he felt colder than he had +expected and was quite glad when the Doctor wrapped him in a robe like his +own and gave him a pair of warm, soft buskins for his feet. A moment later, both +muffled so that they could hardly be seen in the dark corridors, and both shod so +that they made almost no noise, master and pupil left the room. + +Caspian followed the Doctor through many passages and up several +staircases, and at last, through a little door in a turret, they came out upon the +leads. On one side were the battlements, on the other a steep roof; below them, +all shadowy and shimmery, the castle gardens; above them, stars and moon. +Presently they came to another door, which led into the great central tower of the +whole castle: Doctor Cornelius unlocked it and they began to climb the dark +winding stair of the tower. Caspian was becoming excited; he had never been +allowed up this stair before. + +It was long and steep, but when they came out on the roof of the tower and +Caspian had got his breath, he felt that it had been well worth it. Away on his +right he could see, rather indistinctly, the Western Mountains. On his left was the +gleam of the Great River, and everything was so quiet that he could hear the +sound of the waterfall at Beaversdam, a mile away. There was no difficulty in +picking out the two stars they had come to see. They hung rather low in the +southern sky, almost as bright as two little moons and very close together. + +“Are they going to have a collision?” he asked in an awestruck voice. + + + +“Nay, dear Prince,” said the Doctor (and he too spoke in a whisper). “The +great lords of the upper sky know the steps of their dance too well for that. Look +well upon them. Their meeting is fortunate and means some great good for the +sad realm of Narnia. Tarva, the Lord of Victory, salutes Alambil, the Lady of +Peace. They are just coming to their nearest.” + +“It’s a pity that tree gets in the way,” said Caspian. “We’d really see better +from the West Tower, though it is not so high.” + +Doctor Cornelius said nothing for about two minutes, but stood still with his +eyes fixed on Tarva and Alambil. Then he drew a deep breath and turned to +Caspian. + +“There,” he said. “You have seen what no man now alive has seen, nor will +see again. And you are right. We should have seen it even better from the smaller +tower. I brought you here for another reason.” + +Caspian looked up at him, but the Doctor’s hood concealed most of his face. + +“The virtue of this tower,” said Doctor Cornelius, “is that we have six empty +rooms beneath us, and a long stair, and the door at the bottom of the stair is +locked. We cannot be overheard.” + +“Are you going to tell me what you wouldn’t tell me the other day?” said +Caspian. + +“I am,” said the Doctor. “But remember. You and I must never talk about +these things except here - on the very top of the Great Tower.” + +“No. That’s a promise,” said Caspian. “But do go on, please.” + +“Listen,” said the Doctor. “All you have heard about Old Narnia is true. It is +not the land of Men. It is the country of Aslan, the country of the Waking Trees +and Visible Naiads, of Fauns and Satyrs, of Dwarfs and Giants, of the gods and +the Centaurs, of Talking Beasts. It was against these that the first Caspian fought. +It is you Telmarines who silenced the beasts and the trees and the fountains, and +who killed and drove away the Dwarfs and Fauns, and are now trying to cover +up even the memory of them. The King does not allow them to be spoken of.” + +“Oh, I do wish we hadn’t,” said Caspian. “And I am glad it was all true, even +if it is all over.” + +“Many of your race wish that in secret,” said Doctor Cornelius. + +“But, Doctor,” said Caspian, “why do you say my race? After all, I suppose +you’re a Telmarine too.” + +“Am I?” said the Doctor. + +“Well, you’re a Man anyway,” said Caspian. + +“Am I?” repeated the Doctor in a deeper voice, at the same moment throwing +back his hood so that Caspian could see his face clearly in the moonlight. + +All at once Caspian realized the truth and felt that he ought to have realized + + + +it long before. Doctor Cornelius was so small, and so fat, and had such a very +long beard. Two thoughts came into his head at the same moment. One was a +thought of terror - “He’s not a real man, not a man at all, he’s a Dwarf, and he’s +brought me up here to kill me.” The other was sheer delight - “There are real +Dwarfs still, and I’ve seen one at last.” + +“So you’ve guessed it in the end,” said Doctor Cornelius. “Or guessed it +nearly right. I’m not a pure Dwarf. I have human blood in me too. Many Dwarfs +escaped in the great battles and lived on, shaving their beards and wearing +highheeled shoes and pretending to be men. They have mixed with your +Telmarines. I am one of those, only a halfDwarf, and if any of my kindred, the +true Dwarfs, are still alive anywhere in the world, doubtless they would despise +me and call me a traitor. But never in all these years have we forgotten our own +people and all the other happy creatures of Narnia, and the long-lost days of +freedom.” + +“I’m - I’m sorry, Doctor,” said Caspian. “It wasn’t my fault, you know.” + +“I am not saying these things in blame of you, dear Prince,” answered the +Doctor. “You may well ask why I say them at all. But I have two reasons. Firstly, +because my old heart has carried these secret memories so long that it aches with +them and would burst if I did not whisper them to you. But secondly, for this: +that when you become King you may help us, for I know that you also, +Telmarine though you are, love the Old Things.” + +“I do, I do,” said Caspian. “But how can I help?” + +“You can be kind to the poor remnants of the Dwarf people, like myself. You +can gather learned magicians and try to find a way of awaking the trees once +more. You can search through all the nooks and wild places of the land to see if +any Fauns or Talking Beasts or Dwarfs are perhaps still alive in hiding.” + +“Do you think there are any?” asked Caspian eagerly. + +“I don’t know -1 don’t know,” said the Doctor with a deep sigh. “Sometimes +I am afraid there can’t be. I have been looking for traces of them all my life. +Sometimes I have thought I heard a Dwarf-drum in the mountains. Sometimes at +night, in the woods, I thought I had caught a glimpse of Fauns and Satyrs +dancing a long way off; but when I came to the place, there was never anything +there. I have often despaired; but something always happens to start me hoping +again. I don’t know. But at least you can try to be a King like the High King +Peter of old, and not like your uncle.” + +“Then it’s true about the Kings and Queens too, and about the White Witch?” +said Caspian. + +“Certainly it is true,” said Cornelius. “Their reign was the Golden Age in +Narnia and the land has never forgotten them.” + + + +“Did they live in this castle, Doctor?” + +“Nay, my dear,” said the old man. “This castle is a thing of yesterday. Your +great-great-grandfather built it. But when the two sons of Adam and the two +daughters of Eve were made Kings and Queens of Narnia by Aslan himself, they +lived in the castle of Cair Paravel. No man alive has seen that blessed place and +perhaps even the ruins of it have now vanished. But we believe it was far from +here, down at the mouth of the Great River, on the very shore of the sea.” + +“Ugh!” said Caspian with a shudder. “Do you mean in the Black Woods? +Where all the - the - you know, the ghosts live?” + +“Your Highness speaks as you have been taught,” said the Doctor. “But it is +all lies. There are no ghosts there. That is a story invented by the Telmarines. +Your Kings are in deadly fear of the sea because they can never quite forget that +in all stories Aslan comes from over the sea. They don’t want to go near it and +they don’t want anyone else to go near it. So they have let great woods grow up +to cut their people off from the coast. But because they have quarrelled with the +trees they are afraid of the woods. And because they are afraid of the woods they +imagine that they are full of ghosts. And the Kings and great men, hating both +the sea and the wood, partly believe these stories, and partly encourage them. +They feel safer if no one in Narnia dares to go down to the coast and look out to +sea towards Aslan’s land and the morning and the eastern end of the world.” + +There was a deep silence between them for a few minutes. Then Doctor +Cornelius said, “Come. We have been here long enough. It is time to go down +and to bed.” + +“Must we?” said Caspian. “I’d like to go on talking about these things for +hours and hours and hours.” + +“Someone might begin looking for us, if we did that,” said Doctor Cornelius. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +CASPIAN’S ADVENTURE IN THE MOUNTAINS + +AFTER this, Caspian and his Tutor had many more secret conversations on +the top of the Great Tower, and at each conversation Caspian learned more about +Old Narnia, so that thinking and dreaming about the old days, and longing that +they might come back, filled nearly all his spare hours. But of course he had not +many hours to spare, for now his education was beginning in earnest. He learned +sword-fighting and riding, swimming and diving, how to shoot with the bow and +play on the recorder and the theorbo, how to hunt the stag and cut him up when +he was dead, besides Cosmography, Rhetoric, Heraldry, Versification, and of +course History, with a little Law, Physic, Alchemy, and Astronomy. Of Magic he +learned only the theory, for Doctor Cornelius said the practical part was not +proper study for princes. “And I myself,” he added, “am only a very imperfect +magician and can do only the smallest experiments.” Of Navigation (’’Which is a +noble and heroical art,” said the Doctor) he was taught nothing, because King +Miraz disapproved of ships and the sea. + +He also learned a great deal by using his own eyes and ears. As a little boy +he had often wondered why he disliked his aunt, Queen Prunaprismia; he now +saw that it was because she disliked him. He also began to see that Narnia was +an unhappy country. The taxes were high and the laws were stern and Miraz was +a cruel man. + +After some years there came a time when the Queen seemed to be ill and +there was a great deal of bustle and pother about her in the castle and doctors +came and the courtiers whispered. This was in early summertime. And one night, +while all this fuss was going on, Caspian was unexpectedly wakened by Doctor +Cornelius after he had been only a few hours in bed. + +“Are we going to do a little Astronomy, Doctor?” said Caspian. + +“Hush!” said the Doctor. “Trust me and do exactly as I tell you. Put on all +your clothes; you have a long journey before you.” + +Caspian was very surprised, but he had learned to have confidence in his +Tutor and he began doing what he was told at once. When he was dressed the +Doctor said, “I have a wallet for you. We must go into the next room and fill it +with victuals from your Highness’s supper table.” + +“My gentlemen-in-waiting will be there,” said Caspian. + +“They are fast asleep and will not wake,” said the Doctor. “I am a very minor +magician but I can at least contrive a charmed sleep.” + + + +They went into the antechamber and there, sure enough, the two gentlemen- +in-waiting were, sprawling on chairs and snoring hard. Doctor Cornelius quickly +cut up the remains of a cold chicken and some slices of venison and put them, +with bread and an apple or so and a little flask of good wine, into the wallet +which he then gave to Caspian. It fitted on by a strap over Caspian’s shoulder, +like a satchel you would use for taking books to school. + +“Have you your sword?” asked the Doctor. + +“Yes,” said Caspian. + +“Then put this mantle over all to hide the sword and the wallet. That’s right. +And now we must go to the Great Tower and talk.” + +When they had reached the top of the Tower (it was a cloudy night, not at all +like the night when they had seen the conjunction of Tarva and Alambil) Doctor +Cornelius said, + +“Dear Prince, you must leave this castle at once and go to seek your fortune +in the wide world. Your life is in danger here.” + +“Why?” asked Caspian. + +“Because you are the true King of Narnia: Caspian the Tenth, the true son +and heir of Caspian the Ninth. Long life to your Majesty’ - and suddenly, to +Caspian’s great surprise, the little man dropped down on one knee and kissed his +hand. + +“What does it all mean? I don’t understand,” said Caspian. + +“I wonder you have never asked me before,” said the Doctor, “why, being the +son of King Caspian, you are not King Caspian yourself. Everyone except your +Majesty knows that Miraz is a usurper. When he first began to rule he did not +even pretend to be the King: he called himself Lord Protector. But then your +royal mother died, the good Queen and the only Telmarine who was ever kind to +me. And then, one by one, all the great lords, who had known your father, died +or disappeared. Not by accident, either. Miraz weeded them out. Belisar and +Uvilas were shot with arrows on a hunting party: by chance, it was pretended. +All the great house of the Passarids he sent to fight giants on the northern +frontier till one by one they fell. Arlian and Erimon and a dozen more he +executed for treason on a false charge. The two brothers of Beaversdam he shut +up as madmen. And finally he persuaded the seven noble lords, who alone +among all the Telmarines did not fear the sea, to sail away and look for new +lands beyond the Eastern Ocean, and, as he intended, they never came back. And +when there was no one left who could speak a word for you, then his flatterers +(as he had instructed them) begged him to become King. And of course he did.” + +“Do you mean he now wants to kill me too?” said Caspian. + +“That is almost certain,” said Doctor Cornelius. + + + +“But why now?” said Caspian. “I mean, why didn’t he do it long ago if he +wanted to? And what harm have I done him?” + +“He has changed his mind about you because of something that happened +only two hours ago. The Queen has had a son.” + +“I don’t see what that’s got to do with it,” said Caspian. + +“Don’t see!” exclaimed the Doctor. “Have all my lessons in History and +Politics taught you no more than that? Listen. As long as he had no children of +his own, he was willing enough that you should be King after he died. He may +not have cared much about you, but he would rather you should have the throne +than a stranger. Now that he has a son of his own he will want his own son to be +the next King. You are in the way. He’ll clear you out of the way.” + +“Is he really as bad as that?” said Caspian. “Would he really murder me?” + +“He murdered your Father,” said Doctor Cornelius. + +Caspian felt very queer and said nothing. + +“I can tell you the whole story,” said the Doctor. “But not now. There is no +time. You must fly at once.” + +“You’ll come with me?” said Caspian. + +“I dare not,” said the Doctor. “It would make your danger greater. Two are +more easily tracked than one. Dear Prince, dear King Caspian, you must be very +brave. You must go alone and at once. Try to get across the southern border to +the court of King Nain of Archenland. He will be good to you.” + +“Shall I never see you again?” said Caspian in a quavering voice. + +“I hope so, dear King,” said the Doctor. “What friend have I in the wide +world except your Majesty? And I have a little magic. But in the meantime, +speed is everything. Here are two gifts before you go. This is a little purse of +gold alas, all the treasure in this castle should be your own by rights. And here is +something far better.” + +He put in Caspian’s hands something which he could hardly see but which he +knew by the feel to be a horn. + +“That,” said Doctor Cornelius, “is the greatest and most sacred treasure of +Narnia. Many terrors I endured, many spells did I utter, to find it, when I was +still young. It is the magic horn of Queen Susan herself which she left behind her +when she vanished from Narnia at the end of the Golden Age. It is said that +whoever blows it shall have strange help - no one can say how strange. It may +have the power to call Queen Lucy and King Edmund and Queen Susan and +High King Peter back from the past, and they will set all to rights. It may be that +it will call up Asian himself. Take it, King Caspian: but do not use it except at +your greatest need. And now, haste, haste, haste. The little door at the very +bottom of the Tower, the door into the garden, is unlocked. There we must part.” + + + +“Can I get my horse Destrier?” said Caspian. + +“He is already saddled and waiting for you just at the corner of the orchard.” + +During the long climb down the winding staircase Cornelius whispered many +more words of direction and advice. Caspian’s heart was sinking, but he tried to +take it all in. Then came the fresh air in the garden, a fervent handclasp with the +Doctor, a run across the lawn, a welcoming whinny from Destrier, and so King +Caspian the Tenth left the castle of his fathers. Looking back, he saw fireworks +going up to celebrate the birth of the new prince. + +All night he rode southward, choosing by-ways and bridle paths through +woods as long as he was in country that he knew; but afterwards he kept to the +high road. Destrier was as excited as his master at this unusual journey, and +Caspian, though tears had come into his eyes at saying good-bye to Doctor +Cornelius, felt brave and, in a way, happy, to think that he was King Caspian +riding to seek adventures, with his sword on his left hip and Queen Susan’s +magic horn on his right. But when day came, with a sprinkle of rain, and he +looked about him and saw on every side unknown woods, wild heaths, and blue +mountains, he thought how large and strange the world was and felt frightened +and small. + +As soon as it was full daylight he left the road and found an open grassy +place amid a wood where he could rest. He took off Destrier’s bridle and let him +graze, ate some cold chicken and drank a little wine, and presently fell asleep. It +was late afternoon when he awoke. He ate a morsel and continued his journey, +still southward, by many unfrequented lanes. He was now in a land of hills, +going up and down, but always more up than down. From every ridge he could +see the mountains growing bigger and blacker ahead. As the evening closed in, +he was riding their lower slopes. The wind rose. Soon rain fell in torrents. + +Destrier became uneasy; there was thunder in the air. And now they entered a +dark and seemingly endless pine forest, and all the stories Caspian had ever +heard of trees being unfriendly to Man crowded into his mind. He remembered +that he was, after all, a Telmarine, one of the race who cut down trees wherever +they could and were at war with all wild things; and though he himself might be +unlike other Telmarines, the trees could not be expected to know this. + +Nor did they. The wind became a tempest, the woods roared and creaked all +round them. There came a crash. A tree fell right across the road just behind him. +“Quiet, Destrier, quiet!” said Caspian, patting his horse’s neck; but he was +trembling himself and knew that he had escaped death by an inch. Lightning +flashed and a great crack of thunder seemed to break the sky in two just +overhead. + +Destrier bolted in good earnest. Caspian was a good rider, but he had not the + + + +strength to hold him back. He kept his seat, but he knew that his life hung by a +thread during the wild career that followed. Tree after tree rose up before them in +the dusk and was only just avoided. Then, almost too suddenly to hurt (and yet it +did hurt him too) something struck Caspian on the forehead and he knew no +more. + +When he came to himself he was lying in a firelit place with bruised limbs +and a bad headache. Low voices were speaking close at hand. + +“And now,” said one, “before it wakes up we must decide what to do with +it.” + +“Kill it,” said another. “We can’t let it live. It would betray us.” + +“We ought to have killed it at once, or else let it alone,” said a third voice. +“We can’t kill it now. Not after we’ve taken it in and bandaged its head and all. It +would be murdering a guest.” + +“Gentlemen,” said Caspian in a feeble voice, “whatever you do to me, I hope +you will be kind to my poor horse.” + +“Your horse had taken flight long before we found you,” said the first voice - +a curiously husky, earthy voice, as Caspian now noticed. + +“Now don’t let it talk you round with its pretty words,” said the second +voice. “I still say-“ + +“Horns and halibuts!” exclaimed the third voice. “Of course we’re not going +to murder it. For shame, Nikabrik. What do you say, Trufflehunter? What shall +we do with it?” + +“I shall give it a drink,” said the first voice, presumably Trufflehunter’s. A +dark shape approached the bed. Caspian felt an arm slipped gently under his +shoulders - if it was exactly an arm. The shape somehow seemed wrong. The +face that bent towards him seemed wrong too. He got the impression that it was +very hairy and very long nosed, and there were odd white patches on each side +of it. “It’s a mask of some sort,” thought Caspian. “Or perhaps I’m in a fever and +imagining it all.” A cupful of something sweet and hot was set to his lips and he +drank. At that moment one of the others poked the fire. A blaze sprang up and +Caspian almost screamed with the shock as the sudden light revealed the face +that was looking into his own. It was not a man’s face but a badger’s, though +larger and friendlier and more intelligent than the face of any badger he had seen +before. And it had certainly been talking. He saw, too, that he was on a bed of +heather, in a cave. By the fire sat two little bearded men, so much wilder and +shorter and hairier and thicker than Doctor Cornelius that he knew them at once +for real Dwarfs, ancient Dwarfs with not a drop of human blood in their veins. +And Caspian knew that he had found the Old Narnians at last. Then his head +began to swim again. + + + +In the next few days he learned to know them by names. The Badger was +called Trufflehunter; he was the oldest and kindest of the three. The Dwarf who +had wanted to kill Caspian was a sour Black Dwarf (that is, his hair and beard +were black, and thick and hard like horsehair). His name was Nikabrik. The +other Dwarf was a Red Dwarf with hair rather like a Fox’s and he was called +Trumpkin. + +“And now,” said Nikabrik on the first evening when Caspian was well +enough to sit up and talk, “we still have to decide what to do with this Human. +You two think you’ve done it a great kindess by not letting me kill it. But I +suppose the upshot is that we have to keep it a prisoner for life. I’m certainly not +going to let it go alive - to go back to its own kind and betray us all.” + +“Bulbs and bolsters! Nikabrik,” said Trumpkin. “Why need you talk so +unhandsomely? It isn’t the creature’s fault that it bashed its head against a tree +outside our hole. And I don’t think it looks like a traitor.” + +“I say,” said Caspian, “you haven’t yet found out whether I want to go back. +I don’t. I want to stay with you - if you’ll let me. I’ve been looking for people +like you all my life.” + +“That’s a likely story,” growled Nikabrik. “You’re a Telmarine and a Human, +aren’t you? Of course you want to go back to your own kind.” + +“Well, even if I did, I couldn’t,” said Caspian. “I was flying for my life when +I had my accident. The King wants to kill me. If you’d killed me, you’d have +done the very thing to please him.” + +“Well now,” said Trufflehunter, “you don’t say so!” + +“Eh?” said Trumpkin. “What’s that? What have you been doing, Human, to +fall foul of Miraz at your age?” + +“He’s my uncle,” began Caspian, when Nikabrik jumped up with his hand on +his dagger. + +“There you are!” he cried. “Not only a Telmarine but close kin and heir to +our greatest enemy. Are you still mad enough to let this creature live?” He would +have stabbed Caspian then and there, if the Badger and Trumpkin had not got in +the way and forced him back to his seat and held him down. + +“Now, once and for all, Nikabrik,” said Trumpkin. “Will you contain +yourself, or must Trufflehunter and I sit on your head?” + +Nikabrik sulkily promised to behave, and the other two asked Caspian to tell +his whole story. When he had done so there was a moment’s silence. + +“This is the queerest thing I ever heard,” said Trumpkin. + +“I don’t like it,” said Nikabrik. “I didn’t know there were stories about us +still told among the Humans. The less they know about us the better. That old +nurse, now. She’d better have held her tongue. And it’s all mixed up with that + + + +Tutor: a renegade Dwarf. I hate 'em. I hate 'em worse than the Humans. You +mark my words - no good will come of it. + +“Don’t you go talking about things you don’t understand, Nikabrik,” said +Trufflehunter. “You Dwarfs are as forgetful and changeable as the Humans +themselves. I’m a beast, I am, and a Badger what’s more. We don’t change. We +hold on. I say great good will come of it. This is the true King of Narnia we’ve +got here: a true King, coming back to true Narnia. And we beasts remember, +even if Dwarfs forget, that Narnia was never right except when a son of Adam +was King.” + +“Whistles and whirligigs! Trufflehunter,” said Trumpkin. “You don’t mean +you want to give the country to Humans?” + +“I said nothing about that,” answered the Badger. “It’s not Men’s country +(who should know that better than me?) but it’s a country for a man to be King +of. We badgers have long enough memories to know that. Why, bless us all, +wasn’t the High King Peter a Man?” + +“Do you believe all those old stories?” asked Trumpkin. + +“I tell you, we don’t change, we beasts,” said Trufflehunter. “We don’t +forget. I believe in the High King Peter and the rest that reigned at Cair Paravel, +as firmly as I believe in Aslan himself.” + +“As firmly as that, I dare say,” said Trumpkin. “But who believes in Aslan +nowadays?” + +“I do,” said Caspian. “And if I hadn’t believed in him before, I would now. +Back there among the Humans the people who laughed at Aslan would have +laughed at stories about Talking Beasts and Dwarfs. Sometimes I did wonder if +there really was such a person as Aslan: but then sometimes I wondered if there +were really people like you. Yet there you are.” + +“That’s right,” said Trufflehunter. “You’re right, King Caspian. And as long +as you will be true to Old Narnia you shall be my King, whatever they say. Long +life to your Majesty.” + +“You make me sick, Badger,” growled Nikabrik. “The High King Peter and +the rest may have been Men, but they were a different sort of Men. This is one of +the cursed Telmarines. He has hunted beasts for sport. Haven’t you, now?” he +added, rounding suddenly on Caspian. + +“Well, to tell you the truth, I have,” said Caspian. “But they weren’t Talking +Beasts.” + +“It’s all the same thing,” said Nikabrik. + +“No, no, no,” said Trufflehunter. “You know it isn’t. You know very well that +the beasts in Narnia nowadays are different and are no more than the poor dumb, +witless creatures you’d find in Calormen or Telmar. They’re smaller too. They’re + + + +far more different from us than the half-Dwarfs are from you.” + +There was a great deal more talk, but it all ended with the agreement that +Caspian should stay and even the promise that, as soon as he was able to go out, +he should be taken to see what Trumpkin called “the Others”; for apparently in +these wild parts all sorts of creatures from the Old Days of Narnia still lived on +in hiding. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +THE PEOPLE THAT LIVED IN HIDING + +Now began the happiest times that Caspian had ever known. On a fine +summer morning when the dew lay on the grass he set off with the Badger and +the two Dwarfs, up through the forest to a high saddle in the mountains and +down on to their sunny southern slopes where one looked across the green wolds +of Archenland. + +“We will go first to the Three Bulgy Bears,” said Trumpkin. + +They came in a glade to an old hollow oak tree covered with moss, and +Trufflehunter tapped with his paw three times on the trunk and there was no +answer. Then he tapped again and a woolly sort of voice from inside said, “Go +away. It’s not time to get up yet.” But when he tapped the third time there was a +noise like a small earthquake from inside and a sort of door opened and out came +three brown bears, very bulgy indeed and blinking their little eyes. And when +everything had been explained to them (which took a long time because they +were so sleepy) they said, just as Trufflehunter had said, that a son of Adam +ought to be King of Narnia and all kissed Caspian - very wet, snuffly kisses they +were - and offered him some honey. Caspian did not really want honey, without +bread, at that time in the morning, but he thought it polite to accept. It took him a +long time afterwards to get unsticky. + +After that they went on till they came among tall beech trees and +Trufflehunter called out, “Pattertwig! Pattertwig! Pattertwig!” and almost at +once, bounding down from branch to branch till he was just above their heads, +came the most magnificent red squirrel that Caspian had ever seen. He was far +bigger than the ordinary dumb squirrels which he had sometimes seen in the +castle gardens; indeed he was nearly the size of a terrier and the moment you +looked in his face you saw that he could talk. Indeed the difficulty was to get +him to stop talking, for, like all squirrels, he was a chatterer. He welcomed +Caspian at once and asked if he would like a nut and Caspian said thanks, he +would. But as Pattertwig went bounding away to fetch it, Tmfflehunter +whispered in Caspian’s ear, “Don’t look. Look the other way. It’s very bad +manners among squirrels to watch anyone going to his store or to look as if you +wanted to know where it was.” Then Pattertwig came back with the nut and +Caspian ate it and after that Pattertwig asked if he could take any messages to +other friends. “For I can go nearly everywhere without setting foot to ground,” +he said. Trufflehunter and the Dwarfs thought this a very good idea and gave + + + +Pattertwig messages to all sorts of people with queer names telling them all to +come to a feast and council on Dancing Lawn at midnight three nights ahead. +“And you’d better tell the three Bulgies too,” added Trump kin. “We forgot to +mention it to them.” + +Their next visit was to the Seven Brothers of Shuddering Wood. Trumpkin +led the way back to the saddle and then down eastward on the northern slope of +the mountains till they came to a very solemn place among rocks and fir trees. +They went very quietly and presently Caspian could feel the ground shake under +his feet as if someone were hammering down below. Trumpkin went to a flat +stone about the size of the top of a water-butt, and stamped on it with his foot. +After a long pause it was moved away by someone or something underneath, and +there was a dark, round hole with a good deal of heat and steam coming out of it +and in the middle of the hole the head of a Dwarf very like Trumpkin himself. +There was a long talk here and the dwarf seemed more suspicious than the +Squirrel or the Bulgy Bears had been, but in the end the whole party were invited +to come down. Caspian found himself descending a dark stairway into the earth, +but when he came to the bottom he saw firelight. It was the light of a furnace. +The whole place was a smithy. A subterranean stream ran past on one side of it. +Two Dwarfs were at the bellows, another was holding a piece of red-hot metal +on the anvil with a pair of tongs, a fourth was hammering it, and two, wiping +their horny little hands on a greasy cloth, were coming forward to meet the +visitors. It took some time to satisfy them that Caspian was a friend and not an +enemy, but when they did, they all cried, “Long live the King,” and their gifts +were noble - mail shirts and helmets and swords for Caspian and Trumpkin and +Nikabrik. The Badger could have had the same if he had liked, but he said he +was a beast, he was, and if his claws and teeth could not keep his skin whole, it +wasn’t worth keeping. The workmanship of the arms was far finer than any +Caspian had ever seen, and he gladly accepted the Dwarf-made sword instead of +his own, which looked, in comparison, as feeble as a toy and as clumsy as a +stick. The seven brothers (who were all Red Dwarfs) promised to come to the +feast at Dancing Lawn. + +A little farther on, in a dry, rocky ravine they reached the cave of five Black +Dwarfs. They looked suspiciously at Caspian, but in the end the eldest of them +said, “If he is against Miraz, we’ll have him for King.” And the next oldest said, +“Shall we go farther up for you, up to the crags? There’s an Ogre or two and a +Hag that we could introduce you to, up there.” + +“Certainly not,” said Caspian. + +“I should think not, indeed,” said Trufflehunter. “We want none of that sort +on our side.” Nikabrik disagreed with this, but Trumpkin and the Badger + + + +overruled him. It gave Caspian a shock to realize that the horrible creatures out +of the old stories, as well as the nice ones, had some descendants in Narnia still. + +“We should not have Aslan for friend if we brought in that rabble,” said +Trufflehunter as they came away from the cave of the Black Dwarfs. + +“Oh, Aslan!” said Trump kin, cheerily but contemptuously. “What matters +much more is that you wouldn’t have me.” + +“Do you believe in Aslan?” said Caspian to Nikabrik. + +“HI believe in anyone or anything,” said Nikabrik, “that’ll batter these +cursed Telmarine barbarians to pieces or drive them out of Narnia. Anyone or +anything, Aslan or the White Witch, do you understand?” + +“Silence, silence,” said Trufflehunter. “You do not know what you are +saying. She was a worse enemy than Miraz and all his race.” + +“Not to Dwarfs, she wasn’t,” said Nikabrik. + +Their next visit was a pleasanter one. As they came lower down, the +mountains opened out into a great glen or wooded gorge with a swift river +running at the bottom. The open places near the river’s edge were a mass of +foxgloves and wild roses and the air was buzzing with bees. Here Trufflehunter +called again, “Glenstorm! Glenstorm!” and after a pause Caspian heard the +sound of hoofs. It grew louder till the valley trembled and at last, breaking and +trampling the thickets, there came in sight the noblest creatures that Caspian had +yet seen, the great Centaur Glenstorm and his three sons. His flanks were glossy +chestnut and the beard that covered his broad chest was goldenred. He was a +prophet and a star-gazer and knew what they had come about. + +“Long live the King,” he cried. “I and my sons are ready for war. When is +the battle to be joined?” + +Up till now neither Caspian nor the others had really been thinking of a war. +They had some vague idea, perhaps, of an occasional raid on some Human +farmstead or of attacking a party of hunters, if it ventured too far into these +southern wilds. But, in the main, they had thought only of living to themselves in +woods and caves and building up an attempt at Old Narnia in hiding. As soon as +Glenstorm had spoken everyone felt much more serious. + +“Do you mean a real war to drive Miraz out of Narnia?” asked Caspian. + +“What else?” said the Centaur. “Why else does your Majesty go clad in mail +and girt with sword?” + +“Is it possible, Glenstorm?” said the Badger. + +“The time is ripe,” said Glenstorm. “I watch the skies, Badger, for it is mine +to watch, as it is yours to remember. Tarva and Alambil have met in the halls of +high heaven, and on earth a son of Adam has once more arisen to rule and name +the creatures. The hour has struck. Our council at the Dancing Lawn must be a + + + +council of war.” He spoke in such a voice that neither Caspian nor the others +hesitated for a moment: it now seemed to them quite possible that they might +win a war and quite certain that they must wage one. + +As it was now past the middle of the day, they rested with the Centaurs and +ate such food as the centaurs provided cakes of oaten meal, and apples, and +herbs, and wine, and cheese. + +The next place they were to visit was quite near at hand, but they had to go a +long way round in order to avoid a region in which Men lived. It was well into +the afternoon before they found themselves in level fields, warm between +hedgerows. There Trufflehunter called at the mouth of a little hole in a green +bank and out popped the last thing Caspian expected - a Talking Mouse. He was +of course bigger than a common mouse, well over a foot high when he stood on +his hind legs, and with ears nearly as long as (though broader than) a rabbit’s. +His name was Reepicheep and he was a gay and martial mouse. He wore a tiny +little rapier at his side and twirled his long whiskers as if they were a moustache. +“There are twelve of us, Sire,” he said with a dashing and graceful bow, “and I +place all the resources of my people unreservedly at your Majesty’s disposal.” +Caspian tried hard (and successfully) not to laugh, but he couldn’t help thinking +that Reepicheep and all his people could very easily be put in a washing basket +and carried home on one’s back. + +It would take too long to mention all the creatures whom Caspian met that +day - Clodsley Shovel the Mole, the three Hardbiters (who were badgers like +Trufflehunter), Camillo the Hare, and Hogglestock the Hedgehog. They rested at +last beside a well at the edge of a wide and level circle of grass, bordered with +tall elms which now threw long shadows across it, for the sun was setting, the +daisies closing, and the rooks flying home to bed. Here they supped on food they +had brought with them and Trumpkin lit his pipe (Nikabrik was not a smoker). + +“Now,” said the Badger, “if only we could wake the spirits of these trees and +this well, we should have done a good day’s work.” + +“Can’t we?” said Caspian. + +“No,” said Trufflehunter. “We have no power over them. Since the Humans +came into the land, felling forests and defiling streams, the Dryads and Naiads +have sunk into a deep sleep. Who knows if ever they will stir again? And that is +a great loss to our side. The Telmarines are horribly afraid of the woods, and +once the Trees moved in anger, our enemies would go mad with fright and be +chased out of Narnia as quick as their legs could carry them.” + +“What imaginations you Animals have!” said Trumpkin, who didn’t believe +in such things. “But why stop at Trees and Waters? Wouldn’t it be even nicer if +the stones started throwing themselves at old Miraz?” + + + +The Badger only grunted at this, and after that there was such a silence that +Caspian had nearly dropped off to sleep when he thought he heard a faint +musical sound from the depth of the woods at his back. Then he thought it was +only a dream and turned over again; but as soon as his ear touched the ground he +felt or heard (it was hard to tell which) a faint beating or drumming. He raised +his head. The beating noise at once became fainter, but the music returned, +clearer this time. It was like flutes. He saw that Tmfflehunter was sitting up +staring into the wood. The moon was bright; Caspian had been asleep longer +than he thought. Nearer and nearer came the music, a tune wild and yet dreamy, +and the noise of many light feet, till at last, out from the wood into the +moonlight, came dancing shapes such as Caspian had been thinking of all his +life. They were not much taller than dwarfs, but far slighter and more graceful. +Their curly heads had little horns, the upper part of their bodies gleamed naked +in the pale light, but their legs and feet were those of goats. + +“Fauns!” cried Caspian, jumping up, and in a moment they were all round +him. It took next to no time to explain the whole situation to them and they +accepted Caspian at once. Before he knew what he was doing he found himself +joining in the dance. Trumpkin, with heavier and jerkier movements, did +likewise and even Tmfflehunter hopped and lumbered about as best he could. +Only Nikabrik stayed where he was, looking on in silence. The Fauns footed it +all round Caspian to their reedy pipes. Their strange faces, which seemed +mournful and merry all at once, looked into his; dozens of Fauns, Mentius and +Obentinus and Dumnus, Voluns, Voltinus, Girbius, Nimienus, Nausus, and +Oscuns. Pattertwig had sent them all. + +When Caspian awoke next morning he could hardly believe that it had not all +been a dream; but the grass was covered with little cloven hoof-marks. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +OLD NARNIA IN DANGER + +THE place where they had met the Fauns was, of course, Dancing Lawn +itself, and here Caspian and his friends remained till the night of the great +Council. To sleep under the stars, to drink nothing but well water and to live +chiefly on nuts and wild fruit, was a strange experience for Caspian after his bed +with silken sheets in a tapestried chamber at the castle, with meals laid out on +gold and silver dishes in the anteroom, and attendants ready at his call. But he +had never enjoyed himself more. Never had sleep been more refreshing nor food +tasted more savoury, and he began already to harden and his face wore a kinglier +look. + +When the great night came, and his various strange subjects came stealing +into the lawn by ones and twos and threes or by sixes and sevens - the moon then +shining almost at her full - his heart swelled as he saw their numbers and heard +their greetings. All whom he had met were there: Bulgy Bears and Red Dwarfs +and Black Dwarfs, Moles and Badgers, Hares and Hedgehogs, and others whom +he had not yet seen - five Satyrs as red as foxes, the whole contingent of Talking +Mice, armed to the teeth and following a shrill trumpet, some Owls, the Old +Raven of Ravenscaur. Last of all (and this took Caspian’s breath away), with the +Centaurs came a small but genuine Giant, Wimbleweather of Deadman’s Hill, +carrying on his back a basketful of rather sea-sick Dwarfs who had accepted his +offer of a lift and were now wishing they had walked instead. + +The Bulgy Bears were very anxious to have the feast first and leave the +council till afterwards: perhaps till tomorrow. Reepicheep and his Mice said that +councils and feasts could both wait, and proposed storming Miraz in his own +castle that very night. Pattertwig and the other Squirrels said they could talk and +eat at the same time, so why not have the council and feast all at once? The +Moles proposed throwing up entrenchments round the Lawn before they did +anything else. The Fauns thought it would be better to begin with a solemn +dance. The Old Raven, while agreeing with the Bears that it would take too long +to have a full council before supper, begged to be allowed to give a brief address +to the whole company. But Caspian and the Centaurs and the Dwarfs overruled +all these suggestions and insisted on holding a real council of war at once. + +When all the other creatures had been persuaded to sit down quietly in a +great circle, and when (with more difficulty) they had got Pattertwig to stop +running to and fro and saying “Silence! Silence, everyone, for the King’s + + + +speech”, Caspian, feeling a little nervous, got up. “Narnians!” he began, but he +never got any further, for at that very moment Camillo the Hare said, “Hush! +There’s a Man somewhere near.” + +They were all creatures of the wild, accustomed to being hunted, and they all +became still as statues. The beasts all turned their noses in the direction which +Camillo had indicated. + +“Smells like Man and yet not quite like Man,” whispered Trufflehunter. + +“It’s getting steadily nearer,” said Camillo. + +“Two badgers and you three Dwarfs, with your bows at the - ready, go softly +off to meet it,” said Caspian. + +“We’ll settle Tin,” said a Black Dwarf grimly, fitting a shaft to his bowstring. + +“Don’t shoot if it is alone,” said Caspian. “Catch it.” + +“Why?” asked the Dwarf. + +“Do as you’re told,” said Glenstorm the Centaur. + +Everyone waited in silence while the three Dwarfs and two Badgers trotted +stealthily across to the trees on the northwest side of the Lawn. Then came a +sharp dwarfish cry, “Stop! Who goes there?” and a sudden spring. A moment +later a voice, which Caspian knew well, could he heard saying, “All right, all +right, I’m unarmed. Take my wrists if you like, worthy Badgers, but don’t bite +right through them. I want to speak to the King.” + +“Doctor Cornelius!” cried Caspian with joy, and rushed forward to greet his +old tutor. Everyone else crowded round. + +“Pah!” said Nikabrik. “A renegade Dwarf. A half-and-halfer! Shall I pass my +sword through its throat?” + +“Be quiet, Nikabrik,” said Trumpkin. “The creature can’t help its ancestry.” + +“This is my greatest friend and the saviour of my life,” said Caspian. “And +anyone who doesn’t like his company may leave my army: at once. Dearest +doctor, I am glad to see you again. How ever did you find us out?” + +“By a little use of simple magic, your Majesty,” said the Doctor, who was +still puffing and blowing from having walked so fast. “But there’s no time to go +into that now. We must all fly from this place at once. You are already betrayed +and Miraz is on the move. Before midday tomorrow you will be surrounded.” + +“Betrayed!” said Caspian. “And by whom?” + +“Another renegade Dwarf, no doubt,” said Nikabrik. + +“By your horse Destrier,” said Doctor Cornelius. “The poor brute knew no +better. When you were knocked off, of course, he went dawdling back to his +stable in the castle. Then the secret of your flight was known. I made myself +scarce, having no wish to be questioned about it in Miraz’s torture chamber. I +had a pretty good guess from my crystal as to where I should find you. But all + + + +day - that was the day before yesterday -1 saw Miraz’s tracking parties out in the +woods. Yesterday I learned that his army is out. I don’t think some of your - um - +pure-blooded Dwarfs have as much woodcraft as might be expected. You’ve left +tracks all over the place. Great carelessness. At any rate something has warned +Miraz that Old Narnia is not so dead as he had hoped, and he is on the move.” + +“Hurrah!” said a very shrill and small voice from somewhere at the Doctor’s +feet. “Let them come! All I ask is that the King will put me and my people in the +front.” + +“What on earth?” said Doctor Cornelius. “Has your Majesty got +grasshoppers - or mosquitoes - in your army?” Then after stooping down and +peering carefully through his spectacles, he broke into a laugh. + +“By the Lion,” he swore, “it’s a mouse. Signior Mouse, I desire your better +acquaintance. I am honoured by meeting so valiant a beast.” + +“My friendship you shall have, learned Man,” piped Reepicheep. “And any +Dwarf - or Giant - in the army who does not give you good language shall have +my sword to reckon with.” + +“Is there time for this foolery?” asked Nikabrik. “What are our plans? Battle +or flight?” + +“Battle if need be,” said Trumpkin. “But we are hardly ready for it yet, and +this is no very defensible place.” + +“I don’t like the idea of running away,” said Caspian. + +“Hear him! Hear him!” said the Bulgy Bears. “Whatever we do, don’t let’s +have any running. Especially not before supper; and not too soon after it +neither.” + +“Those who run first do not always run last,” said the Centaur. “And why +should we let the enemy choose our position instead of choosing it ourselves? +Let us find a strong place.” + +“That’s wise, your Majesty, that’s wise,” said Trufflehunter. + +“But where are we to go?” asked several voices. + +“Your Majesty,” said Doctor Cornelius, “and all you variety of creatures, I +think we must fly east and down the river to the great woods. The Telmarines +hate that region. They have always been afraid of the sea and of something that +may come over the sea. That is why they have let the great woods grow up. If +traditions speak true, the ancient Cair Paravel was at the river-mouth. All that +part is friendly to us and hateful to our enemies. We must go to Aslan’s How.” + +“Aslan’s How?” said several voices. “We do not know what it is.” + +“It lies within the skirts of the Great Woods and it is a huge mound which +Narnians raised in very ancient times over a very magical place, where there +stood - and perhaps still stands - a very magical Stone. The Mound is all + + + +hollowed out within into galleries and caves, and the Stone is in the central cave +of all. There is room in the mound for all our stores, and those of us who have +most need of cover and are most accustomed to underground life can be lodged +in the caves. The rest of us can lie in the wood. At a pinch all of us (except this +worthy Giant) could retreat into the Mound itself, and there we should be beyond +the reach of every danger except famine.” + +“It is a good thing we have a learned man among us,” said Trufflehunter; but +Trumpkin muttered under his breath, “Soup and celery! I wish our leaders would +think less about these old wives’ tales and more about victuals and arms.” But all +approved of Cornelius’s proposal and that very night, half an hour later, they +were on the march. Before sunrise they arrived at Aslan’s How. + +It was certainly an awesome place, a round green hill on top of another hill, +long since grown over with trees, and one little, low doorway leading into it. The +tunnels inside were a perfect maze till you got to know them, and they were +lined and roofed with smooth stones, and on the stones, peering in the twilight, +Caspian saw strange characters and snaky patterns, and pictures in which the +form of a Lion was repeated again and again. It all seemed to belong to an even +older Narnia than the Narnia of which his nurse had told him. + +It was after they had taken up their quarters in and around the How that +fortune began to turn against them. King Miraz’s scouts soon found their new +lair, and he and his army arrived on the edge of the woods. And as so often +happens, the enemy turned out stronger than they had reckoned. Caspian’s heart +sank as he saw company after company arriving. And though Miraz’s men may +have been afraid of going into the wood, they were even more afraid of Miraz, +and with him in command they carried battle deeply into it and sometimes +almost to the How itself. Caspian and other captains of course made many +sorties into the open country. Thus there was fighting on most days and +sometimes by night as well; but Caspian’s party had on the whole the worst of it. + +At last there came a night when everything had gone as badly as possible, +and the rain which had been falling heavily all day had ceased at nightfall only +to give place to raw cold. That morning Caspian had arranged what was his +biggest battle yet, and all had hung their hopes on it. He, with most of the +Dwarfs, was to have fallen on the King’s right wing at daybreak, and then, when +they were heavily engaged, Giant Wimbleweather, with the Centaurs and some +of the fiercest beasts, was to have broken out from another place and +endeavoured to cut the King’s right off from the rest of the army. But it had all +failed. No one had warned Caspian (because no one in these later days of + +Narnia remembered) that Giants are not at all clever. Poor Wimbleweather, +though as brave as a lion, was a true Giant in that respect. He had broken out at + + + +the wrong time and from the wrong place, and both his party and Caspian’s had +suffered badly and done the enemy little harm. The best of the Bears had been +hurt, a Centaur terribly wounded, and there were few in Caspian’s party who had +not lost blood. It was a gloomy company that huddled under the dripping trees to +eat their scanty supper. + +The gloomiest of all was Giant Wimbleweather. He knew it was all his fault. +He sat in silence shedding big tears which collected on the end of his nose and +then fell off with a huge splash on the whole bivouac of the Mice, who had just +been beginning to get warm and drowsy. They all jumped up, shaking the water +out of their ears and wringing their little blankets, and asked the Giant in shrill +but forcible voices whether he thought they weren’t wet enough without this sort +of thing. And then other people woke up and told the Mice they had been +enrolled as scouts and not as a concert party, and asked why they couldn’t keep +quiet. And Wimbleweather tiptoed away to find some place where he could be +miserable in peace and stepped on somebody’s tail and somebody (they said +afterwards it was a fox) bit him. And so everyone was out of temper. + +But in the secret and magical chamber at the heart of the How, King Caspian, +with Cornelius and the Badger and Nikabrik and Trumpkin, were at council. +Thick pillars of ancient workmanship supported the roof. In the centre was the +Stone itself - a stone table, split right down the centre, and covered with what +had once been writing of some kind: but ages of wind and rain and snow had +almost worn them away in old times when the Stone Table had stood on the +hilltop, and the Mound had not yet been built above it. They were not using the +Table nor sitting round it: it was too magic a thing for any common use. They sat +on logs a little way from it, and between them was a rough wooden table, on +which stood a rude clay lamp lighting up their pale faces and throwing big +shadows on the walls. + +“If your Majesty is ever to use the Horn,” said Trufflehunter, “I think the +time has now come.” Caspian had of course told them of his treasure several +days ago. + +“We are certainly in great need,” answered Caspian. “But it is hard to be sure +we are at our greatest. Supposing there came an even worse need and we had +already used it?” + +“By that argument,” said Nikabrik, “your Majesty will never use it until it is +too late.” + +“I agree with that,” said Doctor Cornelius. + +“And what do you think, Trumpkin?” asked Caspian. + +“Oh, as for me,” said the Red Dwarf, who had been listening with complete +indifference, “your Majesty knows I think the Horn - and that bit of broken stone + + + +over there and your great King Peter - and your Lion Aslan - are all eggs in +moonshine. It’s all one to me when your Majesty blows the Horn. All I insist on +is that the army is told nothing about it. There’s no good raising hopes of +magical help which (as I think) are sure to be disappointed.” + +“Then in the name of Aslan we will wind Queen Susan’s Horn,” said +Caspian. + +“There is one thing, Sire,” said Doctor Cornelius, “that should perhaps be +done first. We do not know what form the help will take. It might call Aslan +himself from oversea. But I think it is more likely to call Peter the High King +and his mighty consorts down from the high past. But in either case, I do not +think we can be sure that the help will come to this very spot -“ + +“You never said a truer word,” put in Trumpkin. + +“I think,” went on the learned man, “that they - or he will come back to one +or other of the Ancient Places of Narnia. This, where we now sit, is the most +ancient and most deeply magical of all, and here, I think, the answer is likeliest +to come. But there are two others. One Lantern Waste, up-river, west of +Beaversdam, where the Royal Children first appeared in Narnia, as the records +tell The other is down at the river-mouth, where their castle of Cair Paravel once +stood. And if Aslan himself comes, that would be the best place for meeting him +too, for every story says that he is the son of the great Emperor-over-the-Sea, and +over the sea he will pass. I should like very much to send messengers to both +places, to Lantern Waste and the river-mouth, to receive them - or him or it.” + +“Just as I thought,” muttered Trumpkin. “The first result of all this foolery is +not to bring us help but to lose us two fighters.” + +“Who would you think of sending, Doctor Cornelius?” asked Caspian. + +“Squirrels are best for getting through enemy country without being caught,” +said Trufflehunter. + +“All our squirrels (and we haven’t many),” said Nikabrik, “are rather flighty. +The only one I’d trust on a job like that would be Pattertwig.” + +“Let it be Pattertwig, then,” said King Caspian. “And who for our other +messenger? I know you’d go, Trufflehunter, but you haven’t the speed. Nor you, +Doctor Cornelius.” + +“I won’t go,” said Nikabrik. “With all these Humans and beasts about, there +must be a Dwarf here to see that the Dwarfs are fairly treated.” + +“Thimbles and thunderstorms!” cried Trumpkin in a rage. “Is that how you +speak to the King? Send me, Sire, I’ll go.” + +“But I thought you didn’t believe in the Horn, Trumpkin,” said Caspian. + +“No more I do, your Majesty. But what’s that got to do with it? I might as +well die on a wild goose chase as die here. You are my King. I know the + + + +difference between giving advice and taking orders. You’ve had my advice, and +now it’s the time for orders.” + +“I will never forget this, Trumpkin,” said Caspian. “Send for Pattertwig, one +of you. And when shall I blow the Horn?” + +“I would wait for sunrise, your Majesty,” said Doctor Cornelius. “That +sometimes has an effect in operations of White Magic.” + +A few minutes later Pattertwig arrived and had his task explained to him. As +he was, like many squirrels, full of courage and dash and energy and excitement +and mischief (not to say conceit), he no sooner heard it than he was eager to be +off. It was arranged that he should run for Lantern Waste while Tmmpkin made +the shorter journey to the river-mouth. After a hasty meal they both set off with +the fervent thanks and good wishes of the King, the Badger, and Cornelius. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +HOW THEY LEFT THE ISLAND + +“AND so,” said Trumpkin (for, as you have realized, it was he who had been +telling all this story to the four children, sitting on the grass in the ruined hall of +Cair Paravel) - “and so I put a crust or two in my pocket, left behind all weapons +but my dagger, and took to the woods in the grey of the morning. I’d been +plugging away for many hours when there came a sound that I’d never heard the +like of in my born days. Eh, I won’t forget that. The whole air was full of it, loud +as thunder but far longer, cool and sweet as music over water, but strong enough +to shake the woods. And I said to myself, 'If that’s not the Horn, call me a +rabbit.’ And a moment later I wondered why he hadn’t blown it sooner-“ + +“What time was it?” asked Edmund. + +“Between nine and ten of the clock,” said Trumpkin. + +“Just when we were at the railway station!” said all the children, and looked +at one another with shining eyes. + +“Please go on,” said Lucy to the Dwarf. + +“Well, as I was saying, I wondered, but I went on as hard as I could pelt. I +kept on all night - and then, when it was half light this morning, as if I’d no more +sense than a Giant, I risked a short cut across open country to cut off a big loop +of the river, and was caught. Not by the army, but by a pompous old fool who +has charge of a little castle which is Miraz’s last stronghold towards the coast. I +needn’t tell you they got no true tale out of me, but I was a Dwarf and that was +enough. But, lobsters and lollipops! it is a good thing the seneschal was a +pompous fool. Anyone else would have run me through there and then. But +nothing would do for him short of a grand execution: sending me down 'to the +ghosts in the full ceremonial way. And then this young lady”, (he nodded at +Susan) “does her bit of archery and it was pretty shooting, let me tell you - and +here we are. And without my armour, for of course they took that.” He knocked +out and refilled his pipe. + +“Great Scott!” said Peter. “So it was the horn - your own horn, Su - that +dragged us all off that seat on the platform yesterday morning! I can hardly +believe it; yet it all fits in.” + +“I don’t know why you shouldn’t believe it,” said Lucy, “if you believe in +magic at all. Aren’t there lots of stories about magic forcing people out of one +place - out of one world - into another? I mean, when a magician in The Arabian +Nights calls up a Jinn, it has to come. We had to come, just like that.” + + + +“Yes,” said Peter, “I suppose what makes it feel so queer is that in the stories +it’s always someone in our world who does the calling. One doesn’t really think +about where the Jinn’s coming from.” + +“And now we know what it feels like for the Jinn,” said Edmund with a +chuckle. “Golly! It’s a bit uncomfortable to know that we can be whistled for +like that. It’s worse than what Father says about living at the mercy of the +telephone.” + +“But we want to be here, don’t we,” said Lucy, “if Aslan wants us?” + +“Meanwhile,” said the Dwarf, “what are we to do? I suppose I’d better go +back to King Caspian and tell him no help has come.” + +“No help?” said Susan. “But it has worked. And here we are.” + +“Um - um - yes, to be sure. I see that,” said the Dwarf, whose pipe seemed to +be blocked (at any rate he made himself very busy cleaning it). “But- well - I +mean -“ + +“But don’t you yet see who we are?” shouted Lucy. “You are stupid.” + +“I suppose you are the four children out of the old stories,” said Trumpkin. +“And I’m very glad to meet you of course. And it’s very interesting, no doubt. +But - no offence?’- and he hesitated again. + +“Do get on and say whatever you’re going to say,” said Edmund. + +“Well, then - no offence,” said Trumpkin. “But, you know, the King and +Trufflehunter and Doctor Cornelius were expecting - well, if you see what I +mean, help. To put it in another way, I think they’d been imagining you as great +warriors. As it is - we’re awfully fond of children and all that, but just at the +moment, in the middle of a war but I’m sure you understand.” + +“You mean you think we’re no good,” said Edmund, getting red in the face. + +“Now pray don’t be offended,” interrupted the Dwarf. “I assure you, my dear +little friends-“ + +“Little from you is really a bit too much,” said Edmund, jumping up. “I +suppose you don’t believe we won the Battle of Beruna? Well, you can say what +you like about me because I know -“ + +“There’s no good losing our tempers,” said Peter. “Let’s fit him out with +fresh armour and fit ourselves out from the treasure chamber, and have a talk +after that.” + +“I don’t quite see the point -” began Edmund, but Lucy whispered in his ear, +“Hadn’t we better do what Peter says? He is the High King, you know. And I +think he has an idea.” So Edmund agreed and by the aid of his torch they all, +including Trumpkin, went down the steps again into the dark coldness and dusty +splendour of the treasure house. + +The Dwarf’s eyes glistened as he saw the wealth that lay on the shelves + + + +(though he had to stand on tiptoes to do so) and he muttered to himself, “It +would never do to let Nikabrik see this; never.” They found easily enough a mail +shirt for him, a sword, a helmet, a shield, a bow and quiverful of arrows, all of +dwarfish size. The helmet was of copper, set with rubies, and there was gold on +the hilt of the sword: Trumpkin had never seen, much less carried, so much +wealth in all his life. The children also put on mail shirts and helmets; a sword +and shield were found for Edmund and a bow for Lucy - Peter and Susan were of +course already carrying their gifts. As they came back up the stairway, jingling in +their mail, and already looking and feeling more like Narnians and less like +schoolchildren, the two boys were behind, apparently making some plan. Lucy +heard Edmund say, “No, let me do it. It will be more of a sucks for him if I win, +and less of a let-down for us all if I fail.” + +“All right, Ed,” said Peter. + +When they came out into the daylight Edmund turned to the Dwarf very +politely and said, “I’ve got something to ask you. Kids like us don’t often have +the chance of meeting a great warrior like you. Would you have a little fencing +match with me? It would be frightfully decent.” + +“But, lad,” said Trumpkin, “these swords are sharp.” + +“I know,” said Edmund. “But I’ll never get anywhere near you and you’ll be +quite clever enough to disarm me without doing me any damage.” + +“It’s a dangerous game,” said Trumpkin. “But since you make such a point of +it, I’ll try a pass or two.” + +Both swords were out in a moment and the three others jumped off the dais +and stood watching. It was well worth it. It was not like the silly fighting you see +with broad swords on the stage. It was not even like the rapier fighting which +you sometimes see rather better done. This was real broad-sword fighting. The +great thing is to slash at your enemy’s legs and feet because they are the part that +have no armour. And when he slashes at yours you jump with both feet off the +ground so that his blow goes under them. This gave the Dwarf an advantage +because Edmund, being much taller, had to be always stooping. I don’t think +Edmund would have had a chance if he had fought Trumpkin twenty-four hours +earlier. But the air of Narnia had been working upon him ever since they arrived +on the island, and all his old battles came back to him, and his arms and fingers +remembered their old skill. He was King Edmund once more. Round and round +the two combatants circled, stroke after stroke they gave, and Susan (who never +could learn to like this sort of thing) shouted out, “Oh, do be careful.” And then, +so quickly that no one (unless they knew, as Peter did) could quite see how it +happened, Edmund flashed his sword round with a peculiar twist, the Dwarf’s +sword flew out of his grip, and Trumpkin was wringing his empty hand as you + + + +do after a “sting” from a cricket-bat. + +“Not hurt, I hope, my dear little friend?” said Edmund, panting a little and +returning his own sword to its sheath. + +“I see the point,” said Trump kin drily. “You know a trick I never learned.” + +“That’s quite true,” put in Peter. “The best swordsman in the world may be +disarmed by a trick that’s new to him. I think it’s only fair to give Trumpkin a +chance at something else. Will you have a shooting match with my sister? There +are no tricks in archery, you know.” + +“Ah, you’re jokers, you are,” said the Dwarf. “I begin to see. As if I didn’t +know how she can shoot, after what happened this morning. All the same, I’ll +have a try.” He spoke gruffly, but his eyes brightened, for he was a famous +bowman among his own people. + +All five of them came out into the courtyard. + +“What’s to be the target?” asked Peter. + +“I think that apple hanging over the wall on the branch there would do,” said +Susan. + +“That’ll do nicely, lass,” said Trumpkin. “You mean the yellow one near the +middle of the arch?” + +“No, not that,” said Susan. “The red one up above - over the battlement.” + +The Dwarf’s face fell. “Looks more like a cherry than an apple,” he +muttered, but he said nothing out loud. + +They tossed up for first shot (greatly to the interest of Trumpkin, who had +never seen a coin tossed before) and Susan lost. They were to shoot from the top +of the steps that led from the hall into the courtyard. Everyone could see from +the way the Dwarf took his position and handled his bow that he knew what he +was about. + +Twang went the string. It was an excellent shot. The tiny apple shook as the +arrow passed, and a leaf came fluttering down. Then Susan went to the top of the +steps and strung her bow. She was not enjoying her match half so much as +Edmund had enjoyed his; not because she had any doubt about hitting the apple +but because Susan was so tenderhearted that she almost hated to beat someone +who had been beaten already. The Dwarf watched her keenly as she drew the +shaft to her ear. A moment later, with a little soft thump which they could all +hear in that quiet place, the apple fell to the grass with Susan’s arrow in it. + +“Oh, well done, Su, ” shouted the other children. + +“It wasn’t really any better than yours,” said Susan to the Dwarf. “I think +there was a tiny breath of wind as you shot.” + +“No, there wasn’t,” said Trumpkin. “Don’t tell me. I know when I am fairly +beaten. I won’t even say that the scar of my last wound catches me a bit when I + + + +get my arm well back + +“Oh, are you wounded?” asked Lucy. “Do let me look.” + +“It’s not a sight for little girls,” began Trumpkin, but then he suddenly +checked himself. “There I go talking like a fool again,” he said “I suppose you’re +as likely to be a great surgeon as your brother was to be a great swordsman or +your sister to be a great archer.” He sat down on the steps and took off his +hauberk and slipped down his little shirt, showing an arm hairy and muscular (in +proportion) as a sailor’s though not much bigger than a child’s. There was a +clumsy bandage on the shoulder which Lucy proceeded to unroll. Underneath, +the cut looked very nasty and there was a good deal of swelling. “Oh, poor +Trumpkin,” said Lucy. “How horrid.” Then she carefully dripped on to it one +single drop of the cordial from her flask. + +“Hullo. Eh? What have you done?” said Trumpkin. But however he turned +his head and squinted and whisked his beard to and fro, he couldn’t quite see his +own shoulder. Then he felt it as well as he could, getting his arms and fingers +into very difficult positions as you do when you’re trying to scratch a place that +is just out of reach. Then he swung his arm and raised it and tried the muscles, +and finally jumped to his feet crying, “Giants and junipers! It’s cured! It’s as +good as new.” After that he burst into a great laugh and said, “Well, I’ve made as +big a fool of myself as ever a Dwarf did. No offence, I hope? My humble duty to +your Majesties all -humble duty. And thanks for my life, my cure, my breakfast - +and my lesson.” + +The children all said it was quite all right and not to mention it. + +“And now,” said Peter, “if you’ve really decided to believe in us-“ + +“I have,” said the Dwarf. + +“It’s quite clear what we have to do. We must join King Caspian at once.” + +“The sooner the better,” said Trumpkin. “My being such a fool has already +wasted about an hour.” + +“It’s about two days’ journey, the way you came,” said Peter. “For us, I +mean. We can’t walk all day and night like you Dwarfs.” Then he turned to the +others. “What Trumpkin calls Aslan’s How is obviously the Stone Table itself. +You remember it was about half a day’s march, or a little less, from there down +to the Fords of Beruna -“ + +“Beruna’s Bridge, we call it,” said Trumpkin. + +“There was no bridge in our time,” said Peter. “And then from Beruna down +to here was another day and a bit. We used to get home about teatime on the +second day, going easily. Going hard, we could do the whole thing in a day and a +half perhaps.” + +“But remember it’s all woods now,” said Trumpkin, “and there are enemies + + + +to dodge.” + +“Look here,” said Edmund, “need we go by the same way that Our Dear +Little Friend came?” + +“No more of that, your Majesty, if you love me,” said the Dwarf. + +“Very well,” said Edmund. “May I say our D.L.F.?” + +“Oh, Edmund,” said Susan. “Don’t keep on at him like that.” + +“That’s all right, lass -1 mean your Majesty,” said Trumpkin with a chuckle. +“A jibe won’t raise a blister.” (And after that they often called him the D.L.F. till +they’d almost forgotten what it meant.) + +“As I was saying,” continued Edmund, “we needn’t go that way. Why +shouldn’t we row a little south till we come to Glasswater Creek and row up it? +That brings us up behind the Hill of the Stone Table, and we’ll be safe while +we’re at sea. If we start at once, we can be at the head of Glasswater before dark, +get a few hours’ sleep, and be with Caspian pretty early tomorrow.” + +“What a thing it is to know the coast,” said Trumpkin. “None of us know +anything about Glasswater.” + +“What about food?” asked Susan. + +“Oh, we’ll have to do with apples,” said Lucy. “Do let’s get on. We’ve done +nothing yet, and we’ve been here nearly two days.” + +“And anyway, no one’s going to have my hat for a fishbasket again,” said +Edmund. + +They used one of the raincoats as a kind of bag and put a good many apples +in it. Then they all had a good long drink at the well (for they would meet no +more fresh water till they landed at the head of the Creek) and went down to the +boat. The children were sorry to leave Cair Paravel, which, even in ruins, had +begun to feel like home again. + +“The D.L.F. had better steer,” said Peter, “and Ed and I will take an oar each. +Half a moment, though. We’d better take off our mail: we’re going to be pretty +warm before we’re done. The girls had better be in the bows and shout directions +to the D.L.F. because he doesn’t know the way. You’d better get us a fair way out +to sea till we’ve passed the island.” + +And soon the green, wooded coast of the island was falling away behind +them, and its little bays and headlands were beginning to look flatter, and the +boat was rising and falling in the gentle swell. The sea began to grow bigger +around them and, in the distance, bluer, but close round the boat it was green and +bubbly. Everything smelled salt and there was no noise except the swishing of +water and the clop-clop of water against the sides and the splash of the oars and +the jolting noise of the rowlocks. The sun grew hot. + +It was delightful for Lucy and Susan in the bows, bending over the edge and + + + +trying to get their hands in the sea which they could never quite reach. The +bottom, mostly pure, pale sand but with occasional patches of purple seaweed, +could be seen beneath them. + +“It’s like old times,” said Lucy. “Do you remember our voyage to Terebinthia +- and Galma - and Seven Isles - and the Lone Islands?” + +“Yes,” said Susan, “and our great ship the Splendour Hyaline, with the +swan’s head at her prow and the carved swan’s wings coming back almost to her +waist?” + +“And the silken sails, and the great stern lanterns?” + +“And the feasts on the poop and the musicians.” + +“Do you remember when we had the musicians up in the rigging playing +flutes so that it sounded like music out of the sky?” + +Presently Susan took over Edmund’s oar and he came forward to join Lucy. +They had passed the island now and stood closer in to the shore - all wooded and +deserted. They would have thought it very pretty if they had not remembered the +time when it was open and breezy and full of merry friends. + +“Phew! This is pretty gruelling work,” said Peter. “Can’t I row for a bit?” +said Lucy. “The oars are too big for you,” said Peter shortly, not because he was +cross but because he had no strength to spare for talking. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +WHAT LUCY SAW + +SUSAN and the two boys were bitterly tired with rowing before they +rounded the last headland and began the final pull up Glasswater itself, and +Lucy’s head ached from the long hours of sun and the glare on the water. Even +Trumpkin longed for the voyage to be over. The seat on which he sat to steer had +been made for men, not Dwarfs, and his feet did not reach the floor-boards; and +everyone knows how uncomfortable that is even for ten minutes. And as they all +grew more tired, their spirits fell. Up till now the children had only been thinking +of how to get to Caspian. Now they wondered what they would do when they +found him, and how a handful of Dwarfs and woodland creatures could defeat an +army of grown-up Humans. + +Twilight was coming on as they rowed slowly up the windings of Glasswater +Creek - a twilight which deepened as the banks drew closer together and the +overhanging trees began almost to meet overhead. It was very quiet in here as +the sound of the sea died away behind them; they could even hear the trickle of +the little streams that poured down from the forest into Glasswater. + +They went ashore at last, far too tired to attempt lighting a fire; and even a +supper of apples (though most of them felt that they never wanted to see an +apple again) seemed better than trying to catch or shoot anything. After a little +silent munching they all huddled down together in the moss and dead leaves +between four large beech trees. + +Everyone except Lucy went to sleep at once. Lucy, being far less tired, found +it hard to get comfortable. Also, she had forgotten till now that all Dwarfs snore. +She knew that one of the best ways of getting to sleep is to stop trying, so she +opened her eyes. + +Through a gap in the bracken and branches she could just see a patch of +water in the Creek and the sky above it. Then, with a thrill of memory, she saw +again, after all those years, the bright Narnian stars. She had once known them +better than the stars of our own world, because as a Queen in Narnia she had +gone to bed much later than as a child in England. And there they were - at least, +three of the summer constellations could be seen from where she lay: the Ship, +the Hammer, and the Leopard. “Dear old Leopard,” she murmured happily to +herself. + +Instead of getting drowsier she was getting more awake - with an odd, night¬ +time, dreamish kind of wakefulness. The Creek was growing brighter. She knew + + + +now that then moon was on it, though she couldn’t see the moon. And now she +began to feel that the whole forest was coming awake like herself. Hardly +knowing why she did it, she got up quickly and walked a little distance away +from their bivouac. + +“This is lovely,” said Lucy to herself. It was cool and fresh, delicious smells +were floating everywhere. + +Somewhere close by she heard the twitter of a nightingale beginning to sing, +then stopping, then beginning again. It was a little lighter ahead. She went +towards the light and came to a place where there were fewer trees, and whole +patches or pools of moonlight, but the moonlight and the shadows so mixed that +you could hardly be sure where anything was or what it was. At the same +moment the nightingale, satisfied at last with his tuning up, burst into full song. + +Lucy’s eyes began to grow accustomed to the light, and she saw the trees that +were nearest her more distinctly. A great longing for the old days when the trees +could talk in Narnia came over her. She knew exactly how each of these trees +would talk if only she could wake them, and what sort of human form it would +put on. She looked at a silver birch: it would have a soft, showery voice and +would look like a slender girl, with hair blown all about her face, and fond of +dancing. She looked at the oak: he would be a wizened, but hearty old man with +a frizzled beard and warts on his face and hands, and hair growing out of the +warts. She looked at the beech under which she was standing. Ah! she would be +the best of all. She would be a gracious goddess, smooth and stately, the lady of +the wood. + +“Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees,” said Lucy (though she had not been intending to +speak at all). “Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake. Don’t you remember it? Don’t you +remember me? Dryads and Hamadryads, come out, come to me.” + +Though there was not a breath of wind they all stirred about her. The rustling +noise of the leaves was almost like words. The nightingale stopped singing as if +to listen to it. + +Lucy felt that at any moment she would begin to understand what the trees +were trying to say. But the moment did not come. The rustling died away. The +nightingale resumed its song. Even in the moonlight the wood looked more +ordinary again. Yet Lucy had the feeling (as you sometimes have when you are +trying to remember a name or a date and almost get it, but it vanishes before you +really do) that she had just missed something: as if she had spoken to the trees a +split second too soon or a split second too late, or used all the right words except +one, or put in one word that was just wrong. + +Quite suddenly she began to feel tired. She went back to the bivouac, +snuggled down between Susan and Peter, and was asleep in a few minutes. + + + +It was a cold and cheerless waking for them all next morning, with a grey +twilight in the wood (for the sun had not yet risen) and everything damp and +dirty. + +“Apples, heigh-ho,” said Trumpkin with a rueful grin. “I must say you +ancient kings and queens don’t overfeed your courtiers!” + +They stood up and shook themselves and looked about. The trees were thick +and they could see no more than a few yards in any direction. + +“I suppose your Majesties know the way all right?” said the Dwarf. + +“I don’t,” said Susan. “I’ve never seen these woods in my life before. In fact +I thought all along that we ought to have gone by the river.” + +“Then I think you might have said so at the time,” answered Peter, with +pardonable sharpness. + +“Oh, don’t take any notice of her,” said Edmund. “She always is a wet +blanket. You’ve got that pocket compass of yours, Peter, haven’t you? Well, +then, we’re as right as rain. We’ve only got to keep on going north-west - cross +that little river, the what-do-you-call-it? - the Rush -“ + +“I know,” said Peter. “The one that joins the big river at the Fords of Beruna, +or Beruna’s Bridge, as the D.L.F. calls it.” + +“That’s right. Cross it and strike uphill, and we’ll be at the Stone Table +(Aslan’s How, I mean) by eight or nine o’clock. I hope King Caspian will give +us a good breakfast!” + +“I hope you’re right,” said Susan. “I can’t remember all that at all.” + +“That’s the worst of girls,” said Edmund to Peter and the Dwarf. “They never +carry a map in their heads.” + +“That’s because our heads have something inside them,” said Fucy. + +At first things seemed to be going pretty well. They even -thought they had +struck an old path; but if you know anything about woods, you will know that +one is always finding imaginary paths. They disappear after about five minutes +and then you think you have found another (and hope it is not another but more +of the same one) and it also disappears, and after you have been well lured out of +your right direction you realize that none of them were pats at all. The boys and +the Dwarf, however, were used to woods and were not taken in for more than a +few seconds. + +They had plodded on for about half an hour (three of them very stiff from +yesterday’s rowing) when Trumpkin suddenly whispered, “Stop.” They all +stopped. “There’s something following us,” he said in a low voice. “Or rather, +something keeping up with us: over there on the left.” They all stood still, +listening and staring till their ears and eyes ached. “You and I’d better each have +an arrow on the string,” said Susan to Trumpkin. The Dwarf nodded, and when + + + +both bows were ready for action the party went on again. + +They went a few dozen yards through fairly open woodland, keeping a sharp +look-out. Then they came to a place where the undergrowth thickened and they +had to pass nearer to it. Just as they were passing the place, there came a sudden +something that snarled and flashed, rising out from the breaking twigs like a +thunderbolt. Lucy was knocked down and winded, hearing the twang of a +bowstring as she fell. When she was able to take notice of things again, she saw +a great grim-looking grey bear lying dead with Trumpkin’s arrow in its side. + +“The D.L.F. beat you in that shooting match, Su,” said #Peter, with a slightly +forced smile. Even he had been shaken by this adventure. + +“I -1 left it too late,” said Susan, in an embarrassed voice. “I was so afraid it +might be, you know - one of our kind of bears, a talking bear.” She hated killing +things. + +“That’s the trouble of it,” said Trumpkin, “when most of the beasts have +gone enemy and gone dumb, but there are still some of the other kind left. You +never know, and you daren’t wait to see.” + +“Poor old Bruin,” said Susan. “You don’t think he was?” + +“Not he,” said the Dwarf. “I saw the face and I heard the snarl. He only +wanted Little Girl for his breakfast. And talking of breakfast, I didn’t want to +discourage your Majesties when you said you hoped King Caspian would give +you a good one: but meat’s precious scarce in camp. And there’s good eating on +a bear. It would be a shame to leave the carcass without taking a bit, and it won’t +delay us more than half an hour. I dare say you two youngsters - Kings, I should +say - know how to skin a bear?” + +“Let’s go and sit down a fair way off,” said Susan to Lucy. “I know what a +horrid messy business that will be.” Lucy shuddered and nodded. When they had +sat down she said: “Such a horrible idea has come into my head, Su. “ + +“What’s that?” + +“Wouldn’t it be dreadful if some day, in our own world, at home, men started +going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so that you’d +never know which were which?” + +“We’ve got enough to bother about here and now in Narnia,” said the +practical Susan, “without imagining things like that.” + +When they rejoined the boys and the Dwarf, as much as they thought they +could carry of the best meat had been cut off. Raw meat is not a nice thing to fill +one’s pockets with, but they folded it up in fresh leaves and made the best of it. +They were all experienced enough to know that they would feel quite differently +about these squashy and unpleasant parcels when they had walked long enough +to be really hungry. + + + +On they trudged again (stopping to wash three pairs of hands that needed it +in the first stream they passed) until the sun rose and the birds began to sing, and +more flies than they wanted were buzzing in the bracken. The stiffness from +yesterday’s rowing began to wear off. Everybody’s spirits rose. The sun grew +warmer and they took their helmets off and carried them. + +“I suppose we are going right?” said Edmund about an hour later. + +“I don’t see how we can go wrong as long as we don’t bear too much to the +left,” said Peter. “If we bear too much to the right, the worst that can happen is +wasting a little time by striking the great River too soon and not cutting off the +corner.” + +And again they trudged on with no sound except the thud of their feet and +the jingle of their chain shirts. + +“Where’s this bally Rush got to?” said Edmund a good deal later. + +“I certainly thought we’d have struck it by now,” said Peter. “But there’s +nothing to do but keep on.” They both knew that the Dwarf was looking +anxiously at them, but he said nothing. + +And still they trudged on and their mail shirts began to feel very hot and +heavy. + +“What on earth?” said Peter suddenly. + +They had come, without seeing it, almost to the edge of a small precipice +from which they looked down into a gorge with a river at the bottom. On the far +side the cliffs rose much higher. None of the party except Edmund (and perhaps +Trumpkin) was a rock climber. + +“I’m sorry,” said Peter. “It’s my fault for coming this way. We’re lost. I’ve +never seen this place in my life before.” + +The Dwarf gave a low whistle between his teeth. + +“Oh, do let’s go back and go the other way,” said Susan. “I knew all along +we’d get lost in these woods.” + +“Susan!” said Lucy, reproachfully, “don’t nag at Peter like that. It’s so rotten, +and he’s doing all he can.” + +“And don’t you snap at Su like that, either,” said Edmund. “I think she’s +quite right.” + +“Tubs and tortoiseshells!” exclaimed Trumpkin. “If we’ve got lost coming, +what chance have we of finding our way back? And if we’re to go back to the +Island and begin all over again - even supposing we could - we might as well +give the whole thing up. Miraz will have finished with Caspian before we get +there at that rate.” + +“You think we ought to go on?” said Lucy. + +“I’m not sure the High King is lost,” said Trumpkin. “What’s to hinder this + + + +river being the Rush?” + +“Because the Rush is not in a gorge,” said Peter, keeping his temper with +some difficulty. + +“Your Majesty says is,” replied the Dwarf, “but oughtn’t you to say was? +You knew this country hundreds - it may be a thousand - years ago. Mayn’t it +have changed? A landslide might have pulled off half the side of that hill, +leaving bare rock, and there are your precipices beyond the gorge. Then the Rush +might go on deepening its course year after year till you get the little precipices +this side. Or there might have been an earthquake, or anything.” + +“I never thought of that,” said Peter. + +“And anyway,” continued Trumpkin, “even if this is not the Rush, it’s +flowing roughly north and so it must fall into the Great River anyway. I think I +passed something that might have been it, on my way down. So if we go +downstream, to our right, we’ll hit the Great River. Perhaps not so high as we’d +hoped, but at least we’ll be no worse off than if you’d come my way.” + +“Trumpkin, you’re a brick,” said Peter. “Come on, then. Down this side of +the gorge.” + +“Look! Look! Look!” cried Lucy. + +“Where? What?” said everyone. + +“The Lion,” said Lucy. “Aslan himself. Didn’t you see?” Her face had +changed completely and her eyes shone. + +“Do you really mean -?” began Peter. + +“Where did you think you saw him?” asked Susan. + +“Don’t talk like a grown-up,” said Lucy, stamping her foot. “I didn’t think I +saw him. I saw him.” + +“Where, Lu?” asked Peter. + +“Right up there between those mountain ashes. No, this side of the gorge. +And up, not down. Just the opposite of the way you want to go. And he wanted +us to go where he was - up there.” + +“How do you know that was what he wanted?” asked Edmund. + +“He -1 -1 just know,” said Lucy, “by his face.” + +The others all looked at each other in puzzled silence. + +“Her Majesty may well have seen a lion,” put in Trumpkin. “There are lions +in these woods, I’ve been told. But it needn’t have been a friendly and talking +lion any more than the bear was a friendly and talking bear.” + +“Oh, don’t be so stupid,” said Lucy. “Do you think I don’t know Aslan when +I see him?” + +“He’d be a pretty elderly lion by now,” said Trumpkin, “if he’s one you knew +when you were here before! And if it could be the same one, what’s to prevent + + + +him having gone wild and widess like so many others?” + +Lucy turned crimson and I think she would have flown at Trumpkin, if Peter +had not laid his hand on her arm. “The D.L.F. doesn’t understand. How could +he? You must just take it, Trumpkin, that we do really know about Aslan; a little +bit about him, I mean. And you mustn’t talk about him like that again. It isn’t +lucky for one thing: and it’s all nonsense for another. The only question is +whether Aslan was really there.” + +“But I know he was,” said Lucy, her eyes filling with tears. + +“Yes, Lu, but we don’t, you see,” said Peter. + +“There’s nothing for it but a vote,” said Edmund. + +“All right,” replied Peter. “You’re the eldest, D.L.F. What do you vote for? +Up or down?” + +“Down,” said the Dwarf. “I know nothing about Aslan. But I do know that if +we turn left and follow the gorge up, it might lead us all day before we found a +place where we could cross it. Whereas if we turn right and go down, we’re +bound to reach the Great River in about a couple of hours. And if there are any +real lions about, we want to go away from them, not towards them.” + +“What do you say, Susan?” + +“Don’t be angry, Lu,” said Susan, “but I do think we should go down. I’m +dead tired. Do let’s get out of this wretched wood into the open as quick as we +can. And none of us except you saw anything.” + +“Edmund?” said Peter. + +“Well, there’s just this,” said Edmund, speaking quickly and turning a little +red. “When we first discovered Narnia a year ago - or a thousand years ago, +whichever it is - it was Lucy who discovered it first and none of us would +believe her. I was the worst of the lot, I know. Yet she was right after all. +Wouldn’t it be fair to believe her this time? I vote for going up.” + +“Oh, Ed!” said Lucy and seized his hand. + +“And now it’s your turn, Peter,” said Susan, “and I do hope -“ + +“Oh, shut up, shut up and let a chap think,” interrupted Peter. “I’d much +rather not have to vote. “ + +“You’re the High King,” said Trumpkin sternly. + +“Down,” said Peter after a long pause. “I know Lucy may be right after all, +but I can’t help it. We must do one or the other.” + +So they set off to their right along the edge, downstream. And Lucy came +last of the party, crying bitterly. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +THE RETURN OF THE LION + +To keep along the edge of the gorge was not so easy as it had looked. Before +they had gone many yards they were confronted with young fir woods growing +on the very edge, and after they had tried to go through these, stooping and +pushing for about ten minutes, they realized that, in there, it would take them an +hour to do half a mile. So they came back and out again and decided to go round +the fir wood. This took them much farther to their right than they wanted to go, +far out of sight of the cliffs and out of sound of the river, till they began to be +afraid they had lost it altogether. Nobody knew the time, but it was getting to the +hottest part of the day. + +When they were able at last to go back to the edge of the gorge (nearly a mile +below the point from which they had started) they found the cliffs on their side +of it a good deal lower and more broken. Soon they found a way down into the +gorge and continued the journey at the river’s edge. But first they had a rest and +a long drink. No one was talking any more about breakfast, or even dinner, with +Caspian. + +They may have been wise to stick to the Rush instead of going along the top. +It kept them sure of their direction: and ever since the fir wood they had all been +afraid of being forced too far out of their course and losing themselves in the +wood. It was an old and pathless forest, and you could not keep anything like a +straight course in it. Patches of hopeless brambles, fallen trees, boggy places and +dense undergrowth would be always getting in your way. But the gorge of the +Rush was not at all a nice place for travelling either. I mean, it was not a nice +place for people in a hurry. For an afternoon’s ramble ending in a picnic tea it +would have been delightful. It had everything you could want on an occasion of +that sort - rumbling waterfalls, silver cascades, deep, amber-coloured pools, +mossy rocks, and deep moss on the banks in which you could sink over your +ankles, every kind of fern, jewel-like dragon flies, sometimes a hawk overhead +and once (Peter and Trump kin. both thought) an eagle. But of course what the +children and the Dwarf wanted to see as soon as possible was the Great River +below them, and Beruna, and the way to Aslan’s How. + +As they went on, the Rush began to fall more and more steeply. Their +journey became more and more of a climb and less and less of a walk - in places +even a dangerous climb over slippery rock with a nasty drop into dark chasms, +and the river roaring angrily at the bottom. + + + +You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a +break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel. +It was maddening, because everyone knew that if once they were out of the +gorge on that side, they would have only a smooth slope and a fairly short walk +to Caspian’s headquarters. + +The boys and the Dwarf were now in favour of lighting a fire and cooking +their bear-meat. Susan didn’t want this; she only wanted, as she said, “to get on +and finish it and get out of these beastly woods”. Lucy was far too tired and +miserable to have any opinion about anything. But as there was no dry wood to +be had, it mattered very little what anyone thought. The boys began to wonder if +raw meat was really as nasty as they had always been told. Trumpkin assured +them it was. + +Of course, if the children had attempted a journey like this a few days ago in +England, they would have been knocked up. I think I have explained before how +Narnia was altering them. Even Lucy was by now, so to speak, only one-third of +a little girl going to boarding school for the first time, and two-thirds of Queen +Lucy of Narnia. + +“At last!” said Susan. + +“Oh, hurray!” said Peter. + +The river gorge had just made a bend and the whole view spread out beneath +them. They could see open country stretching before them to the horizon and, +between it and them, the broad silver ribbon of the Great River. They could see +the specially broad and shallow place which had once been the Fords of Beruna +but was now spanned by a long, many-arched bridge. There was a little town at +the far end of it. + +“By Jove,” said Edmund. “We fought the Battle of Beruna just where that +town is!” + +This cheered the boys more than anything. You can’t help feeling stronger +when you look at a place where you won a glorious victory not to mention a +kingdom, hundreds of years ago. Peter and Edmund were soon so busy talking +about the battle that they forgot their sore feet and the heavy drag of their mail +shirts on their shoulders. The Dwarf was interested too. + +They were all getting on at a quicker pace now. The going became easier. +Though there were still sheer cliffs on their left, the ground was becoming lower +on their right. Soon it was no longer a gorge at all, only a valley. There were no +more waterfalls and presently they were in fairly thick woods again. + +Then - all at once - whizz, and a sound rather like the stroke of a +woodpecker. The children were still wondering where (ages ago) they had heard +a sound just like that and why they disliked it so, when Trumpkin shouted, + + + +“Down 5 , at the same moment forcing Lucy (who happened to be next to him) +flat down into the bracken. Peter, who had been looking up to see if he could +spot a squirrel, had seen what it was - a long cruel arrow had sunk into a tree +trunk just above his head. As he pulled Susan down and dropped himself, +another came rasping over his shoulder and struck the ground at his side. + +“Quick! Quick! Get back! Crawl!” panted Trumpkin. + +They turned and wriggled along uphill, under the bracken amid clouds of +horribly buzzing flies. Arrows whizzed round them. One struck Susan’s helmet +with a sharp ping and glanced off. They crawled quicker. Sweat poured off them. +Then they ran, stooping nearly double. The boys held their swords in their hands +for fear they would trip them up. + +It was heart-breaking work - all uphill again, back over the ground they had +already travelled. When they felt that they really couldn’t run any more, even to +save their lives, they all dropped down in the damp moss beside a waterfall and +behind a big boulder, panting. They were surprised to see how high they had +already got. + +They listened intently and heard no sound of pursuit. + +“So that’s all right,” said Trumpkin, drawing a deep breath. “They’re not +searching the wood. Only sentries, I expect. But it means that Miraz has an +outpost down there. Bottles and battledores! though, it was a near thing.” + +“I ought to have my head smacked for bringing us this way at all,” said Peter. + +“On the contrary, your Majesty,” said the Dwarf. “For one thing it wasn’t +you, it was your royal brother, King Edmund, who first suggested going by +Glasswater.” + +“I’m afraid the D.L.F.’s right,” said Edmund, who had quite honestly +forgotten this ever since things began going wrong. + +“And for another,” continued Trumpkin, “if we’d gone my way, we’d have +walked straight into that new outpost, most likely; or at least had just the same +trouble avoiding it. I think this Glasswater route has turned out for the best.” + +“A blessing in disguise,” said Susan. + +“Some disguise!” said Edmund. + +“I suppose we’ll have to go right up the gorge again now,” said Lucy. + +“Lu, you’re a hero,” said Peter. “That’s the nearest you’ve got today to +saying I told you so. Let’s get on.” + +“And as soon as we’re well up into the forest,” said Trumpkin, “whatever +anyone says, I’m going to light a fire and cook supper. But we must get well +away from here.” + +There is no need to describe how they toiled back up the gorge. It was pretty +hard work, but oddly enough everyone felt more cheerful. They were getting + + + +their second wind; and the word supper had had a wonderful effect. + +They reached the fir wood which had caused them so much trouble while it +was still daylight, and bivouacked in a hollow just above it. It was tedious +gathering the firewood; but it was grand when the fire blazed up and they began +producing the damp and smeary parcels of bear-meat which would have been so +very unattractive to anyone who had spent the day indoors. The Dwarf had +splendid ideas about cookery. Each apple (they still had a few of these) was +wrapped up in bear’s meat - as if it was to be apple dumpling with meat instead +of pastry, only much thicker - and spiked on a sharp stick and then roasted. And +the juice of the apple worked all through the meat, like apple sauce with roast +pork. Bear that has lived too much on other animals is not very nice, but bear +that has had plenty of honey and fruit is excellent, and this turned out to be that +sort of bear. It was a truly glorious meal. And, of course, no washing up - only +lying back and watching the smoke from Trump kin’s pipe and stretching one’s +tired legs and chatting. Everyone felt quite hopeful now about finding King +Caspian tomorrow and defeating Miraz in a few days. It may not have been +sensible of them to feel like this, but they did. + +They dropped off to sleep one by one, but all pretty quickly. + +Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the +voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name. She thought at first +it was her father’s voice, but that did not seem quite right. Then she thought it +was Peter’s voice, but that did not seem to fit either. She did not want to get up; +not because she was still tired - on the contrary she was wonderfully rested and +all the aches had gone from her bones - but because she felt so extremely happy +and comfortable. She was looking straight up at the Narnian moon, which is +larger than ours, and at the starry sky, for the place where they had bivouacked +was comparatively open. + +“Lucy,” came the call again, neither her father’s voice nor Peter’s. She sat +up, trembling with excitement but not with fear. The moon was so bright that the +whole forest landscape around her was almost as clear as day, though it looked +wilder. Behind her was the fir wood; away to her right the jagged cliff-tops on +the far side of the gorge; straight ahead, open grass to where a glade of trees +began about a bow-shot away. Lucy looked very hard at the trees of that glade. + +“Why, I do believe they’re moving,” she said to herself. “They’re walking +about.” + +She got up, her heart beating wildly, and walked towards them. There was +certainly a noise in the glade, a noise such as trees make in a high wind, though +there was no wind tonight. Yet it was not exactly an ordinary treenoise either. +Lucy felt there was a tune in it, but she could not catch the tune any more than + + + +she had been able to catch the words when the trees had so nearly talked to her +the night before. But there was, at least, a lilt; she felt her own feet wanting to +dance as she got nearer. And now there was no doubt that the trees were really +moving moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country +dance. (’’And I suppose,” thought Lucy, “when trees dance, it must be a very, +very country dance indeed.’) She was almost among them now. + +The first tree she looked at seemed at first glance to be not a tree at all but a +huge man with a shaggy beard and great bushes of hair. She was not frightened: +she had seen such things before. But when she looked again he was only a tree, +though he was still moving. You couldn’t see whether he had feet or roots, of +course, because when trees move they don’t walk on the surface of the earth; +they wade in it as we do in water. The same thing happened with every tree she +looked at. At one moment they seemed to be the friendly, lovely giant and +giantess forms which the tree-people put on when some good magic has called +them into full life: next moment they all looked like trees again. But when they +looked like trees, it was like strangely human trees, and when they looked like +people, it was like strangely branchy and leafy people - and all the time that +queer lilting, rustling, cool, merry noise. + +“They are almost awake, not quite,” said Lucy. She knew she herself was +wide awake, wider than anyone usually is. + +She went fearlessly in among them, dancing herself as she leaped this way +and that to avoid being run into by these huge partners. But she was only half +interested in them. She wanted to get beyond them to something else; it was +from beyond them that the dear voice had called. + +She soon got through them (half wondering whether she had been using her +arms to push branches aside, or to take hands in a Great Chain with big dancers +who stooped to reach her) for they were really a ring of trees round a central +open place. She stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely lights +and shadows. + +A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all +round it. And then - oh joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the +moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him. + +But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy +never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion +or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. +And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms +as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich +silkiness of his mane. + +“Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan,” sobbed Lucy. “At last.” + + + +The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half +lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his +tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise +face. + +“Welcome, child,” he said. + +“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.” + +“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. + +“Not because you are?” + +“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” + +For a time she was so happy that she did not want to speak. But Aslan spoke. + +“Lucy,” he said, “we must not lie here for long. You have work in hand, and +much time has been lost today.” + +“Yes, wasn’t it a shame?” said Lucy. “I saw you all right. They wouldn’t +believe me. They’re all so -“ + +From somewhere deep inside Aslan’s body there came the faintest +suggestion of a growl. + +“I’m sorry,” said Lucy, who understood some of his moods. “I didn’t mean to +start slanging the others. But it wasn’t my fault anyway, was it?” + +The Lion looked straight into her eyes. + +“Oh, Aslan,” said Lucy. “You don’t mean it was? How could I - I couldn’t +have left the others and come up to you alone, how could I? Don’t look at me +like that ... oh well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn’t have been alone, I +know, not if I was with you. But what would have been the good?” + +Aslan said nothing. + +“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right +- somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?” + +“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is +ever told that.” + +“Oh dear,” said Lucy. + +“But anyone can find out what will happen,” said Aslan. “If you go back to +the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and +that you must all get up at once and follow me - what will happen? There is only +one way of finding out.” + +“Do you mean that is what you want me to do?” gasped Lucy. + +“Yes, little one,” said Aslan. + +“Will the others see you too?” asked Lucy. + +“Certainly not at first,” said Aslan. “Later on, it depends.” + +“But they won’t believe me!” said Lucy. + +“It doesn’t matter,” said Aslan. + + + +“Oh dear, oh dear,” said Lucy. “And I was so pleased at finding you again. +And I thought you’d let me stay. And I thought you’d come roaring in and +frighten all the enemies away - like last time. And now everything is going to be +horrid.” + +“It is hard for you, little one,” said Aslan. “But things never happen the same +way twice. It has been hard for us all in Narnia before now.” + +Lucy buried her head in his mane to hide from his face. But there must have +been magic in his mane. She could feel lion-strength going into her. Quite +suddenly she sat up. + +“I’m sorry, Aslan,” she said. “I’m ready now.” + +“Now you are a lioness,” said Aslan. “And now all Narnia will be renewed. +But come. We have no time to lose.” + +He got up and walked with stately, noiseless paces back to the belt of +dancing trees through which she had just come: and Lucy went with him, laying +a rather tremulous hand on his mane. The trees parted to let them through and for +one second assumed their human forms completely. Lucy had a glimpse of tall +and lovely wood-gods and wood-goddesses all bowing to the Lion; next moment +they were trees again, but still bowing, with such graceful sweeps of branch and +trunk that their bowing was itself a kind of dance. + +“Now, child,” said Aslan, when they had left the trees behind them, “I will +wait here. Go and wake the others and tell them to follow. If they will not, then +you at least must follow me alone.” + +It is a terrible thing to have to wake four people, all older than yourself and +all very tired, for the purpose of telling them something they probably won’t +believe and making them do something they certainly won’t like. “I mustn’t +think about it, I must just do it,” thought Lucy. + +She went to Peter first and shook him. “Peter,” she whispered in his ear, +“wake up. Quick. Aslan is here. He says we’ve got to follow him at once.” + +“Certainly, Lu. Whatever you like,” said Peter unexpectedly. This was +encouraging, but as Peter instantly rolled round and went to sleep again it wasn’t +much use. + +Then she tried Susan. Susan did really wake up, but only to say in her most +annoying grown-up voice, “You’ve been dreaming, Lucy. Go to sleep again.” + +She tackled Edmund next. It was very difficult to wake him, but when at last +she had done it he was really awake and sat up. + +“Eh?” he said in a grumpy voice. “What are you talking about?” + +She said it all over again. This was one of the worst parts of her job, for each +time she said it, it sounded less convincing. + +“Aslan!” said Edmund, jumping up. “Hurray! Where?” + + + +Lucy turned back to where she could see the Lion waiting, his patient eyes +fixed upon her. “There,” she said, pointing. + +“Where?” asked Edmund again. + +“There. There. Don’t you see? Just this side of the trees.” + +Edmund stared hard for a while and then said, “No. There’s nothing there. +You’ve got dazzled and muddled with the moonlight. One does, you know. I +thought I saw something for a moment myself. It’s only an optical what-do-you- +call-it.” + +“I can see him all the time,” said Lucy. “He’s looking straight at us.” + +“Then why can’t I see him?” + +“He said you mightn’t be able to.” + +“Why?” " + +“I don’t know. That’s what he said.” + +“Oh, bother it all,” said Edmund. “I do wish you wouldn’t keep on seeing +things. But I suppose we’ll have to wake the others.” + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +THE LION ROARS + +WHEN the whole party was finally awake Lucy had to tell her story for the +fourth time. The blank silence which followed it was as discouraging as anything +could be. + +“I can’t see anything,” said Peter after he had stared his eyes sore. “Can you, +Susan?” + +“No, of course I can’t,” snapped Susan. “Because there isn’t anything to see. +She’s been dreaming. Do lie down and go to sleep, Lucy.” + +“And I do hope,” said Lucy in a tremulous voice, “that you will all come +with me. Because - because I’ll have to go with him whether anyone else does or +not.” + +“Don’t talk nonsense, Lucy,” said Susan. “Of course you can’t go off on your +own. Don’t let her, Peter. She’s being downright naughty.” + +“I’ll go with her, if she must go,” said Edmund. “She’s been right before.” + +“I know she has,” said Peter. “And she may have been right this morning. We +certainly had no luck going down the gorge. Still - at this hour of the night. And +why should Aslan be invisible to us? He never used to be. It’s not like him. What +does the D.L.L. say?” + +“Oh, I say nothing at all,” answered the Dwarf. “If you all go, of course, I’ll +go with you; and if your party splits up, I’ll go with the High King. That’s my +duty to him and King Caspian. But, if you ask my private opinion, I’m a plain +dwarf who doesn’t think there’s much chance of finding a road by night where +you couldn’t find one by day. And I have no use for magic lions which are +talking lions and don’t talk, and friendly lions though they don’t do us any good, +and whopping big lions though nobody can see them. It’s all bilge and beanstalks +as far as I can see.” + +“He’s beating his paw on the ground for us to hurry,” said Lucy. “We must +go now. At least I must.” + +“You’ve no right to try to force the rest of us like that. It’s four to one and +you’re the youngest,” said Susan. + +“Oh, come on,” growled Edmund. “We’ve got to go. There’ll be no peace till +we do.” He fully intended to back Lucy up, but he was annoyed at losing his +night’s sleep and was making up for it by doing everything as sulkily as possible. + +“On the march, then,” said Peter, wearily fitting his arm into his shield-strap +and putting his helmet on. At any other time he would have said something nice + + + +to Lucy, who was his favourite sister, for he knew how wretched she must be +feeling, and he knew that, whatever had happened, it was not her fault. But he +couldn’t help being a little annoyed with her all the same. + +Susan was the worst. “Supposing I started behaving like Lucy,” she said. “I +might threaten to stay here whether the rest of you went on or not. I jolly well +think I shall.” + +“Obey the High King, your Majesty,” said Trumpkin, “and let’s be off. If I’m +not to be allowed to sleep, I’d as soon march as stand here talking.” + +And so at last they got on the move. Lucy went first, biting her lip and trying +not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she forgot them +when she fixed her eyes on Aslan. He turned and walked at a slow pace about +thirty yards ahead of them. The others had only Lucy’s directions to guide them, +for Aslan was not only invisible to them but silent as well. His big cat-like paws +made no noise on the grass. + +He led them to the right of the dancing trees - whether they were still +dancing nobody knew, for Lucy had her eyes on the Lion and the rest had their +eyes on Lucy - and nearer the edge of the gorge. “Cobbles and kettledrums!” +thought Trumpkin. “I hope this madness isn’t going to end in a moonlight climb +and broken necks.” + +For a long way Aslan went along the top of the precipices. Then they came +to a place where some little trees grew right on the edge. He turned and +disappeared among them. Lucy held her breath, for it looked as if he had +plunged over the cliff; but she was too busy keeping him in sight to stop and +think about this. She quickened her pace and was soon among the trees herself. +Looking down, she could see a steep and narrow path going slantwise down into +the gorge between rocks, and Aslan descending it. He turned and looked at her +with his happy eyes. Lucy clapped her hands and began to scramble down after +him. From behind her she heard the voices of the others shouting, “Hi! Lucy! +Look out, for goodness’ sake. You’re right on the edge of the gorge. Come back - +“and then, a moment later, Edmund’s voice saying, “No, she’s right. There is a +way down.” + +Half-way down the path Edmund caught up with her. + +“Look!” he said in great excitement. “Look! What’s that shadow crawling +down in front of us?” + +“It’s his shadow,” said Lucy. + +“I do believe you’re right, Lu,” said Edmund. “I can’t think how I didn’t see +it before. But where is he?” + +“With his shadow, of course. Can’t you see him?” + +“Well, I almost thought I did - for a moment. It’s such a rum light.” + + + +“Get on, King Edmund, get on,” came Trumpkin’s voice from behind and +above: and then, farther behind and still nearly at the top, Peter’s voice saying, +“Oh, buck up, Susan. Give me your hand. Why, a baby could get down here. +And do stop grousing.” + +In a few minutes they were at the bottom and the roaring of water filled their +ears. Treading delicately, like a cat, Aslan stepped from stone to stone across the +stream. In the middle he stopped, bent down to drink, and as he raised his shaggy +head, dripping from the water, he turned to face them again. This time Edmund +saw him. “Oh, Aslan!” he cried, darting forward. But the Lion whisked round +and began padding up the slope on the far side of the Rush. + +“Peter, Peter,” cried Edmund. “Did you see?” + +“I saw something,” said Peter. “But it’s so tricky in this moonlight. On we +go, though, and three cheers for Lucy. I don’t feel half so tired now, either.” + +Aslan without hesitation led them to their left, farther up the gorge. The +whole journey was odd and dream-like the roaring stream, the wet grey grass, +the glimmering cliffs which they were approaching, and always the glorious, +silently pacing Beast ahead. Everyone except Susan and the Dwarf could see +him now. + +Presently they came to another steep path, up the face of the farther +precipices. These were far higher than the ones they had just descended, and the +journey up them was a long and tedious zig-zag. Fortunately the Moon shone +right above the gorge so that neither side was in shadow. + +Lucy was nearly blown when the tail and hind legs of Aslan disappeared +over the top: but with one last effort she scrambled after him and came out, +rather shaky-legged and breathless, on the hill they had been trying to reach ever +since they left Glasswater. The long gentle slope (heather and grass and a few +very big rocks that shone white in the moonlight) stretched up to where it +vanished in a glimmer of trees about half a mile away. She knew it. It was the +hill of the Stone Table: + +With a jingling of mail the others climbed up behind her. Aslan glided on +before them and they walked after him. + +“Lucy,” said Susan in a very small voice. + +“Yes?” said Lucy. + +“I see him now. I’m sorry.” + +“That’s all right.” + +“But I’ve been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him - he, I +mean - yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I +really believed it was him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down +inside. Or I could have, if I’d let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the + + + +woods and - and - oh, I don’t know. And what ever am I to say to him?” + +“Perhaps you won’t need to say much,” suggested Lucy. + +Soon they reached the trees and through them the children could see the +Great Mound, Aslan’s How, which had been raised over the Table since their +days. + +“Our side don’t keep very good watch,” muttered Trumpkin. “We ought to +have been challenged before now -“ + +“Hush!” said the other four, for now Aslan had stopped and turned and stood +facing them, looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels +afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad. The boys strode forward: +Lucy made way for them: Susan and the Dwarf shrank back. + +“Oh, Aslan,” said King Peter, dropping on one knee and raising the Lion’s +heavy paw to his face, “I’m so glad. And I’m so sorry. I’ve been leading them +wrong ever since we started and especially yesterday morning.” + +“My dear son,” said Aslan. + +Then he turned and welcomed Edmund. “Well done,” were his words. + +Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, “Susan.” Susan made no +answer but the others thought she was crying. “You have listened to fears, child,” +said Aslan. “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?” + +“A little, Aslan,” said Susan. + +“And now!” said Aslan in a much louder voice with just a hint of roar in it, +while his tail lashed his flanks. “And now, where is this little Dwarf, this famous +swordsman and archer, who doesn’t believe in lions? Come here, son of Earth, +come HERE!” - and the last word was no longer the hint of a roar but almost the +real thing. + +“Wraiths and wreckage!” gasped Trumpkin in the ghost of a voice. The +children, who knew Aslan well enough to see that he liked the Dwarf very much, +were not disturbed; but it was quite another thing for Trumpkin, who had never +seen a lion before, let alone this Lion. He did the only sensible thing he could +have done; that is, instead of bolting, he tottered towards Aslan. + +Aslan pounced. Have you ever seen a very young kitten being carried in the +mother cat’s mouth? It was like that. The Dwarf, hunched up in a little, +miserable ball, hung from Aslan’s mouth. The Lion gave him one shake and all +his armour rattled like a tinker’s pack and then - heypresto - the Dwarf flew up +in the air. He was as safe as if he had been in bed, though he did not feel so. As +he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother’s arms +and set him (right way up, too) on the ground. + +“Son of Earth, shall we be friends?” asked Aslan. + +“Ye - he - he - hes,” panted the Dwarf, for it had not yet got its breath back. + + + +“Now,” said Aslan. “The Moon is setting. Look behind you: there is the +dawn beginning. We have no time to lose. You three, you sons of Adam and son +of Earth, hasten into the Mound and deal with what you will find there.” + +The Dwarf was still speechless and neither of the boys dared to ask if Aslan +would follow them. All three drew their swords and saluted, then turned and +jingled away into the dusk. Lucy noticed that there was no sign of weariness in +their faces: both the High King and King Edmund looked more like men than +boys. + +The girls watched them out of sight, standing close beside Aslan. The light +was changing. Low down in the east, Aravir, the morning star of Narnia, +gleamed like a little moon. Aslan, who seemed larger than before, lifted his head, +shook his mane, and roared. + +The sound, deep and throbbing at first like an organ beginning on a low note, +rose and became louder, and then far louder again, till the earth and air were +shaking with it. It rose up from that hill and floated across all Narnia. Down in +Miraz’s camp men woke, stared palely in one another’s faces, and grasped their +weapons. Down below that in the Great River, now at its coldest hour, the heads +and shoulders of the nymphs, and the great weedy-bearded head of the river-god, +rose from the water. Beyond it, in every field and wood, the alert ears of rabbits +rose from their holes, the sleepy heads of birds came out from under wings, owls +hooted, vixens barked, hedgehogs grunted, the trees stirred. In towns and +villages mothers pressed babies close to their breasts, staring with wild eyes, +dogs whimpered, and men leaped up groping for lights. Far away on the northern +frontier the mountain giants peered from the dark gateways of their castles. + +What Lucy and Susan saw was a dark something coming to them from +almost every direction across the hills. It looked first like a black mist creeping +on the ground, then like the stormy waves of a black sea rising higher and higher +as it came on, and then, at last, like what it was woods on the move. All the trees +of the world appeared to be rushing towards Aslan. But as they drew nearer they +looked less like trees; and when the whole crowd, bowing and curtsying and +waving thin long arms to Aslan, were all around Lucy, she saw that it was a +crowd of human shapes. Pale birch-girls were tossing their heads, willowwomen +pushed back their hair from their brooding faces to gaze on Aslan, the queenly +beeches stood still and adored him, shaggy oak-men, lean and melancholy elms, +shockheaded hollies (dark themselves, but their wives all bright with berries) and +gay rowans, all bowed and rose again, shouting, “Aslan, Aslan!” in their various +husky or creaking or wave-like voices. + +The crowd and the dance round Aslan (for it had become a dance once more) +grew so thick and rapid that Lucy was confused. She never saw where certain + + + +other people came from who were soon capering about among the trees. One +was a youth, dressed only in a fawn-skin, with vine-leaves wreathed in his curly +hair. His face would have been almost too pretty for a boy’s, if it had not looked, +so extremely wild. You felt, as Edmund said when he saw him a few days later, +“There’s a chap who might do anything absolutely anything.” He seemed to have +a great many names - Bromios, Bassareus, and the Ram were three of them. +There were a lot of girls with him, as wild as he. There was even, unexpectedly, +someone on a donkey. And everybody was laughing: and everybody was +shouting out, “Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi.” + +“Is it a Romp, Aslan?” cried the youth. And apparently it was. But nearly +everyone seemed to have a different idea as to what they were playing. It may +have been Tig, but Lucy never discovered who was It. It was rather like Blind +Man’s Buff, only everyone behaved as if they were blindfolded. It was not unlike +Hunt the Slipper, but the slipper was never found. What made it more +complicated was that the man on the donkey, who was old and enormously fat, +began calling out at once, “Refreshments! Time for refreshments,” and falling +off his donkey and being bundled on to it again by the others, while the donkey +was under the impression that the whole thing was a circus and tried to give a +display of walking on its hind legs. And all the time there were more and more +vine leaves everywhere. And soon not only leaves but vines. They were climbing +up everything. They were running up the legs of the tree people and circling +round their necks. Lucy put up her hands to push back her hair and found she +was pushing back vine branches. The donkey was a mass of them. His tail was +completely entangled and something dark was nodding between his ears. Lucy +looked again and saw it was a bunch of grapes. After that it was mostly grapes +overhead and underfoot and all around. + +“Refreshments! Refreshments,” roared the old man. + +Everyone began eating, and whatever hothouses your people may have, you +have never tasted such grapes. Really good grapes, firm and tight on the outside, +but bursting into cool sweetness when you put them into your mouth, were one +of the things the girls had never had quite enough of before. Here, there were +more than anyone could possibly want, and rib table-manners at all. One saw +sticky and stained fingers everywhere, and, though mouths were full, the +laughter never ceased nor the yodelling cries of Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi-oi, till all +of a sudden everyone felt at the same moment that the game (whatever it was), +and the feast, ought to be over, and everyone flopped down breathless on the +ground and turned their faces to Aslan to hear what he would say next. + +At that moment the sun was just rising and Lucy remembered something and +whispered to Susan, + + + +“I say, Su, I know who they are.” + +“Who?” + +“The boy with the wild face is Bacchus and the old one on the donkey is +Silenus. Don’t you remember Mr Tumnus telling us about them long ago?” + +“Yes, of course. But I say, Lu “ + +“What?” + +“I wouldn’t have felt safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we’d met +them without Aslan.” + +“I should think not,” said Lucy. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +SORCERY AND SUDDEN VENGEANCE + +MEANWHILE Trumpkin and the two boys arrived at the dark little stone +archway which led into the inside of the Mound, and two sentinel badgers (the +white patches on their cheeks were all Edmund could see of them) leaped up +with bared teeth and asked them in snarling voices, “Who goes there?” + +“Trumpkin,” said the Dwarf. “Bringing the High King of Narnia out of the +far past.” + +The badgers nosed at the boys’ hands. “At last,” they said. “At last.” + +“Give us a light, friends,” said Trumpkin. + +The badgers found a torch just inside the arch and Peter lit it and handed it to +Trumpkin. “The D.L.F. had better lead,” he said. “We don’t know our way about +this place.” + +Trumpkin took the torch and went ahead into the dark tunnel. It was a cold, +black, musty place, with an occasional bat fluttering in the torchlight, and plenty +of cobwebs. The boys, who had been mostly in the open air since that morning at +the railway station, felt as if they were going into a trap or a prison. + +“I say, Peter,” whispered Edmund. “Look at those carvings on the walls. +Don’t they look old? And yet we’re older than that. When we were last here, +they hadn’t been made.” + +“Yes,” said Peter. “That makes one think.” + +The Dwarf went on ahead and then turned to the right, and then to the left, +and then down some steps, and then to the left again. Then at last they saw a +light ahead - light from under a door. And now for the first time they heard +voices, for they had come to the door of the central chamber. The voices inside +were angry ones. Someone was talking so loudly that the approach of the boys +and the Dwarf had not been heard. + +“Don’t like the sound of that,” whispered Trumpkin to Peter. “Let’s listen for +a moment.” All three stood perfectly still on the outside of the door. + +“You know well enough,” said a voice (’’That’s the King,” whispered +Trumpkin), “why the Horn was not blown at sunrise this morning. Have you +forgotten that Miraz fell upon us almost before Trumpkin had gone, and we were +fighting for our lives for the space of three hours and more? I blew it when first I +had a breathing space.” + +“I’m not likely to forget it,” came the angry voice, “when my Dwarfs bore +the brunt of the attack and one in five of them fell.” (’’That’s Nikabrik,” + + + +whispered Trumpkin.) + +“For shame, Dwarf,” came a thick voice (’’Trufflehunter’s,” said Trumpkin). +“We all did as much as the Dwarfs and none more than the King.” + +“Tell that tale your own way for all I care,” answered Nikabrik. “But whether +it was that the Horn was blown too late, or whether there was no magic in it, no +help has come. You, you great clerk, you master magician, you know-all; are you +still asking us to hang our hopes on Aslan and King Peter and all the rest of it?” + +“I must confess -1 cannot deny it - that I am deeply disappointed in the result +of the operation,” came the answer. (’’That’ll be Doctor Cornelius,” said +Trumpkin.) + +“To speak plainly,” said Nikabrik, “your wallet’s empty, your eggs addled, +your fish uncaught, your promises broken. Stand aside then and let others work. +And that is why -“ + +“The help will come,” said Trufflehunter. “I stand by Aslan. Have patience, +like us beasts. The help will come. It may be even now at the door.” + +“Pah!” snarled Nikabrik. “You badgers would have us wait till the sky falls +and we can all catch larks. I tell you we can’t wait. Food is running short; we +lose more than we can afford at every encounter; our followers are slipping +away.” + +“And why?” asked Trufflehunter. “I’ll tell you why. Because it is noised +among them that we have called on the Kings of old and the Kings of old have +not answered. The last words Trumpkin spoke before he went (and went, most +likely, to his death) were, 'If you must blow the Horn, do not let the army know +why you blow it or what you hope from it.’ But that same evening everyone +seemed to know.” + +“You’d better have shoved your grey snout in a hornets’ nest, Badger, than +suggest that I am the blab,” said Nikabrik. “Take it back, or-“ + +“Oh, stop it, both of you,” said King Caspian. “I want to know what it is that +Nikabrik keeps on hinting we should do. But before that, I want to know who +those two strangers are whom he has brought into our council and who stand +there with their ears open and their mouths shut.” + +“They are friends of mine,” said Nikabrik. “And what better right have you +yourself to be here than that you are a friend of Trumpkin’s and the Badger’s? +And what right has that old dotard in the black gown to be here except that he is +your friend? Why am I to be the only one who can’t bring in his friends?” + +“His Majesty is the King to whom you have sworn allegiance,” said +Trufflehunter sternly. + +“Court manners, court manners,” sneered Nikabrik. “But in this hole we may +talk plainly. You know - and he knows that this Telmarine boy will be king of + + + +nowhere and nobody in a week unless we can help him out of the trap in which +he sits.” + +“Perhaps,” said Cornelius, “your new friends would like to speak for +themselves? You there, who and what are you?” + +“Worshipful Master Doctor,” came a thin, whining voice. “So please you, +I’m only a poor old woman, I am, and very obliged to his Worshipful Dwarf ship +for his friendship, I’m sure. His Majesty, bless his handsome face, has no need to +be afraid of an old woman that’s nearly doubled up with the rheumatics and +hasn’t two sticks to put under her kettle. I have some poor little skill - not like +yours, Master Doctor, of course - in small spells and cantrips that I’d be glad to +use against our enemies if it was agreeable to all concerned. For I hate 'em. Oh +yes. No one hates better than me.” + +“That is all most interesting and - er - satisfactory,” said Doctor Cornelius. “I +think I now know what you are, Madam. Perhaps your other friend, Nikabrik, +would give some account of himself?” + +A dull, grey voice at which Peter’s flesh crept replied, “I’m hunger. I’m +thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my +mouthful from my enemy’s body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years +and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a +river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.” + +“And it is in the presence of these two that you wish to disclose your plan?” +said Caspian. + +“Yes,” said Nikabrik. “And by their help that I mean to execute it.” + +There was a minute or two during which Trumpkin and the boys could hear +Caspian and his two friends speaking in low voices but could not make out what +they were saying. Then Caspian spoke aloud. + +“Well, Nikabrik,” he said, “we will hear your plan.” + +There was a pause so long that the boys began to wonder if Nikabrik was +ever going to begin; when he did, it was in a lower voice, as if he himself did not +much like what he was saying. + +“All said and done,” he muttered, “none of us knows the truth about the +ancient days in Narnia. Trumpkin believed none of the stories. I was ready to put +them to the trial. We tried first the Horn and it has failed. If there ever was a +High King Peter and a Queen Susan and a King Edmund and a Queen Lucy, then +either they have not heard us, or they cannot come, or they are our enemies -“ + +“Or they are on the way,” put in Trufflehunter. + +“You can go on saying that till Miraz has fed us all to his dogs. As I was +saying, we have tried one link in the chain of old legends, and it has done us no +good. Well. But when your sword breaks, you draw your dagger. The stories tell + + + +of other powers beside the ancient Kings and Queens. How if we could call them +up?” + +“If you mean Aslan,” said Tmfflehunter, “it’s all one calling on him and on +the Kings. They were his servants. If he will not send them (but I make no doubt +he will), is he more likely to come himself?” + +“No. You’re right there,” said Nikabrik. “Aslan and the Kings go together. +Either Aslan is dead, or he is not on our side. Or else something stronger than +himself keeps him back. And if he did come - how do we know he’d be our +friend? He was not always a good friend to Dwarfs by all that’s told. Not even to +all beasts. Ask the Wolves. And anyway, he was in Narnia only once that I ever +heard of, and he didn’t stay long. You may drop Aslan out of the reckoning. I +was thinking of someone else.” + +There was no answer, and for a few minutes it was so still that Edmund could +hear the wheezy and snuffling breath of the Badger. + +“Who do you mean?” said Caspian at last. + +“I mean a power so much greater than Aslan’s that it held Narnia spellbound +for years and years, if the stories are true.” + +“The White Witch!” cried three voices all at once, and from the noise Peter +guessed that three people had leaped to their feet. + +“Yes,” said Nikabrik very slowly and distinctly, “I mean the Witch. Sit down +again. Don’t all take fright at a name as if you were children. We want power: +and we want a power that will be on our side. As for power, do not the stories +say that the Witch defeated Aslan, and bound him, and killed him on that very +stone which is over there, just beyond the light?” + +“But they also say that he came to life again,” said the Badger sharply. + +“Yes, they say,” answered Nikabrik, “but you’ll notice that we hear precious +little about anything he did afterwards. He just fades out of the story. How do +you explain that, if he really came to life? Isn’t it much more likely that he +didn’t, and that the stories say nothing more about him because there was +nothing more to say?” + +“He established the Kings and Queens,” said Caspian. + +“A King who has just won a great battle can usually establish himself +without the help of a performing lion,” said Nikabrik. There was a fierce growl, +probably from Trufflehunter. + +“And anyway,” Nikabrik continued, “what came of the Kings and their +reign? They faded too. But it’s very different with the Witch. They say she ruled +for a hundred years: a hundred years of winter. There’s power, if you like. +There’s something practical.” + +“But, heaven and earth!” said the King, “haven’t we always been told that + + + +she was the worst enemy of all? Wasn’t she a tyrant ten times worse than +Miraz?” + +“Perhaps,” said Nikabrik in a cold voice. “Perhaps she was for you humans, +if there were any of you in those days. Perhaps she was for some of the beasts. +She stamped out the Beavers, I dare say; at least there are none of them in +Narnia now. But she got on all right with us Dwarfs. I’m a Dwarf and I stand by +my own people. We’re not afraid of the Witch.” + +“But you’ve joined with us,” said Trufflehunter. + +“Yes, and a lot of good it has done my people, so far,” snapped Nikabrik. +“Who is sent on all the dangerous !, raids? The Dwarfs. Who goes short when +the rations fail? The Dwarfs. Who -?” + +“Lies! All lies!” said the Badger. + +“And so,” said Nikabrik, whose voice now rose to a scream, “if you can’t +help my people, I’ll go to someone who can.” + +“Is this open treason, Dwarf?” asked the King. + +“Put that sword back in its sheath, Caspian,” said Nikabrik. “Murder at +council, eh? Is that your game? Don’t be fool enough to try it. Do you think I’m +afraid of you? There’s three on my side, and three on yours.” + +“Come on, then,” snarled Trufflehunter, but he was immediately interrupted. + +“Stop, stop, stop,” said Doctor Cornelius. “You go on too fast. The Witch is +dead. All the stories agree on that. What does Nikabrik mean by calling on the +Witch?” + +That grey and terrible voice which had spoken only once before said, “Oh, is +she?” + +And then the shrill, whining voice began, “Oh, bless his heart, his dear little +Majesty needn’t mind about the White Lady - that’s what we call her - being +dead. The Worshipful Master Doctor is only making game of a poor old woman +like me when he says that. Sweet Mastery Doctor, learned Master Doctor, who +ever heard of a witch that really died? You can always get them back.” + +“Call her up,” said the grey voice. “We are all ready. Draw the circle. Prepare +the blue fire.” + +Above the steadily increasing growl of the Badger and Cornelius’s sharp +“What?” rose the voice of King Caspian like thunder. + +“So that is your plan, Nikabrik! Black sorcery and the calling up of an +accursed ghost. And I see who your companions are-a Hag and a Werewolf!” + +The next minute or so was very confused. There was an animal roaring, a +clash of steel; the boys and Trumpkin rushed in; Peter had a glimpse of a +horrible, grey, gaunt creature, half man and half wolf, in the very act of leaping +upon a boy about his own age, and Edmund saw a badger and a Dwarf rolling on + + + +the floor in a sort of cat fight. Trumpkin found himself face to face with the Hag. +Her nose and chin stuck out like a pair of nut-crackers, her dirty grey hair was +flying about her face and she had just got Doctor Cornelius by the throat. At one +slash of Trumpkin’s sword her head rolled on the floor. Then the light was +knocked over and it was all swords, teeth, claws, fists, and boots for about sixty +seconds. Then silence. + +“Are you all right, Ed?” + +“I - I think so,” panted Edmund. “Eve got that brute Nikabrik, but he’s still +alive.” + +“Weights and water-bottles!” came an angry voice. “It’s me you’re sitting on. +Get off. You’re like a young elephant.” + +“Sorry, D.L.F.,” said Edmund. “Is that better?” + +“Ow! No!” bellowed Trumpkin. “You’re putting your ‘ boot in my mouth. +Go away.” ' + +“Is King Caspian anywhere?” asked Peter. + +“I’m here,” said a rather faint voice. “Something bit me.” + +They all heard the noise of someone striking a match. It was Edmund. The +little flame showed his face, looking pale and dirty. He blundered about for a +little, found the candle (they were no longer using the lamp, for they had run out +of oil), set it on the table, and lit it. When the flame rose clear, several people +scrambled to their feet. Six faces blinked at one another in the candlelight. + +“We don’t seem to have any enemies left,” said Peter. “There’s the Hag, +dead.” (He turned his eyes quickly away from her.) “And Nikabrik, dead too. +And I suppose this thing is a Werewolf. It’s so long since I’ve seen one. Wolf’s +head and man’s body. That means he was just turning from man into wolf at the +moment he was killed. And you, I suppose, are King Caspian?” + +“Yes,” said the other boy. “But I’ve no idea who you are.” + +“It’s the High King, King Peter,” said Trumpkin. + +“Your Majesty is very welcome,” said Caspian. + +“And so is your Majesty,” said Peter. “I haven’t come to take your place, you +know, but to put you into it.” , + +“Your Majesty,” said another voice at Peter’s elbow. He turned and found +himself face to face with the Badger. + +Peter leaned forward, put his arms round the beast and kissed the furry head: +it wasn’t a girlish thing for him to do, because he was the High King. + +“Best of badgers,” he said. “You never doubted us all through.” + +“No credit to me, your Majesty,” said Trufflehunter. “I'm a beast and we +don’t change. I’m a badger, what’s more, and we hold on.” + +“I am sorry for Nikabrik,” said Caspian, “though he hated me from the first + + + +moment he saw me. He had gone sour inside from long suffering and hating. If +we had won quickly he might have become a good Dwarf in the days of peace. I +don’t know which of us killed him. I’m glad of that.” + +“You’re bleeding,” said Peter. + +“Yes, I’m bitten,” said Caspian. “It was that - that wolf thing.” Cleaning and +bandaging the wound took a long time, and when it was done Trumpkin said, +“Now. Before everything else we want some breakfast.” + +“But not here,” said Peter. + +“No,” said Caspian with a shudder. “And we must send someone to take +away the bodies.” + +“Let the vermin be flung into a pit,” said Peter. “But the Dwarf we will give +to his people to be buried in their own fashion.” + +They breakfasted at last in another of the dark cellars of Aslan’s How. It was +not such a breakfast as they would have chosen, for Caspian and Cornelius were +thinking of venison pasties, and Peter and Edmund of buttered eggs and hot +coffee, but what everyone got was a little bit of cold bear-meat (out of the boys’ +pockets), a lump of hard cheese, an onion, and a mug of water. But, from the +way they fell to, anyone would have supposed it was delicious. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +THE HIGH KING IN COMMAND + +“Now,” said Peter, as they finished their meal, “Aslan and the girls (that’s +Queen Susan and Queen Lucy, Caspian) are somewhere close. We don’t know +when he will act. In his time, no doubt, not ours. In the meantime he would like +us to do what we can on our own. You say, Caspian, we are not strong enough to +meet Miraz in pitched battle?” + +“I’m afraid not, High King,” said Caspian. He was liking Peter very much, +but was rather tongue-tied. It was much stranger for him to meet the great Kings +out of the old stories than it was for them to meet him. + +“Very well, then,” said Peter, “I’ll send him a challenge to single combat.” +No one had thought of this before. + +“Please,” said Caspian, “could it not be me? I want to avenge my father.” + +“You’re wounded,” said Peter. “And anyway, wouldn’t he just laugh at a +challenge from you? I mean, we have seen that you are a king and a warrior but +he thinks of you as a kid.” + +“But, Sire,” said the Badger, who sat very close to Peter and never took his +eyes off him. “Will he accept a . challenge even from you? He knows he has the +stronger . army.” + +“Very likely he won’t,” said Peter, “but there’s always the chance. And even +if he doesn’t, we shall spend the best part of the day sending heralds to and fro +and all that. By then Aslan may have done something. And at least I can inspect +the army and strengthen the position. I will send the challenge. In fact I will +write it at once. Have you pen and ink, Master Doctor?” + +“A scholar is never without them, your Majesty,” answered Doctor +Cornelius. + +“Very well, I will dictate,” said Peter. And while the Doctor spread out a +parchment and opened his ink-horn and sharpened his pen, Peter leant back with +half-closed eyes and recalled to his mind the language in which he had written +such things long ago in Narnia’s golden age. + +“Right,” he said at last. “And now, if you are ready, Doctor?” + +Doctor Cornelius dipped his pen and waited. Peter dictated as follows: + +“Peter, by the gift of Aslan, by election, by prescription, and by conquest, +High King over all Kings in Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands and Lord of +Cair Paravel, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Lion, to Miraz, Son of +Caspian the Eighth, sometime Lord Protector of Narnia and now styling himself + + + +King of Narnia, Greeting. Have you got that?” + +“Narnia, comma, greeting,” muttered the Doctor. “Yes, Sire.” + +“Then begin a new paragraph,” said Peter. “For to prevent the effusion of +blood, and for the avoiding all other inconveniences likely to grow from the wars +now levied in our realm of Narnia, it is our pleasure to adventure our royal +person on behalf of our trusty and well-beloved Caspian in clean wager of battle +to prove upon your Lordship’s body that the said Caspian is lawful King under +us in Narnia both by our gift and by the laws of the Telmarines, and your +Lordship twice guilty of treachery both in withholding the dominion of Narnia +from the said Caspian and in the most abhominable, - don’t forget to spell it with +an H, Doctor - bloody, and unnatural murder of your kindly lord and brother +King Caspian Ninth of that name. Wherefore we most heartily provoke, +challenge, and defy your Lordship to the said combat and monomachy, and have +sent these letters by the hand of our well beloved and royal brother Edmund, +sometime King under us in Narnia, Duke of Lantern Waste and Count of the +Western March, Knight of the Noble Order of the Table, to whom we have given +full power of determining with your Lordship all the conditions of the said +battle. Given at our lodging in Aslan’s How this XII day of the month Greenroof +in the first year of Caspian Tenth of Narnia. + +“That ought to do,” said Peter, drawing a deep breath. + +“And now we must send two others with King Edmund. I think the Giant +ought to be one.” + +“He’s - he’s not very clever, you know,” said Caspian. + +“Of course not,” said Peter. “But any giant looks impressive if only he will +keep quiet. And it will cheer him up. But who for the other?” + +“Upon my word,” said Trumpkin, “if you want someone who can kill with +looks, Reepicheep would be the best.” + +“He would indeed, from all I hear,” said Peter with a laugh. “If only he +wasn’t so small. They wouldn’t even see him till he was close!” + +“Send Glenstorm, Sire,” said Trufflehunter. “No one ever laughed at a +Centaur.” + +An hour later two great lords in the army of Miraz, the Lord Glozelle and the +Lord Sopespian, strolling along their lines and picking their teeth after breakfast, +looked up and saw coming down to them from the wood the Centaur and Giant +Wimbleweather, whom they had seen before in battle, and between them a figure +they could not recognize. Nor indeed would the other boys at Edmund’s school +have recognized him if they could have seen him at that moment. For Aslan had +breathed on him at their meeting and a kind of greatness hung about him. + +“What’s to do?” said the Lord Glozelle. “An attack?” + + + +“A parley, rather,” said Sopespian. “See, they carry green branches. They are +coming to surrender most likely.” + +“He that is walking between the Centaur and the Giant has no look of +surrender in his face,” said Glozelle. “Who can he be? It is not the boy Caspian.” + +“No indeed,” said Sopespian. “This is a fell warrior, I warrant you, wherever +the rebels have got him from. He is (in your Lordship’s private ear) a kinglier +man than ever Miraz was. And what mail he wears! None of our smiths can +make the like.” + +“I’ll wager my dappled Pomely he brings a challenge, not a surrender,” said +Glozelle. + +“How then?” said Sopespian. “We hold the enemy in our fist here. Miraz +would never be so hair-brained as to throw away his advantage on a combat.” + +“He might be brought to it,” said Glozelle in a much lower voice. + +“Softly,” said Sopespian. “Step a little aside here out of earshot of those +sentries. Now. Have I taken your Lordship’s meaning aright?” + +“If the King undertook wager of battle,” whispered Glozelle, “why, either he +would kill or be killed.” + +“So,” said Sopespian, nodding his head. + +“And if he killed we should have won this war.” + +“Certainly. And if not?” + +“Why, if not, we should be as able to win it without the King’s grace as with +him. For I need not tell your Lordship that Miraz is no very great captain. And +after that, we should be both victorious and kingless.” + +“And it is your meaning, my Lord, that you and I could hold this land quite +as conveniently without a King as with one?” + +Glozelle’s face grew ugly. “Not forgetting,” said he, “that it was we who first +put him on the throne. And in all the years that he has enjoyed it, what fruits +have come our way? What gratitude has he shown us?” + +“Say no more,” answered Sopespian. “But look - herd comes one to fetch us +to the King’s tent.” ' + +When they reached Miraz’s tent they saw Edmund and his two companions +seated outside it and being entertained with cakes and wine, having already +delivered the challenge, and withdrawn while the King was considering it. When +they saw them thus at close quarters the two Telmarine lords thought all three of +them very alarming. + +Inside, they found Miraz, unarmed and finishing his breakfast. His face was +flushed and there was a scowl on his brow. + +“There!” he growled, flinging the parchment across the table to them. “See +what a pack of nursery tales our jackanapes of a nephew has sent us.” + + + +“By your leave, Sire,” said Glozelle. “If the young warrior whom we have +just seen outside is the King Edmund mentioned in the writing, then I would not +call him a nursery tale but a very dangerous knight.” + +“King Edmund, pah!” said Miraz. “Does your Lordship believe those old +wives’ fables about Peter and Edmund and the rest?” + +“I believe my eyes, your Majesty,” said Glozelle. + +“Well, this is to no purpose,” said Miraz, “but as touching the challenge, I +suppose there is only one opinion between us?” + +“I suppose so, indeed, Sire,” said Glozelle. + +“And what is that?” asked the King. + +“Most infallibly to refuse it,” said Glozelle. “For though I have never been +called a coward, I must plainly say that to meet that young man in battle is more +than my heart would serve me for. And if (as is likely) his brother, the High +King, is more dangerous than he why, on your life, my Lord King, have nothing +to do with him.” + +“Plague on you!” cried Miraz. “It was not that sort of council I wanted. Do +you think I am asking you if I should be afraid to meet this Peter (if there is such +a man)? Do you think I fear him? I wanted your counsel on the policy of the +matter; whether we, having the advantage, should hazard it on a wager of battle.” + +“To which I can only answer, your Majesty,” said Glozelle, “that for all +reasons the challenge should be refused. There is death in the strange knight’s +face.” + +“There you are again!” said Miraz, now thoroughly angry. “Are you trying, +to make it appear that I am as great a coward as your Lordship?” + +“Your Majesty may say your pleasure,” said Glozelle sulkily. + +“You talk like an old woman, Glozelle,” said the King. “What say you, my +Lord Sopespian?” + +“Do not touch it, Sire,” was the reply. “And what your Majesty says of the +policy of the thing comes in very happily. It gives your Majesty excellent +grounds for a refusal without any cause for questioning your Majesty’s honour or +courage.” + +“Great Heaven!” exclaimed Miraz, jumping to his feet. “Are you also +bewitched today? Do you think I am looking for grounds to refuse it? You might +as well call me coward to my face.” + +The conversation was going exactly as the two lords wished, so they said +nothing. + +“I see what it is,” said Miraz, after staring at them as if his eyes would start +out of his head, “you are as lilylivered as hares yourselves and have the +effrontery to imagine my heart after the likeness of yours! Grounds for a refusal, + + + +indeed! Excuses for not fighting! Are you soldiers? Are you Telmarines? Are +you men? And if I dog refuse it (as ail good reasons of captaincy and martial +policy urge me to do) you will think, and teach others tan think, I was afraid. Is it +not so?” + +“No man of your Majesty’s age,” said Glozelle, “would be called coward by +any wise soldier for refusing the combat with a great warrior in the flower of his +youth.” + +“So I’m to be a dotard with one foot in the grave, as well as a dastard,” +roared Miraz. “I’ll tell you what it is, my Lords. With your womanish counsels +(ever shying from the true point, which is one of policy) you have done the very +opposite of your intent. I had meant to refuse it. But I’ll accept it. Do you hear, +accept it! I’ll not be shamed because some witchcraft or treason has frozen both +your bloods.” + +“We beseech your Majesty said Glozelle, but Miraz had flung out of the +tent and they could hear him bawling out his acceptance to Edmund. + +The two lords looked at one another and chuckled quietly. + +“I knew he’d do it if he were properly chafed,” said Glozelle. “But I’ll not +forget he called me coward. It shall be paid for.” + +There was a great stirring at Aslan’s How when the news came back and was +communicated to the various creatures. Edmund, with one of Miraz’s captains, +had already marked out the place for the combat, and ropes and stakes had been +put round it. Two Telmarines were to stand at two of the corners, and one in the +middle of one side, as marshals of the lists. Three marshals for the other two +corners and the other side were to be furnished by the High King. Peter was just +explaining to Caspian that he could not be one, because his right to the throne +was what they were fighting about, when suddenly a thick, sleepy voice said, +“Your Majesty, please.” Peter turned and there stood the eldest of the Bulgy +Bears. + +“If you please, your Majesty,” he said, “I’m a bear, I am.” + +“To be sure, so you are, and a good bear too, I don’t doubt,” said Peter. + +“Yes,” said the Bear. “But it was always a right of the, bears to supply one +marshal of the lists.” + +“Don’t let him,” whispered Trumpkin to Peter. “He’s a good creature, but +he’ll shame us all. He’ll go to sleep and he will suck his paws. In front of the +enemy too.” + +“I can’t help that,” said Peter. “Because he’s quite right. The Bears had that +privilege. I can’t imagine how it has been remembered all these years, when so +many other things have been forgotten.” + +“Please, your Majesty,” said the Bear. + + + +“It is your right,” said Peter. “And you shall be one of the marshals. But you +must remember not to suck your paws.” + +“Of course not,” said the Bear in a very shocked voice. + +“Why, you’re doing it this minute!” bellowed Trumpkin. + +The Bear whipped his paw out of his mouth and pretended he hadn’t heard. + +“Sire!” came a shrill voice from near the ground. + +“Ah - Reepicheep!” said Peter after looking up and down and round as +people usually did when addressed by the Mouse. + +“Sire,” said Reepicheep. “My life is ever at your command, but my honour is +my own. Sire, I have among my people the only trumpeter in your Majesty’s +army. I had thought, perhaps, we might have been sent with the challenge. Sire, +my people are grieved. Perhaps if it were your pleasure that I should be a +marshal of the lists, it would content them.” + +A noise not unlike thunder broke out from somewhere overhead at this point, +as Giant Wimbleweather burst into one of those not very intelligent laughs to +which the nicer sorts of Giant are so liable. He checked himself at once and +looked as grave as a turnip by the time Reepicheep discovered where the noise +came from. + +“I am afraid it would not do,” said Peter very gravely. “Some humans are +afraid of mice -“ + +“I had observed it, Sire,” said Reepicheep. + +“And it would not be quite fair to Miraz,” Peter continued, “to have in sight +anything that might abate the edge of his courage.” + +“Your Majesty is the mirror of honour,” said the Mouse with one of his +admirable bows. “And on this matter we have but a single mind... I thought I +heard someone laughing just now. If anyone present wishes to make me the +subject of his wit, I am very much at his service - with my sword - whenever he +has leisure.” + +An awful silence followed this remark, which was broken by Peter saying, +“Giant Wimbleweather and the Bear and the Centaur Glenstorm shall be our +marshals. The combat will be at two hours after noon. Dinner at noon precisely.” + +“I say,” said Edmund as they walked away, “I suppose it is all right. I mean, I +suppose you can beat him?” + +“That’s what I’m fighting him to find out,” said Peter. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +HOW ALL WERE VERY BUSY + +A LITTLE before two o’clock Trumpkin and the Badger sat with the rest of +the creatures at the wood’s edge looking across at the gleaming line of Miraz’s +army which was about two arrow-shots away. In between, a square space of level +grass had been staked for the combat. At the two far corners stood Glozelle and +Sopespian with drawn swords. At the near corners were Giant Wimbleweather +and the Bulgy Bear, who in spite of all their warnings was sucking his paws and +looking, to tell the truth, uncommonly silly. To make up for this, Glenstorm on +the right of the lists, stock-still except when he stamped a hind hoof occasionally +on the turf, looked much more imposing than the Telmarine baron who faced +him on the left. Peter had just shaken hands with Edmund and the Doctor, and +was now walking down to the combat. It was like the moment before the pistol +goes at an important race, but very much worse. + +“I wish Aslan had turned up before it came to this,” said Trumpkin. + +“So do I,” said Trufflehunter. “But look behind you.” + +“Crows and crockery!” muttered the Dwarf as soon as he had done so. “What +are they? Huge people - beautiful people - like gods and goddesses and giants. +Hundreds and thousands of them, closing in behind us. What are they?” + +“It’s the Dryads and Hamadryads and Silvans,” said Trufflehunter. “Aslan +has waked them.” + +“Humph!” said the Dwarf. “That’ll be very useful if the enemy try any +treachery. But it won’t help the High King very much if Miraz proves handier +with his sword.” + +The Badger said nothing, for now Peter and Miraz were entering the lists +from opposite ends, both on foot, both in chain shirts, with helmets and shields. +They advanced till they were close together. Both bowed and seemed to speak,, +but it was impossible to hear what they said. Next moment, the two swords +flashed in the sunlight. For a second the clash could be heard but it was +immediately drowned because both armies began shouting like crowds at a +football match. + +“Well done, Peter, oh, well done!” shouted Edmund as he saw Miraz reel +back a whole pace and a half. “Follow it up, quick!” And Peter did, and for a few +seconds it looked as if the fight might be won. But then Miraz pulled himself +together - began to make real use of his height and weight “Miraz! Miraz! The +King! The King!” came the roar of the Telmarines. Caspian and Edmund grew + + + +white with sickening anxiety. + +“Peter is taking some dreadful knocks,” said Edmund. + +“Hullo!” said Caspian. “What’s happening now?” + +“Both falling apart,” said Edmund. “A bit blown, expect. Watch. Ah, now +they’re beginning again, more scientifically this time. Circling round and round, +feeling each other’s defences.” + +“I’m afraid this Miraz knows his work,” muttered the Doctor. But hardly had +he said this when there was such a clapping and baying and throwing up of +hoods among the Old Narnians that it was nearly deafening. + +“What was it? What was it?” asked the Doctor. “My old eyes missed it.” + +“The High King has pricked him in the arm-pit,” said Caspian, still clapping. +“Just where the arm-hole of the hauberk let the point through. First blood.’ + +“It’s looking ugly again now, though,” said Edmund. “Peter’s not using his +shield properly. He must be hurt in the left arm.” + +It was only too true. Everyone could see that Peter’s shield hung limp. The +shouting of the Telmarines redoubled. + +“You’ve seen more battles than I,” said Caspian. “Is there any chance now?” + +“Precious little,” said Edmund. “I suppose he might just do it. With luck.” + +“Oh, why did we let it happen at all?” said Caspian. + +Suddenly all the shouting on both sides died down. Edmund was puzzled for +a moment. Then he said, “Oh, I see. They’ve both agreed to a rest. Come on, +Doctor. You and I may be able to do something for the High King.’ They ran +down to the lists and Peter came outside the ropes to meet them, his face red and +sweaty, his chest heaving. + +“Is your left arm wounded?” asked Edmund. + +“It’s not exactly a wound,” Peter said. “I got the weight of his shoulder on +my shield - like a load of bricks and the rim of the shield drove into my wrist. I +don’t think it’s broken, but it might be a sprain. If you could tie it up very tight I +think I could manage.” + +While they were doing this, Edmund asked anxiously. “What do you think of +him, Peter?” + +“Tough,” said Peter. “Very tough. I have a chance if can keep him on the hop +till his weight and short wind come against him - in this hot sun too. To tell the +truth, I haven’t much chance else. Give my love to - to everyone at home, Ed, if +he gets me. Here he comes into the lists again + +So long, old chap. Good-bye, Doctor. And I say, Ed, say something specially +nice to Trump kin. He’s been a brick.” + +Edmund couldn’t speak. He walked back with the Doctor to his own lines +with a sick feeling in his stomach. + + + +But the new bout went well. Peter now seemed to be able to make some use +of his shield, and he certainly made good use of his feet. He was almost playing +Tig with Miraz now, keeping out of range, shifting his ground, making the +enemy work. + +“Coward!” booed the Telmarines. “Why don’t you stand up to him? Don’t +you like it, eh? Thought you’d come to fight, not dance. Yah!” + +“Oh, I do hope he won’t listen to them,” said Caspian. + +“Not he,” said Edmund. “You don’t know him - Oh!” for Miraz had got in a +blow at last, on Peter’s helmet. Peter staggered, slipped sideways, and fell on one +knee. The roar of the Telmarines rose like the noise of the sea. “Now, Miraz,” +they yelled. “Now. Quick! Quick! Kill him.” But indeed there was no need to +egg the usurper on. He was on top of Peter already. Edmund bit his lips till the +blood came, as the sword flashed down on Peter. It looked as if it would slash off +his head. Thank heavens! It had glanced down his right shoulder. The Dwarf- +wrought mail was sound and did not break. + +“Great Scott!” cried Edmund. “He’s up again. Peter, go it, Peter.” + +“I couldn’t see what happened,” said the Doctor. “How did he do it?” + +“Grabbed Miraz’s arm as it came down,” said Trumpkin, dancing with +delight. “There’s a man for you! Uses his enemy’s arm as a ladder. The High +King! The High King! Up, Old Narnia!” + +“Look,” said Trufflehunter. “Miraz is angry. It is good.” They were certainly +at it hammer and tongs now: such a flurry of blows that it seemed impossible for +either not to be killed. As the excitement grew, the shouting almost died away. +The spectators were holding their breath. It was most horrible and most +magnificent. + +A great shout arose from the Old Narnians. Miraz was a down - not struck by +Peter, but face downwards, having tripped on a tussock. Peter stepped back, +waiting for him to rise. + +“Oh bother, bother, bother,” said Edmund to himself. “Need he be as +gentlemanly as all that? I suppose he must. Comes of being a Knight and a High +King. I suppose it is what Aslan would like. But that brute will be up again in a +minute and then -“ + +But “that brute” never rose. The Lords Glozelle and Sopespian had their own +plans ready. As soon as they saw their King down they leaped into the lists +crying, “Treachery! Treachery! The Narnian traitor has stabbed him in the back +while he lay helpless. To arms! To arms, Telmar!” + +Peter hardly understood what was happening. He saw two big men running +towards him with drawn swords. Then the third Telmarine had leaped over the +ropes on his; left. “To arms, Narnia! Treachery!” Peter shouted. If all three had + + + +set upon him at once he would never have spoken again. But Glozelle stopped to +stab his own King dead where he lay: “That’s for your insult, this morning,” he +whispered as the blade went home. Peter swung to face Sopespian, slashed his +legs from under him and, with the back-cut of the same stroke, walloped off his +head Edmund was now at his side crying, “Narnia, Narnia! The Lion!” The +whole Telmarine army was rushing toward them. But now the Giant was +stamping forward, stooping low and swinging his club. The Centaurs charged. +Twang, twang behind and hiss, hiss overhead came the archery of Dwarfs. +Trump kin was fighting at his left. Full battle was joined. + +“Come back, Reepicheep, you little ass!” shouted Peter. “You’ll only be +killed. This is no place for mice.” But the ridiculous little creatures were dancing +in and out among the feet of both armies, jabbing with their swords. Many a +Telmarine warrior that day felt his foot suddenly pierced as if by a dozen +skewers, hopped on one leg cursing the pain, and fell as often as not. If he fell, +the mice finished him off; if he did not, someone else did. + +But almost before the Old Narnians were really warmed to their work they +found the enemy giving way. Toughlooking warriors turned white, gazed in +terror not on the Old Narnians but on something behind them, and then flung +down their weapons, shrieking, “The Wood! The Wood! The end of the world!” + +But soon neither their cries nor the sound of weapons could be heard any +more, for both were drowned in the ocean-like roar of the Awakened Trees as +they plunged through the ranks of Peter’s army, and then on, in pursuit of the +Telmarines. Have you ever stood at the edge of a great wood on a high ridge +when a wild south-wester broke over it in full fury on an autumn evening? +Imagine that sound. And then imagine that the wood, instead of being fixed to +one place, was rushing at you; and was no longer trees but huge people; yet still +like trees because their long arms waved like branches and their heads tossed +and leaves fell round them in showers. It was like that for the Telmarines. It was +a little alarming even for the Narnians. In a few minutes all Miraz’s followers +were running down to the Great River in the hope of crossing the bridge to the +town of Beruna and there defending themselves behind ramparts and closed +gates. + +They reached the river, but there was no bridge. It had disappeared since +yesterday. Then utter panic and horror fell upon them and they all surrendered. + +But what had happened to the bridge? + +Early that morning, after a few hours’ sleep, the girls had waked, to see +Aslan standing over them and to hear his voice saying, “We will make holiday.” +They rubbed their eyes and looked round them. The trees had all gone but could +still be seen moving away towards Aslan’s How in a dark mass. Bacchus and the + + + +Maenads - his fierce, madcap girls - and Silenus were still with them. Lucy, fully +rested, jumped up. Everyone was awake, everyone was laughing, flutes were +playing, cymbals clashing. Animals, not Talking Animals, were crowding in +upon them from every direction. + +“What is it, Aslan?” said Lucy, her eyes dancing and her feet wanting to +dance. + +“Come, children,” said he. “Ride on my back again today.” + +“Oh, lovely!” cried Lucy, and both girls climbed on to the warm golden back +as they had done no one knew how many years before. Then the whole party +moved off Aslan leading, Bacchus and his Maenads leaping, rushing, and +turning somersaults, the beasts frisking round them, and Silenus and his donkey +bringing up the rear. + +They turned a little to the right, raced down a steep hill, and found the long +Bridge of Beruna in front of them. Before they had begun to cross it, however, +up out of the water came a great wet, bearded head, larger than a man’s, crowned +with rushes. It looked at Aslan and out of its mouth a deep voice came. + +“Hail, Lord,” it said. “Loose my chains.” + +“Who on earth is that?” whispered Susan. + +“I think it’s the river-god, but hush,” said Lucy. + +“Bacchus,” said Aslan. “Deliver him from his chains.” + +“That means the bridge, I expect,” thought Lucy. And so it did. Bacchus and +his people splashed forward into the shallow water, and a minute later the most +curious things began happening. Great, strong trunks of ivy came curling up all +the piers of the bridge, growing as quickly as a fire grows, wrapping the stones +round, splitting, breaking, separating them. The walls of the bridge turned into +hedges gay with hawthorn for a moment and then disappeared as the whole thing +with a rush and a rumble collapsed into the swirling water. With much splashing, +screaming, and laughter the revellers waded or swam or danced across the ford +(’’Hurrah! It’s the Ford of Beruna again now!” cried the girls) and up the bank on +the far side and into the town. + +Everyone in the streets fled before their faces. The first house they came to +was a school: a girls’ school, where lot of Narnian girls, with their hair done very +tight and ugly tight collars round their necks and thick tickly stockings on their +legs, were having a history lesson. The sort of “History” that was taught in +Narnia under Miraz’s rule was duller than the truest history you ever read and +less true than the most exciting adventure story. + +“If you don’t attend, Gwendolen,” said the mistress, and stop looking out of +the window, I shall have to give you an order-mark.” + +“But please, Miss Prizzle -” began Gwendolen. + + + +“Did you hear what I said, Gwendolen?” asked Miss Prizzle. + +“But please, Miss Prizzle,” said Gwendolen, “there’s a LION!” + +“Take two order-marks for talking nonsense,” said Miss Prizzle. “And now +-” A roar interrupted her. Ivy came curling in at the windows of the classroom. +The walls became a mass of shimmering green, and leafy branches arched +overhead where the ceiling had been. Miss Prizzle found she was standing on +grass in a forest glade. She clutched at her desk to steady herself, and found that +the desk was a rose-bush. Wild people such as she had never even imagined +were crowding round her. Then she saw the Lion, screamed and fled, and with +her fled her class, who were mostly dumpy, prim little girls with fat legs. +Gwendolen hesitated. + +“You’ll stay with us, sweetheart?” said Aslan. + +“Oh, may I? Thank you, thank you,” said Gwendolen. Instantly she joined +hands with two of the Maenads, who whirled her round in a merry dance and +helped her take off some of the unnecessary and uncomfortable clothes that she +was wearing. + +Wherever they went in the little town of Beruna it was the same. Most of the +people fled, a few joined them. When they left the town they were a larger and a +merrier company. + +They swept on across the level fields on the north bank, or left bank, of the +river. At every farm animals came out to join them. Sad old donkeys who had +never known joy grew suddenly young again; chained dogs broke their chains; +horses kicked their carts to pieces and came trotting along with them - clop-clop +- kicking up the mud and whinnying. + +At a well in a yard they met a man who was beating a boy. The stick burst +into flower in the man’s hand. He tried to drop it, but it stuck to his hand. His +arm became a branch, his body the trunk of a tree, his feet took root. The boy, +who had been crying a moment before, burst out laughing and joined them. + +At a little town half-way to Beaversdam, where two rivers met, they came to +another school, where a tiredlooking girl was teaching arithmetic to a number of +boys who looked very like pigs. She looked out of the window and saw the +divine revellers singing up the street and a stab of joy went through her heart. +Aslan stopped right under the window and looked up at her. + +“Oh, don’t, don’t,” she said. “I’d love to. But I mustn’t. I must stick to my +work. And the children would be frightened if they saw you.” + +“Frightened?” said the most pig-like of the boys. “Who’s she talking to out +of the window? Let’s tell the inspector she talks to people out of the window +when she ought to be teaching us.” + +“Let’s go and see who it is,” said another boy, and they all came crowding to + + + +the window. But as soon as their mean little faces looked out, Bacchus gave a +great cry of Euan, euoi-oi-oi-of and the boys all began howling with fright and +trampling one another down to get out of the door and jumping out of the +windows. And it was said afterwards (whether truly or not) that those particular +little boys were never seen again, but that there were a lot of very fine little pigs +in that part of the country which had never been there before. + +“Now, Dear Heart,” said Aslan to the Mistress, and she jumped down and +joined them. + +At Beaversdam they re-crossed the river and came east again along the +southern bank. They came to a little cottage where a child stood in the doorway +crying. “Why are you crying, my love?” asked Aslan. The child, who had never +seen a picture of a lion, was not afraid of him. “Auntie’s very ill,” she said. +“She’s going to die.” Then Aslan went to go in at the door of the cottage, but it +was too small for him. So, when he had got his head through, he pushed with his +shoulders (Lucy and Susan fell off when he did this) and lifted the whole house +up and it fell backwards and apart. And there, still in her bed, though the bed +was now in the open air, lay a little old woman who looked as if she had Dwarf +blood in her. She was at death’s door, but when she opened her eyes and saw the +bright, hairy head of the lion staring into her face, she did not scream or faint. +She said, “Oh, Aslan! I knew it was tme. I’ve been waiting for this all my life. +Have you come to take me away?” + +“Yes, Dearest,” said Aslan. “But not the long journey yet.” And as he spoke, +like the flush creeping along the underside of a cloud at sunrise, the colour came +back to her white face and her eyes grew bright and she sat up and said, “Why, I +do declare I feel that better. I think I could take a little breakfast this morning.” + +“Here you are, mother,” said Bacchus, dipping a pitcher in the cottage well +and handing it to her. But what was in it now was not water but the richest wine, +red as red-currant jelly, smooth as oil, strong as beef, warming as tea, cool as +dew. + +“Eh, you’ve done something to our well,” said the old woman. “That makes +a nice change, that does.” And she jumped out of bed. + +“Ride on me,” said Aslan, and added to Susan and Lucy, “You two queens +will have to run now.” + +“But we’d like that just as well,” said Susan. And off they went again. + +And so at last, with leaping and dancing and singing, with music and +laughter and roaring and barking and neighing, they all came to the place where +Miraz’s army stood flinging down their swords and holding up their hands, and +Peter’s army, still holding their weapons and breathing hard, stood round them +with stern and glad faces. And the first thing that happened was that the old + + + +woman slipped off Aslan’s back and ran across to Caspian and they embraced +one another; for she was his old nurse. + + + +Narnia 2 - Prince Caspian + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +ASLAN MAKES A DOOR IN THE AIR + +AT the sight of Aslan the cheeks of the Telmarine soldiers became the colour +of cold gravy, their knees knocked together, and many fell on their faces. They +had not believed in lions and this made their fear greater. Even the Red Dwarfs, +who knew that he came as a friend, stood with open mouths and could not speak. +Some of the Black Dwarfs, who had been of Nikabrik’s party, began to edge +away. But all the Talking Beasts surged round the Lion, with purrs and grunts +and squeaks and whinneys of delight, fawning on him with their tails, rubbing +against him, touching him reverently with their noses and going to and fro under +his body and between his legs. If you have ever seen a little cat loving a big dog +whom it knows and trusts, you will have a pretty good picture of their behaviour. +Then Peter, leading Caspian, forced his way through the crowd of animals. + +“This is Caspian, Sir,” he said. And Caspian knelt and kissed the Lion’s paw. + +“Welcome, Prince,” said Aslan. “Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up +the Kingship of Narnia?” + +“I -1 don’t think I do, Sir,” said Caspian. “I’m only a kid.” + +“Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a +proof that you were not. Therefore, under us and under the High King, you shall +be King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands. You +and your heirs while your race lasts. And your coronation - but what have we +here?” For at that moment a curious little procession was approaching - eleven +Mice, six of whom carried between them something on a litter made of branches, +but the litter was no bigger than a large atlas. No one has ever seen mice more +woebegone than these. They were plastered with mud some with blood too - and +their ears were down and their whiskers drooped and their tails dragged in the +grass, and their leader piped on his slender pipe a melancholy tune. On the litter +lay what seemed little better than a damp heap of fur; all that was left of +Reepicheep. He was still breathing, but more dead than alive, gashed with +innumerable wounds, one paw crushed, and, where his tail had been, a bandaged +stump. + +“Now, Lucy,” said Aslan. + +Lucy had her diamond bottle out in a moment. Though only a drop was +needed on each of Reepicheep’s wounds, the wounds were so many that there +was a long and anxious silence before she had finished and the Master Mouse +sprang from the litter. His hand went at once to his sword hilt, with the other he + + + +twirled his whiskers. He bowed. + +“Hail, Aslan!” came his shrill voice. “I have the honour But then he +suddenly stopped. + +The fact was that he still had no tail - whether that Lucy had forgotten it or +that her cordial, though it could heal wounds, could not make things grow again. +Reepicheep became aware of his loss as he made his bow; perhaps it altered +something in his balance. He looked over his right shoulder. Failing to see his +tail, he strained his neck further till he had to turn his shoulders and his whole +body followed. But by that time his hind-quarters had turned too and were out of +sight. Then he strained his neck looking over his shoulder again, with the same +result. Only after he had turned completely round three times did he realize the +dreadful truth. + +“I am confounded,” said Reepicheep to Aslan. “I am completely out of +countenance. I must crave your indulgence for appearing in this unseemly +fashion.” + +“It becomes you very well, Small One,” said Aslan. + +“All the same,” replied Reepicheep, “if anything could be done... Perhaps +her Majesty?” and here he bowed to Lucy. + +“But what do you want with a tail?” asked Aslan. + +“Sir,” said the Mouse, “I can eat and sleep and die for my King without one. +But a tail is the honour and glory of a Mouse.” + +“I have sometimes wondered, friend,” said Aslan, “whether you do not think +too much about your honour.” + +“Highest of all High Kings,” said Reepicheep, “permit me to remind you that +a very small size has been bestowed on us Mice, and if we did not guard our +dignity, some (who weigh worth by inches) would allow themselves very +unsuitable pleasantries at our expense. That is why I have been at some pains to +make it known that no one who does not wish to feel this sword as near his heart +as I can reach shall talk in my presence about Traps or Toasted Cheese or +Candles: no, Sir - not the tallest fool in Narnia!” Here he glared very fiercely up +at Wimbleweather, but the Giant, who was always a stage behind everyone else, +had not yet discovered what was being talked about down at his feet, and so +missed the point. + +“Why have your followers all drawn their swords, may I ask?” said Aslan. + +“May it please your High Majesty,” said the second Mouse, whose name was +Peepiceek, “we are all waiting to cut off our own tails if our Chief must go +without his. We will not bear the shame of wearing an honour which is denied to +the High Mouse.” + +“Ah!” roared Aslan. “You have conquered me. You have great hearts. Not for + + + +the sake of your dignity, Reepicheep, but for the love that is between you and +your people, and still more for the kindness your people showed me long ago +when you ate away the cords that bound me on the Stone Table (and it was then, +though you have long forgotten it, that you began to be Talking Mice), you shall +have your tail again.” + +Before Aslan had finished speaking the new tail was in its place. Then, at +Aslan’s command, Peter bestowed the Knighthood of the Order of the Lion on +Caspian, and Caspian, as soon as he was knighted, himself bestowed it on +Trufflehunter and Trumpkin and Reepicheep, and made Doctor Cornelius his +Lord Chancellor, and confirmed the Bulgy Bear in his hereditary office of +Marshal of the Lists. And there was great applause. + +After this the Telmarine soldiers, firmly but without taunts or blows, were +taken across the ford and all put under lock and key in the town of Beruna and +given beef and beer. They made a great fuss about wading in the river, for they +all hated and feared running water just as much as they hated and feared woods +and animals. But in the end the nuisance was over: and then the nicest parts of +that long day began. + +Lucy, sitting close to Aslan and divinely comfortable, wondered what the +trees were doing. At first she thought they were merely dancing; they were +certainly going round slowly in two circles, one from left to right and the other +from right to left. Then she noticed that they kept throwing something down in +the centre of both circles. Sometimes she thought they were cutting off long +strands of their hair; at other times it looked as if they were breaking off bits of +their fingers - but, if so, they had plenty of fingers to spare and it did not hurt +them. But whatever they were throwing down, when it reached the ground, it +became brushwood or dry sticks. Then three or four of the Red Dwarfs came +forward with their tinder boxes and set light to the pile, which first crackled, and +then blazed, and finally roared as a woodland bonfire on midsummer night ought +to do. And everyone sat down in a wide circle round it. + +Then Bacchus and Silenus and the Maenads began a dance, far wilder than +the dance of the trees; not merely a dance for fun and beauty (though it was that +too) but a magic dance of plenty, and where their hands touched, and where their +feet fell, the feast came into existence sides of roasted meat that filled the grove +with delicious smell, and wheaten cakes and oaten cakes, honey and many- +coloured sugars and cream as thick as porridge and as smooth as still water, +peaches, nectarines, pomegranates, pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries +pyramids and cataracts of fruit. Then, in great wooden cups and bowls and +mazers, wreathed with ivy, came the wines; dark, thick ones like syrups of +mulberry juice, and clear red ones like red jellies liquefied, and yellow wines + + + +and green wines and yellow-green and greenish-yellow. + +But for the tree people different fare was provided. When Lucy saw Clodsley +Shovel and his moles scuffling up the turf in various places (which Bacchus had +pointed out to them) and realized that the trees were going to eat earth it gave her +rather a shudder. But when she saw the earths that were actually brought to them +she felt quite different. They began with a rich brown loam that looked almost +exactly like chocolate; so like chocolate, in fact, that Edmund tried a piece of it, +but he did not find it at all nice. When the rich loam had taken the edge off their +hunger, the trees turned to an earth of the kind you see in Somerset, which is +almost pink. They said it was lighter and sweeter. At the cheese stage they had a +chalky soil, and then went on to delicate confections of the finest gravels +powdered with choice silver sand. They drank very little wine, and it made the +Hollies very talkative: for the most part they quenched their thirst with deep +draughts of mingled dew and rain, flavoured with forest flowers and the airy +taste of the thinnest clouds. + +Thus Aslan feasted the Narnians till long after the sunset had died away, and +the stars had come out; and the great fire, now hotter but less noisy, shone like a +beacon in the dark woods, and the frightened Telmarines saw it from far away +and wondered what it might mean. The best thing of all about this feast was that +there was no breaking up or going away, but as the talk grew quieter and slower, +one after another would begin to nod and finally drop off to sleep with feet +towards the fire and good friends on either side, till at last there was silence all +round the circle, and the chattering of water over stone at the Ford of Beruna +could be heard once more. But all night Aslan and the Moon gazed upon each +other with joyful and unblinking eyes. + +Next day messengers (who were chiefly squirrels and birds) were sent all +over the country with a proclamation to the scattered Telmarines - including, of +course, the prisoners in Beruna. They were told that Caspian was now King and +that Narnia would henceforth belong to the Talking Beasts and the Dwarfs and +Dryads and Fauns and other creatures quite as much as to the men. Any who +chose to stay under the new conditions might do so; but for those who did not +like the idea, Aslan would provide another home. Anyone who wished to go +there must come to Aslan and the Kings at the Ford of Beruna by noon on the +fifth day. You may imagine that this caused plenty of head-scratching among the +Telmarines. Some of them, chiefly the young ones, had, like Caspian, heard +stories of the Old Days and were delighted that they had come back. They were +already making friends with the creatures. These all decided to stay in Narnia. +But most of the older men, especially those who had been important under +Miraz, were sulky and had no wish to live in a country where they could not rule + + + +the roost. “Live here with a lot of blooming performing animals! No fear,” they +said. “And ghosts too,” some added with a shudder. “That’s what those there +Dryads really are. It’s not canny.” They were also suspicious. “I don’t trust 'em,” +they said. “Not with that awful Lion and all. He won’t keep his claws off us +long, you’ll see.” But then they were equally suspicious of his offer to give them +a new home. “Take us off to his den and eat us one by one most likely,” they +muttered. And the more they talked to one another the sulkier and more +suspicious they became. But on the appointed day more than half of them turned +up. + +At one end of the glade Aslan had caused to be set up two stakes of wood, +higher than a man’s head and about three feet apart. A third, and lighter, piece of +wood was bound across them at the top, uniting them, so that the whole thing +looked like a doorway from nowhere into nowhere. In front of this stood Aslan +himself with Peter on his right and Caspian on his left. Grouped round them +were Susan and Lucy, Trumpkin and Trufflehunter, the Lord Cornelius, +Glenstorm, Reepicheep, and others. The children and the Dwarfs had made good +use of the royal wardrobes in what had been the castle of Miraz and was now the +castle of Caspian, and what with silk and cloth of gold, with snowy linen +glancing through slashed sleeves, with silver mail shirts and jewelled sword- +hilts, with gilt helmets and feathered bonnets, they were almost too bright to +look at. Even the beasts wore rich chains about their necks. Yet nobody’s eyes +were on them or the children. The living and strokable gold of Aslan’s mane +outshone them all. The rest of the Old Narnians stood down each side of the +glade. At the far end stood the Telmarines. The sun shone brightly and pennants +fluttered in the light wind. + +“Men of Telmar,” said Aslan, “you who seek a new land, hear my words. I +will send you all to your own country, which I know and you do not.” + +“We don’t remember Telmar. We don’t know where it is. We don’t know +what it is like,” grumbled the Telmarines. + +“You came into Narnia out of Telmar,” said Aslan. “But you came into +Telmar from another place. You do not belong to this world at all. You came +hither, certain generations ago, out of that same world to which the High King +Peter belongs.” + +At this, half the Telmarines began whimpering, “There you are. Told you so. +He’s going to kill us all, send us right out of the world,” and the other half began +throwing out their chests and slapping one another on the back and whispering, +“There you are. Might have guessed we didn’t belong to this place with all its +queer, nasty, unnatural creatures. We’re of royal blood, you’ll see.” And even +Caspian and Cornelius and the children turned to Aslan with looks of amazement + + + +on their faces. + +“Peace,” said Aslan in the low voice which was nearest to his growl. The +earth seemed to shake a little and every living thing in the grove became still as +stone. + +“You, Sir Caspian,” said Aslan, “might have known that you could be no true +King of Narnia unless, like the Kings of old, you were a son of Adam and came +from the world of Adam’s sons. And so you are. Many years ago in that world, +in a deep sea of that world which is called the South Sea, a shipload of pirates +were driven by storm on an island. And there they did as pirates would: killed +the natives and took the native women for wives, and made palm wine, and +drank and were drunk, and lay in the shade of the palm trees, and woke up and +quarrelled, and sometimes killed one another. And in one of these frays six were +put to flight by the rest and fled with their women into the centre of the island +and up a mountain, and went, as they thought, into a cave to hide. But it was one +of the magical places of that world, one of the chinks or chasms between chat +world and this. There were many chinks or chasms between worlds in old times, +but they have grown rarer. This was one of the last: I do not say the last. And so +they fell, or rose, or blundered, or dropped right through, and found themselves +in this world, in the Land of Telmar which was then unpeopled. But why it was +unpeopled is a long story: I will not tell it now. And in Telmar their descendants +lived and became a fierce and proud people; and after many generations there +was a famine in Telmar and they invaded Narnia, which was then in some +disorder (but that also would be a long story), and conquered it and ruled it. Do +you mark all this well, King Caspian?” + +“I do indeed, Sir,” said Caspian. “I was wishing that I came of a more +honourable lineage.” + +“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,” said Aslan. “And that is +both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough +to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.” + +Caspian bowed. + +“And now,” said Aslan, “you men and women of Telmar, will you go back to +that island in the world of men from which your fathers first came? It is no bad +place. The race of those pirates who first found it has died out, and it is without +inhabitants. There are good wells of fresh water, and fruitful soil, and timber for +building, and fish in the lagoons; and the other men of that world have not yet +discovered it. The chasm is open for your return; but this I must warn you, that +once you have gone through, it will close behind you for ever. There will be no +more commerce between the worlds by that door.” + +There was silence for a moment. Then a burly, decent looking fellow among + + + +the Telmarine soldiers pushed forward and said: + +“Well, I’ll take the offer.” + +“It is well chosen,” said Aslan. “And because you have spoken first, strong +magic is upon you. Your future in that world shall be good. Come forth.” + +The man, now a little pale, came forward. Aslan and his court drew aside, +leaving him free access to the empty doorway of the stakes. + +“Go through it, my son,” said Aslan, bending towards him and touching the +man’s nose with his own. As soon as the Lion’s breath came about him, a new +look came into the man’s eyes - startled, but not unhappy - as if he were trying to +remember something. Then he squared his shoulders and walked into the Door. + +Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him. They saw the three pieces of wood, and +through them the trees and grass and sky of Narnia. They saw the man between +the doorposts: then, in one second, he had vanished utterly. + +From the other end of the glade the remaining Telmarines set up a wailing. +“Ugh! What’s happened to him? Do you mean to murder us? We won’t go that +way.” And then one of the clever Telmarines said: + +“We don’t see any other world through those sticks. If you want us to believe +in it, why doesn’t one of you go? All your own friends are keeping well away +from the sticks.” + +Instantly Reepicheep stood forward and bowed. “If my example can be of +any service, Aslan,” he said, “I will take eleven mice through that arch at your +bidding without a moment’s delay.” + +“Nay, little one,” said Aslan, laying his velvety paw ever so lightly on +Reepicheep’s head. “They would do dreadful things to you in that world. They +would show you at fairs. It is others who must lead.” + +“Come on,” said Peter suddenly to Edmund and Lucy. “Our time’s up.” + +“What do you mean?” said Edmund. + +“This way,” said Susan, who seemed to know all about it. “Back into the +trees. We’ve got to change.” + +“Change what?” asked Lucy. + +“Our clothes, of course,” said Susan. “Nice fools we’d look on the platform +of an English station in these.” + +“But our other things are at Caspian’s castle,” said Edmund. + +“No, they’re not,” said Peter, still leading the way into the thickest wood. +“They’re all here. They were brought down in bundles this morning. It’s all +arranged.” + +“Was that what Aslan was talking to you and Susan about this morning?” +asked Lucy. + +“Yes - that and other things,” said Peter, his face very solemn. “I can’t tell it + + + +to you all. There were things he wanted to say to Su and me because we’re not +coming back to Narnia.” + +“Never?” cried Edmund and Lucy in dismay. + +“Oh, you two are,” answered Peter. “At least, from what he said, I’m pretty +sure he means you to get back some day. But not Su and me. He says we’re +getting too old.” + +“Oh, Peter,” said Lucy. “What awful bad luck. Can you bear it?” + +“Well, I think I can,” said Peter. “It’s all rather different from what I thought. +You’ll understand when it comes to your last time. But, quick, here are our +things.” + +It was odd, and not very nice, to take off their royal clothes and to come back +in their school things (not very fresh now) into that great assembly. One or two +of the nastier Telmarines jeered. But the other creatures all cheered and rose up +in honour of Peter the High King, and Queen Susan of the Horn, and King +Edmund, and Queen Lucy. There were affectionate and (on Lucy’s part) tearful +farewells with all their old friends - animal kisses, and hugs from Bulgy Bears, +and hands wrung by Trumpkin, and a last tickly, whiskerish embrace with +Trufflehunter. And of course Caspian offered the Horn back to Susan and of +course Susan told him to keep it. And then, wonderfully and terribly, it was +farewell to Aslan himself, and Peter took his place with Susan’s hands on his +shoulders and Edmund’s on hers and Lucy’s on his and the first of the +Telmarine’s on Lucy’s, and so in a long line they moved forward to the Door. +After that came a moment which is hard to describe, for the children seemed to +be seeing three things at once. One was the mouth of a cave opening into the +glaring green and blue of an island in the Pacific, where all the Telmarines would +find themselves the moment they were through the Door. The second was a +glade in Narnia, the faces of Dwarfs and Beasts, the deep eyes of Aslan, and the +white patches on the Badger’s cheeks. But the third (which rapidly swallowed up +the other two) was the grey, gravelly surface of a platform in a country station, +and a seat with luggage round it, where they were all sitting as if they had never +moved from it - a little flat and dreary for a moment after all they; had been +through, but also, unexpectedly, nice in its own way, what with the familiar +railway smell and the English sky and the summer term before them. + +“Well!” said Peter. “We have had a time.” + +“Bother!” said Edmund. “I’ve left my new torch in Narnia.” + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +THE PICTURE IN THE BEDROOM + +THERE was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved +it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and masters called him Scrubb. I +can’t tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none. He didn’t call his +Father and Mother “Father” and “Mother”, but Harold and Alberta. They were +very up-to-date and advanced people. They were vegetarians, non-smokers and +teetotallers and wore a special kind of underclothes. In their house there was +very little furniture and very few clothes on beds and the windows were always +open. + +Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and +pinned on a card. He liked books if they were books of information and had +pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model +schools. + +Eustace Clarence disliked his cousins the four Pevensies, Peter, Susan, +Edmund and Lucy. But he was quite glad when he heard that Edmund and Lucy +were coming to stay. For deep down inside him he liked bossing and bullying; +and, though he was a puny little person who couldn’t have stood up even to +Lucy, let alone Edmund, in a fight, he knew that there are dozens of ways to give +people a bad time if you are in your own home and they are only visitors. + +Edmund and Lucy did not at all want to come and stay with Uncle Harold +and Aunt Alberta. But it really couldn’t be helped. Father had got a job lecturing +in America for sixteen weeks that summer, and Mother was to go with him +because she hadn’t had a real holiday for ten years. Peter was working very hard +for an exam and he was to spend the holidays being coached by old Professor +Kirke in whose house these four children had had wonderful adventures long ago +in the war years. If he had still been in that house he would have had them all to +stay. But he had somehow become poor since the old days and was living in a +small cottage with only one bedroom to spare. It would have cost too much +money to take the other three all to America, and Susan had gone. + +Grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family and she was no good at +school work (though otherwise very old for her age) and Mother said she “would +get far more out of a trip to America than the youngsters”. Edmund and Lucy +tried not to grudge Susan her luck, but it was dreadful having to spend the +summer holidays at their Aunt’s. “But it’s far worse for me,” said Edmund, +“because you’ll at least have a room of your own and I shall have to share a + + + +bedroom with that record stinker, Eustace.” + +The story begins on an afternoon when Edmund and Lucy were stealing a +few precious minutes alone together. And of course they were talking about +Narnia, which was the name of their own private and secret country. Most of us, +I suppose, have a secret country but for most of us it is only an imaginary +country. Edmund and Lucy were luckier than other people in that respect. Their +secret country was real. They had already visited it twice; not in a game or a +dream but in reality. They had got there of course by Magic, which is the only +way of getting to Narnia. And a promise, or very nearly a promise, had been +made them in Narnia itself that they would some day get back. You may imagine +that they talked about it a good deal, when they got the chance. + +They were in Lucy’s room, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking at a +picture on the opposite wall. It was the only picture in the house that they liked. +Aunt Alberta didn’t like it at all (that was why it was put away in a little back +room upstairs), but she couldn’t get rid of it because it had been a wedding +present from someone she did not want to offend. + +It was a picture of a ship - a ship sailing straight towards you. Her prow was +gilded and shaped like the head of a dragon with wide-open mouth. She had only +one mast and one large, square sail which was a rich purple. The sides of the +ship - what you could see of them where the gilded wings of the dragon ended- +were green. She had just run up to the top of one glorious blue wave, and the +nearer slope of that wave came down towards you, with streaks and bubbles on +it. She was obviously running fast before a gay wind, listing over a little on her +port side. (By the way, if you are going to read this story at all, and if you don’t +know already, you had better get it into your head that the left of a ship when +you are looking ahead, is port, and the right is starboard.) All the sunlight fell on +her from that side, and the water on that side was full of greens and purples. On +the other, it was darker blue from the shadow of the ship. + +“The question is,” said Edmund, “whether it doesn’t make things worse, +looking at a Narnian ship when you can’t get there.” + +“Even looking is better than nothing,” said Lucy. “And she is such a very +Narnian ship.” + +“Still playing your old game?” said Eustace Clarence, who had been +listening outside the door and now came grinning into the room. Last year, when +he had been staying with the Pevensies, he had managed to hear them all talking +of Narnia and he loved teasing them about it. He thought of course that they +were making it all up; and as he was far too stupid to make anything up himself, +he did not approve of that. + +“You’re not wanted here,” said Edmund curtly. + + + +“I’m trying to think of a limerick,” said Eustace. “Something like this: + +“Some kids who played games about Narnia Got gradually balmier and +balmier-“ + +“Well Narnia and balmier don’t rhyme, to begin with,” said Lucy. + +“It’s an assonance,” said Eustace. + +“Don’t ask him what an assy-thingummy is,” said Edmund. “He’s only +longing to be asked. Say nothing and perhaps he’ll go away.” + +Most boys, on meeting a reception like this, would either have cleared out or +flared up. Eustace did neither. He just hung about grinning, and presently began +talking again. + +“Do you like that picture?” he asked. + +“For heaven’s sake don’t let him get started about Art and all that,” said +Edmund hurriedly, but Lucy, who was very truthful, had already said, “Yes, I do. +I like it very much.” + +“It’s a rotten picture,” said Eustace. + +“You won’t see it if you step outside,” said Edmund. + +“Why do you like it?” said Eustace to Lucy. + +“Well, for one thing,” said Lucy, “I like it because the ship looks as if it was +really moving. And the water looks as if it was really wet. And the waves look as +if they were really going up and down.” + +Of course Eustace knew lots of answers to this, but he didn’t say anything. +The reason was that at that very moment he looked at the waves and saw that +they did look very much indeed as if they were going up and down. He had only +once been in a ship (and then only as far as the Isle of Wight) and had been +horribly seasick. The look of the waves in the picture made him feel sick again. +He turned rather green and tried another look. And then all three children were +staring with open mouths. + +What they were seeing may be hard to believe when you read it in print, but +it was almost as hard to believe when you saw it happening. The things in the +picture were moving. It didn’t look at all like a cinema either; the colours were +too real and clean and out-of-doors for that. Down went the prow of the ship into +the wave and up went a great shock of spray. And then up went the wave behind +her, and her stern and her deck became visible for the first time, and then +disappeared as the next wave came to meet her and her bows went up again. At +the same moment an exercise book which had been lying beside Edmund on the +bed flapped, rose and sailed through the air to the wall behind him, and Lucy felt +all her hair whipping round her face as it does on a windy day. And this was a +windy day; but the wind was blowing out of the picture towards them. And +suddenly with the wind came the noises-the swishing of waves and the slap of + + + +water against the ship’s sides and the creaking and the overall high steady roar of +air and water. But it was the smell, the wild, briny smell, which really convinced +Lucy that she was not dreaming. + +“Stop it,” came Eustace’s voice, squeaky with fright and bad temper. “It’s +some silly trick you two are playing. Stop it. I’ll tell Alberta - Ow!” + +The other two were much more accustomed to adventures, but, just exactly +as Eustace Clarence said “Ow,” they both said “Ow” too. The reason was that a +great cold, salt splash had broken right out of the frame and they were breathless +from the smack of it, besides being wet through. + +“I’ll smash the rotten thing,” cried Eustace; and then several things happened +at the same time. Eustace rushed towards the picture. Edmund, who knew +something about magic, sprang after him, warning him to look out and not to be +a fool. Lucy grabbed at him from the other side and was dragged forward. And +by this time either they had grown much smaller or the picture had grown bigger. +Eustace jumped to try to pull it off the wall and found himself standing on the +frame; in front of him was not glass but real sea, and wind and waves rushing up +to the frame as they might to a rock. He lost his head and clutched at the other +two who had jumped up beside him. There was a second of struggling and +shouting, and just as they thought they had got their balance a great blue roller +surged up round them, swept them off their feet, and drew them down into the +sea. Eustace’s despairing cry suddenly ended as the water got into his mouth. + +Lucy thanked her stars that she had worked hard at her swimming last +summer term. It is true that she would have got on much better if she had used a +slower stroke, and also that the water felt a great deal colder than it had looked +while it was only a picture. Still, she kept her head and kicked her shoes off, as +everyone ought to do who falls into deep water in their clothes. She even kept +her mouth shut and her eyes open. They were still quite near the ship; she saw its +green side towering high above them, and people looking at her from the deck. +Then, as one might have expected, Eustace clutched at her in a panic and down +they both went. + +When they came up again she saw a white figure diving off the ship’s side. +Edmund was close beside her now, treading water, and had caught the arms of +the howling Eustace. Then someone else, whose face was vaguely familiar, +slipped an arm under her from the other side. There was a lot of shouting going +on from the ship, heads crowding together above the bulwarks, ropes being +thrown. Edmund and the stranger were fastening ropes round her. After that +followed what seemed a very long delay during which her face got blue and her +teeth began chattering. In reality the delay was not very long; they were waiting +till the moment when she could be got on board the ship without being dashed + + + +against its side. Even with all their best endeavours she had a bruised knee when +she finally stood, dripping and shivering, on the deck. After her Edmund was +heaved up, and then the miserable Eustace. Last of all came the stranger - a +golden-headed boy some years older than herself. + +“Ca - Ca - Caspian!” gasped Lucy as soon as she had breath enough. For +Caspian it was; Caspian, the boy king of Narnia whom they had helped to set on +the throne during their last visit. Immediately Edmund recognized him too. All +three shook hands and clapped one another on the back with great delight. + +“But who is your friend?” said Caspian almost at once, turning to Eustace +with his cheerful smile. But Eustace was crying much harder than any boy of his +age has a right to cry when nothing worse than a wetting has happened to him, +and would only yell out, “Let me go. Let me go back. I don’t like it.” + +“Let you go?” said Caspian. “But where?” + +Eustace rushed to the ship’s side, as if he expected to see the picture frame +hanging above the sea, and perhaps a glimpse of Lucy’s bedroom. What he saw +was blue waves flecked with foam, and paler blue sky, both spreading without a +break to the horizon. Perhaps we can hardly blame him if his heart sank. He was +promptly sick. + +“Hey! Rynelf,” said Caspian to one of the sailors. “Bring spiced wine for +their Majesties. You’ll need something to warm you after that dip.” He called +Edmund and Lucy their Majesties because they and Peter and Susan had all been +Kings and Queens of Narnia long before his time. Narnian time flows differently +from ours. If you spent a hundred years in Narnia, you would still come back to +our world at the very same hour of the very same day on which you left. And +then, if you went back to Narnia after spending a week here, you might find that +a thousand Narnian years had passed, or only a day, or no time at all. You never +know till you get there. Consequently, when the Pevensie children had returned +to Narnia last time for their second visit, it was (for the Narnians) as if King +Arthur came back to Britain, as some people say he will. And I say the sooner +the better. + +Rynelf returned with the spiced wine steaming in a flagon and four silver +cups. It was just what one wanted, and as Lucy and Edmund sipped it they could +feel the warmth going right down to their toes. But Eustace made faces and +spluttered and spat it out and was sick again and began to cry again and asked if +they hadn’t any Plumptree’s Vitaminized Nerve Food and could it be made with +distilled water and anyway he insisted on being put ashore at the next station. + +“This is a merry shipmate you’ve brought us, Brother,” whispered Caspian to +Edmund with a chuckle; but before he could say anything more Eustace burst +out again. + + + +“Oh! Ugh! What on earth’s that! Take it away, the horrid thing.” . + +He really had some excuse this time for feeling a little surprised. Something +very curious indeed had come out of the cabin in the poop and was slowly +approaching them. You might call it - and indeed it was - a Mouse. But then it +was a Mouse on its hind legs and stood about two feet high. A thin band of gold +passed round its head under one ear and over the other and in this was stuck a +long crimson feather. (As the Mouse’s fur was very dark, almost black, the effect +was bold and striking.) Its left paw rested on the hilt of a sword very nearly as +long as its tail. Its balance, as it paced gravely along the swaying deck, was +perfect, and its manners courtly. Lucy and Edmund recognized it at once +Reepicheep, the most valiant of all the Talking Beasts of Narnia, and the Chief +Mouse. It had won undying glory in the second Battle of Beruna. Lucy longed, +as she had always done, to take Reepicheep up in her arms and cuddle him. But +this, as she well knew, was a pleasure she could never have: it would have +offended him deeply. Instead, she went down on one knee to talk to him. + +Reepicheep put forward his left leg, drew back his right, bowed, kissed her +hand, straightened himself, twirled his whiskers, and said in his shrill, piping +voice: + +“My humble duty to your Majesty. And to King Edmund, too.” (Here he +bowed again.) “Nothing except your Majesties’ presence was lacking to this +glorious venture.” + +“Ugh, take it away,” wailed Eustace. “I hate mice. And I never could bear +performing animals. They’re silly and vulgar and-and sentimental.” + +“Am I to understand,” said Reepicheep to Lucy after a long stare at Eustace, +“that this singularly discourteous person is under your Majesty’s protection? +Because, if not-“ + +At this moment Lucy and Edmund both sneezed. + +“What a fool I am to keep you all standing here in your wet things,” said +Caspian. “Come on below and get changed. I’ll give you my cabin of course, +Lucy, but I’m afraid we have no women’s clothes on board. You’ll have to make +do with some of mine. Lead the way, Reepicheep, like a good fellow.” + +“To the convenience of a lady,” said Reepicheep, “even a question of honour +must give way - at least for the moment and here he looked very hard at +Eustace. But Caspian hustled them on and in a few minutes Lucy found herself +passing through the door into the stern cabin. She fell in love with it at once - the +three square windows that looked out on the blue, swirling water astern, the low +cushioned benches round three sides of the table, the swinging silver lamp +overhead (Dwarfs’ work, she knew at once by its exquisite delicacy) and the flat +gold image of Aslan the Lion on the forward wall above the door. All this she + + + +took in in a flash, for Caspian immediately opened a door on the starboard side, +and said, “This’ll be your room, Lucy. I’ll just get some dry things for myself-” +he was rummaging in one of the lockers while he spoke - “and then leave you to +change. If you’ll fling your wet things outside the door I’ll get them taken to the +galley to be dried.” + +Lucy found herself as much at home as if she had been in Caspian’s cabin for +weeks, and the motion of the ship did not worry her, for in the old days when she +had been a queen in Narnia she had done a good deal of voyaging. The cabin +was very tiny but bright with painted panels (all birds and beasts and crimson +dragons and vines) and spotlessly clean. Caspian’s clothes were too big for her, +but she could manage. His shoes, sandals and sea-boots were hopelessly big but +she did not mind going barefoot on board ship. When she had finished dressing +she looked out of her window at the water rushing past and took a long deep +breath. She felt quite sure they were in for a lovely time. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +ON BOARD THE DAWN TREADER + +“AH, there you are, Lucy,” said Caspian. “We were just waiting for you. This +is my captain, the Lord Drinian.” + +A dark-haired man went down on one knee and kissed her hand. The only +others present were Reepicheep and Edmund. + +“Where is Eustace?” asked Lucy. + +“In bed,” said Edmund, “and I don’t think we can do anything for him. It +only makes him worse if you try to be nice to him.” + +“Meanwhile,” said Caspian, “we want to talk.” + +“By Jove, we do,” said Edmund. “And first, about time. It’s a year ago by +our time since we left you just before your coronation. How long has it been in +Narnia?” + +“Exactly three years,” said Caspian. + +“All going well?” asked Edmund. + +“You don’t suppose I’d have left my kingdom and put to sea unless all was +well,” answered the King. “It couldn’t be better. There’s no trouble at all now +between Telmarines, Dwarfs, Talking Beasts, Fauns and the rest. And we gave +those troublesome giants on the frontier such a good beating last summer that +they pay us tribute now. And I had an excellent person to leave as Regent while +I’m away Trump kin, the Dwarf. You remember him?” + +“Dear Trumpkin,” said Lucy, “of course I do. You couldn’t have made a +better choice.” + +“Loyal as a badger, Ma’am, and valiant as - as a Mouse,” said Drinian. He +had been going to say “as a lion” but had noticed Reepicheep’s eyes fixed on +him. + +“And where are we heading for?” asked Edmund. + +“Well,” said Caspian, “that’s rather a long story. Perhaps you remember that +when I was a child my usurping uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my +father’s (who might have taken my part) by sending them off to explore the +unknown , Eastern Seas beyond the Lone Islands.” + +“Yes,” said Lucy, “and none of them ever came back.” + +“Right. Well, on, my coronation day, with Aslan’s approval, I swore an oath +that, if once I established peace in Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and +a day to find my father’s friends or to learn of their deaths and avenge them if I +could. These were their names - the Lord Revilian, the Lord Bern, the Lord + + + +Argoz, the Lord Mavramorn, the Lord Octesian, the Lord Restimar, and - oh, +that other one who’s so hard to remember.” + +“The Lord Rhoop, Sire,” said Drinian. + +“Rhoop, Rhoop, of course,” said Caspian. “That is my main intention. But +Reepicheep here has an even higher hope.” Everyone’s eyes turned to the +Mouse. + +“As high as my spirit,” it said. “Though perhaps as small as my stature. Why +should we not come to the very eastern end of the world? And what might we +find there? I expect to find Aslan’s own country. It is always from the east, +across the sea, that the great Lion comes to us.” + +“I say, that is an idea,” said Edmund in an awed voice. + +“But do you think,” said Lucy, “Aslan’s country would be that sort of +country -1 mean, the sort you could ever sail to?” + +“I do not know, Madam,” said Reepicheep. “But there is this. When I was in +my cradle, a wood woman, a Dryad, spoke this verse over me: + +“Where sky and water meet, Where the waves grow sweet, Doubt not, +Reepicheep, To find all you seek, There is the utter East. + +“I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life.” + +After a short silence Lucy asked, “And where are we now, Caspian?” + +“The Captain can tell you better than I,” said Caspian, so Drinian got out his +chart and spread it on the table. + +“That’s our position,” he said, laying his finger on it. “Or was at noon today. +We had a fair wind from Cair Paravel and stood a little north for Galma, which +we made on the next day. We were in port for a week, for the Duke of Galma +made a great tournament for His Majesty and there he unhorsed many knights-“ + +“And got a few nasty falls myself, Drinian. Some of the bruises are there +still,” put in Caspian. + +“- And unhorsed many knights,” repeated Drinian with a grin. “We thought +the Duke would have been pleased if the King’s Majesty would have married his +daughter, but nothing came of that-“ + +“Squints, and has freckles,” said Caspian. + +“Oh, poor girl,” said Lucy. + +“And we sailed from Galma,” continued Drinian, “and ran into a calm for the +best part of two days and had to row, and then had wind again and did not make +Terebinthia till the fourth day from Galma. And there their King sent out a +warning not to land for there was sickness in Terebinthia, but we doubled the +cape and put in at a little creek far from the city and watered. Then we had to lie +off for three days before we got a south-east wind and stood out for Seven Isles. +The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig) overhauled us, but when she + + + +saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting of arrows on either part + +“And we ought to have given her chase and boarded her and hanged every +mother’s son of them,” said Reepicheep. + +And in five days more we were insight of Muil, which, as you know, is the +westernmost of the Seven Isles. Then we rowed through the straits and came +about sundown into Redhaven on the isle of Brenn, where we were very lovingly +feasted and had victuals and water at will. We left Redhaven six days ago and +have made marvellously good speed, so that I hope to see the Lone Islands the +day after tomorrow. The sum is, we are now nearly thirty days at sea and have +sailed more than four hundred leagues from Narnia.” + +“And after the Lone Islands?” said Lucy. + +“No one knows, your Majesty,” answered Drinian. “Unless the Lone +Islanders themselves can tell us.” + +“They couldn’t in our days,” said Edmund. + +“Then,” said Reepicheep, “it is after the Lone Islands that the adventure +really begins.” + +Caspian now suggested that they might like to be shown over the ship before +supper, but Lucy’s conscience smote her and she said, “I think I really must go +and see Eustace. Seasickness is horrid, you know. If I had my old cordial with +me I could cure him.” + +“But you have,” said Caspian. “I’d quite forgotten about it. As you left it +behind I thought it might be regarded as one of the royal treasures and so I +brought it - if you think it ought to be wasted on a thing like seasickness.” + +“It’ll only take a drop,” said Lucy. + +Caspian opened one of the lockers beneath the bench and brought out the +beautiful little diamond flask which Lucy remembered so well. “Take back your +own, Queen,” he said. They then left the cabin and went out into the sunshine. + +In the deck there were two large, long hatches, fore and aft of the mast, and +both open, as they always were in fair weather, to let light and air into the belly +of the ship. Caspian led them down a ladder into the after hatch. Here they found +themselves in a place where benches for rowing ran from side to side and the +light came in through the oarholes and danced on the roof. Of course Caspian’s +ship was not that horrible thing, a galley rowed by slaves. Oars were used only +when wind failed or for getting in and out of harbour and everyone (except +Reepicheep whose legs were too short) had often taken a turn. At each side of +the ship the space under the benches was left clear for the rowers’ feet, but all +down the centre there was a kind of pit which went down to the very keel and +this was filled with all kinds of things - sacks of flour, casks of water and beer, +barrels of pork, jars of honey, skin bottles of wine, apples, nuts, cheeses, biscuits, + + + +turnips, sides of bacon. From the roof - that is, from the under side of the deck - +hung hams and strings of onions, and also the men of the watch offduty in their +hammocks. Caspian led them aft, stepping from bench to bench; at least, it was +stepping for him, and something between a step and a jump for Lucy, and a real +long jump for Reepicheep. In this way they came to a partition with a door in it. +Caspian opened the door and led them into a cabin which filled the stern +underneath the deck cabins in the poop. It was of course not so nice. It was very +low and the sides sloped together as they went down so that there was hardly any +floor; and though it had windows of thick glass, they were not made to open +because they were under water. In fact at this very moment, as the ship pitched +they were alternately golden with sunlight and dim green with the sea. + +“You and I must lodge here, Edmund,” said Caspian. “We’ll leave your +kinsman the bunk and sling hammocks for ourselves.” + +“I beseech your Majesty-” said Drinian. + +“No, no shipmate,” said Caspian, “we have argued all that out already. You +and Rhince” (Rhince was the mate) “are sailing the ship and will have cares and +labours many a night when we are singing catches or telling stories, so you and +he must have the port cabin above. King Edmund and I can he very snug here +below. But how is the stranger?” + +Eustace, very green in the face, scowled and asked whether there was any +sign of the storm getting less. But Caspian said, “What storm?” and Drinian +burst out laughing. + +“Storm, young master!” he roared. “This is as fair weather as a man could +ask for.” + +“Who’s that?” said Eustace irritably. “Send him away. His voice goes +through my head.” + +“I’ve brought you something that will make you feel better, Eustace,” said +Lucy. + +“Oh, go away and leave me alone,” growled Eustace. But he took a drop +from her flask, and though he said it was beastly stuff (the smell in the cabin +when she opened it was delicious) it is certain that his face came the right colour +a few moments after he had swallowed it, and he must have felt better because, +instead of wailing about the storm and his head, he began demanding to be put +ashore and said that at the first port he would “lodge a disposition” against them +all with the British Consul. But when Reepicheep asked what a disposition was +and how you lodged it (Reepicheep thought it was some new way of arranging a +single combat) Eustace could only reply, “Fancy not knowing that.” In the end +they succeeded in convincing Eustace that they were already sailing as fast as +they could towards the nearest land they knew, and that they had no more power + + + +of sending him back to Cambridge - which was where Uncle Harold lived - than +of sending him to the moon. After that he sulkily agreed to put on the fresh +clothes which had been put out for him and come on deck. + +Caspian now showed them over the ship, though indeed they had seen most +it already. They went up on the forecastle and saw the look-out man standing on +a little shelf inside the gilded dragon’s neck and peering through its open mouth. +Inside the forecastle was the galley (or ship’s kitchen) and quarters for such +people as the boatswain, the carpenter, the cook and the master-archer. If you +think it odd to have the galley in the bows and imagine the smoke from its +chimney streaming back over the ship, that is because you are thinking of +steamships where there is always a headwind. On a sailing ship the wind is +coming from behind, and anything smelly is put as far forward as possible. They +were taken up to the fighting top, and at first it was rather alarming to rock to +and fro there and see the deck looking small and far away beneath. You realized +that if you fell there was no particular reason why you should fall on board +rather than in the sea. Then they were taken to the poop, where Rhince was on +duty with another man at the great tiller, and behind that the dragon’s tail rose +up, covered with gilding, and round inside it ran a little bench. The name of the +ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of +our I ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which +Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the +High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspian’s +ancestors. When his uncle, Miraz the usurper, had sent the seven lords to sea, +they had had to buy a Galmian ship and man it with hired Galmian sailors. But +now Caspian had begun to teach the Narnians to be sea-faring folk once more, +and the Dawn Treader was the finest ship he had built yet. She was so small that, +forward of the mast, there was hardly any deck room between the central hatch +and the ship’s boat on one side and the hen-coop (Lucy fed the hens) on the +other. But she was a beauty of her kind, a “lady” as sailors say, her lines perfect, +her colours pure, and every spar and rope and pin lovingly made. Eustace of +course would be pleased with nothing, and kept on boasting about liners and +motor-boats and aeroplanes and submarines (”As if he knew anything about +them,” muttered Edmund), but the other two were delighted with the Dawn +Treader, and when they returned aft to the cabin and supper, and saw the whole +western sky lit up with an immense crimson sunset, and felt the quiver of the +ship, and tasted the salt on their lips, and thought of unknown lands on the +Eastern rim of the world, Lucy felt that she was almost too happy to speak. + +What Eustace thought had best be told in his own words, for when they all +got their clothes back, dried, next morning, he at once got out a little black + + + +notebook and a pencil and started to keep a diary. He always had this notebook +with him and kept a record of his marks in it, for though he didn’t care much +about any subject for its own sake, he cared a great deal about marks and would +even go to people and say, “I got so much. What did you get?” But as he didn’t +seem likely to get many marks on the Dawn Treader he now started a diary. This +was the first entry. + +“7 August. Have now been twenty-four hours on this ghastly boat if it isn’t a +dream. All the time a frightful storm has been raging (it’s a good thing I’m not +seasick). Huge waves keep coming in over the front and I have seen the boat +nearly go under any number of times. All the others pretend to take no notice of +this, either from swank or because Harold says one of the most cowardly things +ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to Facts. It’s madness to come out into +the sea in a rotten little thing like this. Not much bigger than a lifeboat. And, of +course, absolutely primitive indoors. No proper saloon, no radio, no bathrooms, +no deck-chairs. I was dragged all over it yesterday evening and it would make +anyone sick to hear Caspian showing off his funny little toy boat as if it was the +Queen Mary. I tried to tell him what real ships are like, but he’s too dense. E. and +L., o f course, didn’t back me up. I suppose a kid like L. doesn’t realize the +danger and E. is buttering up C. as everyone does here. They call him a King. I +said I was a Republican but he had to ask me what that meant! He doesn’t seem +to know anything at all. Needless to say I’ve been put in the worst cabin of the +boat, a perfect dungeon, and Lucy has been given a whole room on deck to +herself, almost a nice room compared with the rest of this place. C. says that’s +because she’s a girl. I tried to make him see what Alberta says, that all that sort +of thing is really lowering girls but he was too dense. Still, he might see that I +shall be ill if I’m kept in that hole any longer. E. says we mustn’t grumble +because C. is sharing it with us himself to make room for L. As if that didn’t +make it more crowded and far worse. Nearly forgot to say that there is also a +kind of Mouse thing that gives everyone the most frightful cheek. The others can +put up with it if they like but I shall twist his tail pretty soon if he tries it on me. +The food is frightful too.” + +The trouble between Eustace and Reepicheep arrived even sooner than might +have been expected. Before dinner next day, when the others were sitting round +the table , waiting (being at sea gives one a magnificent appetite), Eustace came +mshing in, wringing his hand and shouting out: + +“That little brute has half killed me. I insist on it being kept under control. I +could bring an action against you, Caspian, i could order you to have it +destroyed.” + +At the same moment Reepicheep appeared. His sword was drawn and his + + + +whiskers looked very fierce but he was as polite as ever. + +“I ask your pardons all,” he said, “and especially her Majesty’s. If I had +known that he would take refuge here I would have awaited a more reasonable +time for his correction.” + +“What on earth’s up?” asked Edmund. + +What had really happened was this. Reepicheep, who never felt that the ship +was getting on fast enough, loved to sit on the bulwarks far forward just beside +the dragon’s head, gazing out at the eastern horizon and singing softly in his +little chirruping voice the song the Dryad had made for him. He never held on to +anything, however the ship pitched, and kept his balance with perfect ease; +perhaps his long tail, hanging down to the deck inside the bulwarks, made this +easier. Everyone on board was familiar with this habit, and the sailors liked it +because when one was on look-out duty it gave one somebody to talk to. Why +exactly Eustace had slipped and reeled and stumbled all the way forward to the +forecastle (he had not yet got his sea-legs) I never heard. Perhaps he hoped he +would see land, or perhaps he wanted to hang about the galley and scrounge +something. Anyway, as soon as he saw that long tail hanging down - and perhaps +it was rather tempting - he thought it would be delightful to catch hold of it, +swing Reepicheep round by it once or twice upside-down, then mn away and +laugh, At first the plan seemed to work beautifully. The Mouse was not much +heavier than a very large cat. Eustace had him off the rail in a trice and very silly +he looked (thought Eustace) with his little limbs all splayed out and his mouth +open. But unfortunately Reepicheep, who had fought for his life many a time, +never lost his head even for a moment. Nor his skill. It is not very easy to draw +one’s sword when one is swinging round in the air by one’s tail, but he did. And +the next thing Eustace knew was two agonizing jabs in his hand which made him +let go of the tail; and the next thing after that was that the Mouse had picked +itself up again as if it were a ball bouncing off the deck, and there it was facing +him, and a horrid long, bright, sharp thing like a skewer was waving to and fro +within an inch of his stomach. (This doesn’t count as below the belt for mice in +Narnia because they can hardly be expected to reach higher.) + +“Stop it,” spluttered Eustace, “go away. Put that thing away. It’s not safe. +Stop it, I say. I’ll tell Caspian. + +I’ll have you muzzled and tied up.” + +“Why do you not draw your own sword, poltroon!” cheeped the Mouse. +“Draw and fight or I’ll beat you black and blue with the flat.” + +“I haven’t got one,” said Eustace. “I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in fighting.” + +“Do I understand,” said Reepicheep, withdrawing his sword for a moment +and speaking very sternly, “that you do not intend to give me satisfaction?” + + + +“I don’t know what you mean,” said Eustace, nursing his hand. “If you don’t +know how to take a joke I shan’t bother my head about you.” + +“Then take that,” said Reepicheep, “and that - to teach you manners - and the +respect due to a knight - and a Mouse - and a Mouse’s tail and at each word he +gave Eustace a blow with the side of his rapier, which was thin, fine dwarf- +tempered steel and as supple and effective as a birch rod. Eustace (of course) +was at a school where they didn’t have corporal punishment, so the sensation +was quite new to him. That was why, in spite of having no sealegs, it took him +less than a minute to get off that forecastle and cover the whole length of the +deck and burst in at the cabin door - still hotly pursued by Reepicheep. Indeed it +seemed to Eustace that the rapier as well as the pursuit was hot. It might have +been red-hot by the feel. + +There was not much difficulty in settling the matter once Eustace realized +that everyone took the idea of a duel seriously and heard Caspian offering to +lend him a sword, and Drinian and Edmund discussing whether he ought to be +handicapped in some way to make up for his being so much bigger than +Reepicheep. He apologized sulkily and went off with Lucy to have his hand +bathed and bandaged and then went to his bunk. He was careful to lie on his +side. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +THE LONE ISLANDS + +“LAND in sight,” shouted the man in the bows. + +Lucy, who had been talking to Rhince on the poop, came pattering down the +ladder and raced forward. As she went she was joined by Edmund, and they +found Caspian, Drinian and Reepicheep already on the forecastle. It was a +coldish morning, the sky very pale and the sea very dark blue with little white +caps of foam, and there, a little way off on the starboard bow, was the nearest of +the Lone Islands, Lelimath, like a low green hill in the sea, and behind it, further +off, the grey slopes of its sister Doom. + +“Same old Lelimath! Same old Doom,” said Lucy, clapping her hands. “Oh - +Edmund, how long it is since you and I saw them last!” + +“Eve never understood why they belong to Narnia,” said Caspian. “Did Peter +the High King conquer them?” + +“Oh no,” said Edmund. “They were Narnian before our time - in the days of +the White Witch.” + +(By the way, I have never yet heard how these remote islands became +attached to the crown of Narnia; if I ever do, and if the story is at all interesting, +I may put it in some other book.) + +“Are we to put in here, Sire?” asked Drinian. + +“1 shouldn’t think it would be much good landing on Lelimath,” said +Edmund. “It was almost uninhabited in our days and it looks as if it was the +same still. The people lived mostly on Doom and a little on Avra - that’s the +third one; you can’t see it yet. They only kept sheep on Lelimath.” + +“Then we’ll have to double that cape, I suppose,” said Drinian, “and land on +Doom. That’ll mean rowing.” + +“I’m sorry we’re not landing on Lelimath,” said Lucy. “I’d like to walk there +again. It was so lonely - a nice kind of loneliness, and all grass and clover and +soft sea air.” + +“I’d love to stretch my legs now too,” said Caspian. “I tell you what. Why +shouldn’t we go ashore in the boat and send it back, and then we could walk +across Lelimath and let the Dawn Treader pick us up on the other side?” + +If Caspian had been as experienced then as he became later on in this voyage +he would not have made this suggestion; but at the moment it seemed an +excellent one. “Oh do let’s,” said Lucy. + +“You’ll come, will you?” said Caspian to Eustace, who had come on deck + + + +with his hand bandaged. + +“Anything to get off this blasted boat,” said Eustace. + +“Blasted?” said Drinian. “How do you mean?” + +“In a civilized country like where I come from,” said Eustace, “the ships are +so big that when you’re inside you wouldn’t know you were at sea at all.” + +“In that case you might just as well stay ashore,” said Caspian. “Will you tell +them to lower the boat, Drinian.” + +The King, the Mouse, the two Pevensies, and Eustace all got into the boat +and were pulled to the beach of Felimath. When the boat had left them and was +being rowed back they all turned and looked round. They were surprised at how +small the Dawn Treader looked. + +Lucy was of course barefoot, having kicked off her shoes while swimming, +but that is no hardship if one is going to walk on downy turf. It was delightful to +be ashore again and to smell the earth and grass, even if at first the ground +seemed to be pitching up and down like a ship, as it usually does for a while if +one has been at sea. It was much warmer here than it had been on board and +Lucy found the sand pleasant to her feet as they crossed it. There was a lark +singing. + +They struck inland and up a fairly steep, though low, hill. At the top of +course they looked back, and there was the Dawn Treader shining like a great +bright insect and crawling slowly north-westward with her oars. Then they went +over the ridge and could see her no longer. + +Doom now lay before them, divided from Felimath by a channel about a mile +wide; behind it and to the left lay Avra. The little white town of Narrowhaven on +Doom was easily seen. + +“Hullo! What’s this?” said Edmund suddenly. + +In the green valley to which they were descending six or seven rough¬ +looking men, all armed, were sitting by a tree. + +“Don’t tell them who we are,” said Caspian. + +“And pray, your Majesty, why not?” said Reepicheep who had consented to +ride on Lucy’s shoulder. + +“It just occurred to me,” replied Caspian, “that no one here can have heard +from Narnia for a long time. It’s just possible they may not still acknowledge our +over-lordship. In which case it might not be quite safe to be known as the King.” + +“We have our swords, Sire,” said Reepicheep. + +“Yes, Reep, I know we have,” said Caspian. “But if it is a question of re¬ +conquering the three islands, I’d prefer to come back with a rather larger army.” + +By this time they were quite close to the strangers, one of whom - a big +black-haired fellow - shouted out, “A good morning to you.” + + + +“And a good morning to you,” said Caspian. “Is there still a Governor of the +Lone Islands?” + +“To be sure there is,” said the man, “Governor Gumpas. His Sufficiency is at +Narrowhaven. But you’ll stay and drink with us.” + +Caspian thanked him, though neither he nor the others much liked the look of +their new acquaintance, and all of them sat down. But hardly had they raised +their cups to their lips when the black-haired man nodded to his companions and, +as quick as lightning, all the five visitors found themselves wrapped in strong +arms. There was a moment’s struggle but all the advantages were on one side, +and soon everyone was disarmed and had their hands tied behind their backs +except Reepicheep, writhing in his captor’s grip and biting furiously. + +“Careful with that beast, Tacks,” said the Leader. “Don’t damage him. He’ll +fetch the best price of the lot, I shouldn’t wonder.” + +“Coward! Poltroon!” squeaked Reepicheep. “Give me my sword and free my +paws if you dare.” + +“Whew!” whistled the slave merchant (for that is what he was). “It can talk! +Well I never did. Blowed if I take less than two hundred crescents for him.” The +Calormen crescent, which is the chief coin in those parts, is worth about a third +of a pound. + +“So that’s what you are,” said Caspian. “A kidnapper and slaver. I hope +you’re proud of it.” + +“Now, now, now, now,” said the slaver. “Don’t you start any jaw. The easier +you take it, the pleasanter all round, see? I don’t do this for fun. I’ve got my +living to make same as anyone else.” + +“Where will you take us?” asked Lucy, getting the words out with some +difficulty. + +“Over to Narrowhaven,” said the slaver. “For market day tomorrow.” + +“Is there a British Consul there?” asked Eustace. + +“Is there a which?” said the man. + +But long before Eustace was tired of trying to explain, the slaver simply said, +“Well, I’ve had enough of this jabber. The Mouse is a fair treat but this one +would talk the hind leg off a donkey. Off we go, mates.” + +Then the four human prisoners were roped together, not cruelly but securely, +and made to march down to the shore. Reepicheep was carried. He had stopped +biting on a threat of having his mouth tied up, but he had a great deal to say, and +Lucy really wondered how any man could bear to have the things said to him +which were said to the slave dealer by the Mouse. But the slave dealer, far from +objecting, only said “Go on” whenever Reepicheep paused for breath, +occasionally adding, “It’s as good as a play,” or, “Blimey, you can’t help almost + + + +thinking it knows what it’s saying!” or “Was it one of you what trained it?” This +so infuriated Reepicheep that in the end the number of things he thought of +saying all at once nearly suffocated him and he became silent. + +When they got down to the shore that looked towards Doom they found a +little village and a long-boat on the beach and, lying a little further out, a dirty +bedraggled looking ship. + +“Now, youngsters,” said the slave dealer, “let’s have no fuss and then you’ll +have nothing to cry about. All aboard.” + +At that moment a fine-looking bearded man came out of one of the houses +(an inn, I think) and said: + +“Well, Pug. More of your usual wares?” + +The slaver, whose name seemed to be Pug, bowed very low, and said in a +wheedling kind of voice, “Yes, please your Lordship.” + +“How much do you want for that boy?” asked the other, pointing to Caspian. + +“Ah,” said Pug, “I knew your Lordship would pick on the best. No deceiving +your Lordship with anything second rate. That boy, now, I’ve taken a fancy to +him myself. Got kind of fond of him, I have. I’m that tender-hearted I didn’t ever +ought to have taken up this job. Still, to a customer like your Lordship-“ + +“Tell me your price, carrion,” said the Lord sternly. “Do you think I want to +listen to the rigmarole of your filthy trade?” + +“Three hundred crescents, my Lord to your honourable Lordship, but to +anyone else -“ + +“I’ll give you a hundred and fifty.” + +“Oh please, please,” broke in Lucy. “Don’t separate us, whatever you do. +You don’t know -” But then she stopped for she saw that Caspian didn’t even +now want to be known. + +“A hundred and fifty, then,” said the Lord. “As for you, little maiden, I am +sorry I cannot buy you all. Unrope my boy, Pug. And look - treat these others +well while they are in your hands or it’ll be the worse for you.” + +“Well!” said Pug. “Now who ever heard of a gentleman in my way of +business who treated his stock better than what I do? Well? Why, I treat ‘em like +my own childen.” + +“That’s likely enough to be true,” said the other grimly. + +The dreadful moment had now come. Caspian was untied and his new master +said, “This way, lad,” and Lucy burst into tears and Edmund looked very blank. +But Caspian looked over his shoulder and said, “Cheer up. I’m sure it will come +all right in the end. So long.” + +“Now, missie,” said Pug. “Don’t you start taking on and spoiling your looks +for the market tomorrow. You be a good girl and then you won’t have nothing to + + + +cry about, see?” + +Then they were rowed out to the slave-ship and taken below into a long, +rather dark place, none too clean, where they found many other unfortunate +prisoners; for Pug was of course a pirate and had just returned from cruising +among the islands and capturing what he could. The children didn’t meet anyone +whom they knew; the prisoners were mostly Galmians and Terebinthians. And +there they sat in the straw and wondered what was happening to Caspian and +tried to stop Eustace talking as if everyone except himself was to blame. + +Meanwhile Caspian was having a much more interesting time. The man who +had bought him led him down a little lane between two of the village houses and +so out into an open place behind the village. Then he turned and faced him. + +“You needn’t be afraid of me, boy,” he said. “I’ll treat you well. I bought you +for your face. You reminded me of someone.” ‘ + +“May I ask of whom, my Lord?” said Caspian. + +“You remind me of my master, King Caspian of Narnia.” + +Then Caspian decided to risk everything on one stroke. + +“My Lord,” he said, “I am your master. I am Caspian King of Narnia.” + +“You make very free,” said the other. “How shall I know this is true?” + +“Lirstly by my face,” said Caspian. “Secondly because I know within six +guesses who you are. You are one of those seven lords of Narnia whom my +Uncle Miraz sent to sea and whom I have come out to look for - Argoz, Bern, +Octesian, Restimar, Mavramorn, or - or -1 have forgotten the others. And finally, +if your Lordship will give me a sword I will prove on any man’s body in clean +battle that I am Caspian the son of Caspian, lawful King of Narnia, Lord of Cair +Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands.” + +“By heaven,” exclaimed the man, “it is his father’s very voice and trick of +speech. My liege - your Majesty And there in the field he knelt and kissed the +King’s hand. + +“The moneys your Lordship disbursed for our person will be made good +from our own treasury,” said Caspian. + +“They’re not in Pug’s purse yet, Sire,” said the Lord Bern, for he it was. +“And never will be, I trust. I have moved his Sufficiency the Governor a hundred +times to crush this vile traffic in man’s flesh.” + +“My Lord Bern,” said Caspian, “we must talk of the state of these Islands. +But first what is your Lordship’s own story?” + +“Short enough, Sire,” said Bern. “I came thus far with my six fellows, loved +a girl of the islands, and felt I had had enough of the sea. And there was no +purpose in returning to Narnia while your Majesty’s uncle held the reins. So I +married and have lived here ever since.” + + + +“And what is this governor, this Gumpas, like? Does he still acknowledge the +King of Narnia for his lord?” + +“In words, yes. All is done in the King’s name. But he would not be best +pleased to find a real, live King of Narnia coming in upon him. And if your +Majesty came before him alone and unarmed - well he would not deny his +allegiance, but he would pretend to disbelieve you. Your Grace’s life would be in +danger. What following has your Majesty in these waters?” + +“There is my ship just rounding the point,” said Caspian. “We are about +thirty swords if it came to fighting. Shall we not have my ship in and fall upon +Pug and free my friends whom he holds captive?” + +“Not by my counsel,” said Bern. “As soon as there was a fight two or three +ships would put out from Narrowhaven to rescue Pug. Your Majesty must work +by a show of more power than you really have, and by the terror of the King’s +name. It must not come to plain battle. Gumpas is a chicken-hearted man and +can be over-awed.” + +After a little more conversation Caspian and Bern walked down to the coast +a little west of the village and there Caspian winded his horn. (This was not the +great magic horn of Narnia, Queen Susan’s Horn: he had left that at home for his +regent Trumpkin to use if any great need fell upon the land in the King’s +absence.) Drinian, who was on the look-out for a signal, recognized the royal +horn at once and the Dawn Treader began standing in to shore. Then the boat put +off again and in a few moments Caspian and the Lord Bern were on deck +explaining the situation to Drinian. He, just like Caspian, wanted to lay the +Dawn Treader alongside the slave-ship at once and board her, but Bern made the +same objection. + +“Steer straight down this channel, captain,” said Bern, “and then round to +Avra where my own estates are. But first run up the King’s banner, hang out all +the shields, and send as many men to the fighting top as you can. And about five +bowshots hence, when you get open sea on your port bow, run up a few signals.” + +“Signals? To whom?” said Drinian. + +“Why, to all the other ships we haven’t got but which it might be well that +Gumpas thinks we have.” + +“Oh, I see,” said Drinian rubbing his hands. “And + +they’ll read our signals. What shall I say? Whole fleet round the South of +Avra and assemble at -?” + +“Bernstead,” said the Lord Bern. “That’ll do excellently. Their whole journey +- if there were any ships What Caspian did there would be out of sight from +Narrowhaven.” + +Caspian was sorry for the others languishing in the hold of Pug’s slave-ship, + + + +but he could not help finding the rest of that day enjoyable. Late in the afternoon +(for they had to do all by oar), having turned to starboard round the northeast end +of Doom and port again round the point of Avra, they entered into a good +harbour on Avra’s southern shore where Bern’s pleasant lands sloped down to +the water’s edge. Bern’s people, many of whom they saw working in the fields, +were all freemen and it was a happy and prosperous fief. Here they all went +ashore and were royally feasted in a low, pillared house overlooking the bay. +Bern and his gracious wife and merry daughters made them good cheer. But after +dark Bern sent a messenger over by boat to Doom to order some preparations +(he did not say exactly what) for the following day. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +WHAT CASPIAN DID THERE + +Nert morning the Lord Bern called his guests early, and after breakfast he +asked Caspian to order every man he had into full armour. “And above all,” he +added, “let everything be as trim and scoured as if it were the morning of the +first battle in a great war between noble kings with all the world looking on.” +This was done; and then in three boatloads Caspian and his people, and Bern +with a few of his, put out for Narrowhaven. The king’s flag flew in the stern of +his boat and his trumpeter was with him. + +When they reached the jetty at Narrowhaven, Caspian found a considerable +crowd assembled to meet them. “This is what I sent word about last night,” said +Bern. “They are all friends of mine and honest people.” And as soon as Caspian +stepped ashore the crowd broke out into hurrahs and shouts of, “Narnia! Narnia! +Long live the King.” At the same moment - and this was also due to Bern’s +messengers - bells began ringing from many parts of the town. Then Caspian +caused his banner to be advanced and his trumpet to be blown and every man +drew his sword and set his face into a joyful sternness, and they marched up the +street so that the street shook, and their armour shone (for it was a sunny +morning) so that one could hardly look at it steadily. + +At first the only people who cheered were those who had been warned by +Bern’s messenger and knew what was happening and wanted it to happen. But +then all the children joined in because they liked a procession and had seen very +few. And then all the schoolboys joined in because they also liked processions +and felt that the more noise and disturbance there was the less likely they would +be to have any school that morning. And then all the old women put their heads +out of doors and windows and began chattering and cheering because it was a +king, and what is a governor compared with that? And all the young women +joined in for the same reason and also because Caspian and Drinian and the rest +were so handsome. And then all the young men came to see what the young +women were looking at, so that by the time Caspian reached the castle gates, +nearly the whole town was shouting; and where Gumpas sat in the castle, +muddling and messing about with accounts and forms and rules and regulations, +he heard the noise. + +At the castle gate Caspian’s trumpeter blew a blast and cried, “Open for the +King of Narnia, come to visit his trusty and wellbeloved servant the governor of +the Lone Islands.” In those days everything in the islands was done in a slovenly, + + + +slouching manner. Only the little postern opened, and out came a tousled fellow +with a dirty old hat on his head instead of a helmet, and a rusty old pike in his +hand. He blinked at the flashing figures before him. “Carn - seez - fishansy,” he +mumbled which was his way of saying, -“You can’t see his Sufficiency”). “No +interviews without ‘pointments ‘cept ‘tween nine ‘n’ ten p.m. second Saturday +every month.” + +“Uncover before Narnia, you dog,” thundered the Lord Bern, and dealt him a +rap with his gauntleted hand which sent his hat flying from his head. + +“‘Ere? Wot’s it all about?” began the doorkeeper, but no one took any notice +of him. Two of Caspian’s men stepped through the postern and after some +struggling with bars and bolts (for everything was rusty) flung both wings of the +gate wide open. Then the King and his followers strode into the courtyard. Here +a number of the governor’s guards were lounging about and several more (they +were mostly wiping their mouths) came tumbling out of various doorways. +Though their armour was in a disgraceful condition, these were fellows who +might have fought if they had been led or had known what was happening; so +this was the dangerous moment. Caspian gave them no time to think. + +“Where is the captain?” he asked. + +“I am, more or less, if you know what I mean,” said a languid and rather +dandified young person without any j armour at all. + +“It is our wish,” said Caspian, “that our royal visitation to our realm of the +Lone Islands should, if possible, be an occasion of joy and not of terror to our +loyal subjects. If it were not for that, I should have something to say about the +state of your men’s armour and weapons. As it is, you are pardoned. Command a +cask of wine to be opened that, your men may drink our health. But at noon +tomorrow I wish to see them here in this courtyard looking like men-at-arms and +not like vagabonds. See to it on pain of our extreme displeasure.” + +The captain gaped but Bern immediately cried, “Three, cheers for the King,” +and the soldiers, who had understood about the cask of wine even if they +understood nothing else, joined in. Caspian then ordered most of his own men to +remain in the courtyard. He, with Bern and Drinian and four others, went into +the hall. + +Behind a table at the far end with various secretaries about him sat his +Sufficiency, the Governor of the Lone Islands. Gumpas was a bilious-looking +man with hair that had once been red and was now mostly grey. He glanced up +as the strangers entered and then looked down at his papers saying automatically, +“No interviews without appointments except between nine and ten p.m. on +second Saturdays.” + +Caspian nodded to Bern and then stood aside. Bern and Drinian took a step + + + +forward and each seized one end of the table. They lifted it, and flung it on one +side of the hall where it rolled over, scattering a cascade of letters, dossiers, ink¬ +pots, pens, sealing-wax and documents. Then, not roughly but as firmly as if +their hands were pincers of steel, they plucked Gumpas out of his chair and +deposited him, facing it, about four feet away. Caspian at once sat down in the +chair and laid his naked sword across his knees. + +“My Lord,” said he, fixing his eyes on Gumpas, “you have not given us quite +the welcome we expected. I am the King of Narnia.” + +“Nothing about it in the correspondence,” said the governor. “Nothing in the +minutes. We have not been notified of any such thing. All irregular. Happy to +consider any applications^ + +“And we are come to enquire into your Sufficiency’s conduct of your office,” +continued Caspian. “There are two points especially on which I require an +explanation. Firstly I find no record that the tribute due from these Islands to the +crown of Narnia has been received for about a hundred and fifty years.” + +“That would be a question to raise at the Council next month,” said Gumpas. +“If anyone moves that a commission of enquiry be set up to report on the +financial history of the islands at the first meeting next year, why then . . .” + +“I also find it very clearly written in our laws,” Caspian went on, “that if the +tribute is not delivered the whole debt has to be paid by the Governor of the +Lone Islands out of his private purse.” + +At this Gumpas began to pay real attention. “Oh, that’s quite out of the +question,” he said. “It is an economic impossibility - er - your Majesty must be +joking.” + +Inside, he was wondering if there were any way of getting rid of these +unwelcome visitors. Had he known that Caspian had only one ship and one +ship’s company with him, he would have spoken soft words for the moment, and +hoped to have them all surrounded and killed during the night. But he had seen a +ship of war sail down the straits yesterday and seen it signalling, as he supposed, +to its consorts. He had not then known it was the King’s ship for there was not +wind enough to spread the flag out and make the golden lion visible, so he had +waited further developments. Now he imagined that Caspian had a whole fleet at +Bernstead. It would never have occurred to Gumpas that anyone would walk into +Narrowhaven to take the islands with less than fifty men; it was certainly not at +all the kind of thing he could imagine doing himself. + +“Secondly,” said Caspian, “I want to know why you have permitted this +abominable and unnatural traffic in slaves to grow up here, contrary to the +ancient custom and usage of our dominions.” + +“Necessary, unavoidable,” said his Sufficiency. “An essential part of the + + + +economic development of the islands, I assure you. Our present burst of +prosperity depends on it.” + +“What need have you of slaves?” + +“For export, your Majesty. Sell 'em to Calormen mostly; and we have other +markets. We are a great centre of the trade.” + +“In other words,” said Caspian, “you don’t need them. Tell me what purpose +they serve except to put money into the pockets of such as Pug?” + +“Your Majesty’s tender years,” said Gumpas, with what was meant to be a +fatherly smile, “hardly make it possible that you should understand the economic +problem involved. I have statistics, I have graphs, I have-“ + +“Tender as my years be,” said Caspian, “I believe I understand the slave +trade from within quite as well as your Sufficiency. And I do not see that it +brings into the islands meat or bread or beer or wine or timber or cabbages or +books or instruments of music or horses or armour or anything else worth +having. But whether it does or not, it must be stopped.” + +“But that would be putting the clock back,” gasped the governor. “Have you +no idea of progress, of development?” + +“I have seen them both in an egg,” said Caspian. “We call it 'Going Bad’ in +Narnia. This trade must stop.” + +“I can take no responsibility for any such measure,” said Gumpas. + +“Very well, then,” answered Caspian, “we relieve you of your office. My +Lord Bern, come here.” And before Gumpas quite realized what was happening, +Bern was kneeling with his hands between the King’s hands and taking the oath +to govern the Lone Islands in accordance with the old customs, rights, usages +and laws of Narnia. And Caspian said, “I think we have had enough of +governors,” and made Bern a Duke, the Duke of the Lone Islands. + +“As for you, my Lord,” he said to Gumpas, “I forgive you your debt for the +tribute. But before noon tomorrow you and yours must be out of the castle, +which is now the Duke’s residence.” + +“Look here, this is all very well,” said one of Gumpas’s secretaries, “but +suppose all you gentlemen stop playacting and we do a little business. The +question before us really is-“ + +“The question is,” said the Duke, “whether you and the rest of the rabble will +leave without a flogging or with one. You may choose which you prefer.” + +When all this had been pleasantly settled, Caspian ordered horses, of which +there were a few in the castle, though very ill-groomed and he, with Bern and +Drinian and a few others, rode out into the town and made for the slave market. +It was a long low building near the harbour and the scene which they found +going on inside was very much like any other auction; that is to say, there was a + + + +great crowd and Pug, on a platform, was roaring out in a raucous voice: + +“Now, gentlemen, lot twenty-three. Fine Terebinthian agricultural labourer, +suitable for the mines or the galleys. Under twenty-five years of age. Not a bad +tooth in his head. Good, brawny fellow. Take off his shirt, Tacks, and let the +gentlemen see. There’s muscle for you! Look at the chest on him. Ten crescents +from the gentleman in the corner. You must be joking, sir. Fifteen! Eighteen! +Eighteen is bidden for lot twenty-three. Any advance on eighteen? Twenty-one. +Thank you, sir. Twenty-one is bidden-“ + +But Pug stopped and gaped when he saw the mail-clad figures who had +clanked up to the platform. + +“On your knees, every man of you, to the King of Narnia,” said the Duke. +Everyone heard the horses jingling and stamping outside and many had heard +some rumour of the landing and the events at the castle. Most obeyed. Those +who did not were pulled down by their neighbours. Some cheered. + +“Your life is forfeit, Pug, for laying hands on our royal person yesterday,” +said Caspian. “But your ignorance is pardoned. The slave trade was forbidden in +all our dominions quarter of an hour ago. I declare every slave in this market +free.” + +He held up his hand to check the cheering of the slaves and went on, “Where +are my friends?” + +“That dear little gel and the nice young gentleman?” said Pug with an +ingratiating smile. “Why, they were snapped up at once-“ + +“We’re here, we’re here, Caspian,” cried Lucy and Edmund together and, +“At your service, Sire,” piped Reepicheep from another corner. They had all +been sold but the men who had bought them were staying to bid for other slaves +and so they had not yet been taken away. The crowd parted to let the three of +them out and there was great handclasping and greeting between them and +Caspian. Two merchants of Calormen at once approached. The Calormen have +dark faces and long beards. They wear flowing robes and orange-coloured +turbans, and they are a wise, wealthy, courteous, cruel and ancient people. They +bowed most politely to Caspian and paid him long compliments, all about the +fountains of prosperity irrigating the gardens of prudence and virtue - and things +like that - but of course what they wanted was the money they had paid. + +“That is only fair, sirs,” said Caspian. “Every man who has bought a slave +today must have his money back. Pug, bring out your takings to the last minim.” +(A minim is the fortieth part of a crescent.) + +“Does your good Majesty mean to beggar me?” whined Pug. + +“You have lived on broken hearts all your life,” said Caspian, “and if you are +beggared, it is better to be a beggar than a slave. But where is my other friend?” + + + +“Oh him?” said Pug. “Oh take him and welcome. Glad to have him off my +hands. I’ve never seen such a drug in the market in all my born days. Priced him +at five crescents in the end and even so nobody’d have him. Threw him in free +with other lots and still no one would have him. Wouldn’t touch him. Wouldn’t +look at him. Tacks, bring out Sulky.” + +Thus Eustace was produced, and sulky he certainly looked; for though no +one would want to be sold as a slave, it is perhaps even more galling to be a sort +of utility slave whom no one will buy. He walked up to Caspian and said, “I see. +As usual. Been enjoying yourself somewhere while the rest of us were prisoners. +I suppose you haven’t even found out about the British Consul. Of course not.” + +That night they had a great feast in the castle of Narrowhaven and then, +“Tomorrow for the beginning of our real adventures!” said Reepicheep when he +had made his bows to everyone and went to bed. But it could not really be +tomorrow or anything like it. For now they were preparing to leave all known +lands and seas behind them and the fullest preparations had to be made. The +Dawn Treader was emptied and drawn on land by eight horses over rollers and +every bit of her was gone over by the most skilled shipwrights. Then she was +launched again and victualled and watered as full as she could hold - that is to +say for twenty-eight days. Even this, as Edmund noticed with disappointment, +only gave them a fortnight’s eastward sailing before they had to abandon their +quest. + +While all this was being done Caspian missed no chance of questioning all +the oldest sea captains whom he could find in Narrowhaven to learn if they had +any knowledge or even any rumours of land further to the east. He poured out +many a flagon of the castle ale to weather-beaten men with short grey beards and +clear blue eyes, and many a tall yarn he heard in return. But those who seemed +the most truthful could tell of no lands beyond the Lone Islands, and many +thought that if you sailed too far east you would come into the surges of a sea +without lands that swirled perpetually round the rim of the world - “And that, I +reckon, is where your Majesty’s friends went to the bottom.” The rest had only +wild stories of islands inhabited by headless men, floating islands, waterspouts, +and a fire that burned along the water. Only one, to Reepicheep’s delight, said, +“And beyond that, Aslan country. But that’s beyond the end of the world and you +can’t get there.” But when they questioned -him he could only say that he’d +heard it from his father. + +Bern could only tell them that he had seen his six companions sail away +eastward and that nothing had, ever been heard of them again. He said this when +he and Caspian were standing on the highest point of Avra looking down on the +eastern ocean. “I’ve often been up here of a morning,” said the Duke, “ands seen + + + +the sun come up out of the sea, and sometimes it looked as if it were only a +couple of miles away. And I’ve wondered about my friends and wondered what +there really is behind that horizon. Nothing, most likely, yet I am always half +ashamed that I stayed behind. But I wish your Majesty wouldn’t go. We may +need your help here. This closing the slave market might make a new world; war +with Calormen is what I foresee. My liege, think again.” + +“I have an oath, my lord Duke,” said Caspian. “And anyway, what could I +say to Reepicheep?” + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +THE STORM AND WHAT CAME OF IT + +IT was nearly three weeks after their landing that the Dawn Treader was +towed out of Narrowhaven harbour. Very solemn farewells had been spoken and +a great crowd had assembled to see her departure. There had been cheers, and +tears too, when Caspian made his last speech to the Lone Islanders and parted +from the Duke and his family, but as the ship, her purple sail still flapping idly, +drew further from the shore, and the sound of Caspian’s trumpet from the poop +came fainter across the water, everyone became silent. Then she came into the +wind. The sail swelled out, the tug cast off and began rowing back, the first real +wave ran up under the Dawn Treader’s prow, and she was a live ship again. The +men off duty went below, Drinian took the first watch on the poop, and she +turned her head eastward round the south of Avra. + +The next few days were delightful. Lucy thought she was the most fortunate +girl in the world; as she woke each morning to see the reflections of the sunlit +water dancing on the ceiling of her cabin and looked round on all the nice new +things she had got in the Lone Islands - seaboots and buskins and cloaks and +jerkins and scarves. And then she would go on deck and take a look from the +forecastle at a sea which was a brighter blue each morning and drink in an air +that was a little warmer day by day. After that came breakfast and such an +appetite as one only has at sea. + +She spent a good deal of time sitting on the little bench in the stern playing +chess with Reepicheep. It was amusing to see him lifting the pieces, which were +far too big for him, with both paws and standing on tiptoes if he made a move +near the centre of the board. He was a good player and when he remembered +what he was doing he usually won. But every now and then Lucy won because +the Mouse did something quite ridiculous like sending a knight into the danger +of a queen and castle combined. This happened because he had momentarily +forgotten it was a game of chess and was thinking of a real battle and making the +knight do what he would certainly have done in its place. For his mind was full +of forlorn hopes, death-or-glory charges, and last stands. + +But this pleasant time did not last. There came an evening when Lucy, gazing +idly astern at the long furrow or wake they were leaving behind them, saw a +great rack of clouds building itself up in the west with amazing speed. + +Then a gap was torn in it and a yellow sunset poured through the gap. All the +waves behind them seemed to take on unusual shapes and the sea was a drab or + + + +yellowish colour like dirty canvas. The air grew cold. The ship seemed to move +uneasily as if she felt danger behind he The sail would be flat and limp one +minute and wildly the next. While she was noting these things and wondering at +a sinister change which had come over the very noise the wind, Drinian cried, +“All hands on deck.” In a moment everyone became frantically busy. The +hatches wet battened down, the galley fire was put out, men went aloft to reef +the sail. Before they had finished the storm struck them. It seemed to Lucy that a +great valley in the sea opened just before their bows, and they rushed down in it, +deeper down than she would have believed possible. A great grey hill of water, +far higher than the mast, rushed to meet them; it looked certain death but they +were tossed to the top of it. Then the ship seemed to spin round. A cataract of +water poured over the deck; the poop and forecastle were like two islands with a +fierce sea between them, aloft the sailors were lying out along the yard desperate +trying to get control of the sail. A broken rope stood out sideways in the wind as +straight and stiff as if it was poker. + +“Get below, Ma’am,” bawled Drinian. And Lucy knowing that landsmen - +and landswomen - are a nuisance to the crew, began to obey. It was not easy. The +Dawn Treader was listing terribly to starboard and the deck sloped like the roof +of a house. She had to clamber round to the top of the ladder, holding on to the +rail, and the stand by while two men climbed up it, and then get down as best she +could. It was well she was already holding tight for at the foot of the ladder +another wave roar across the deck, up to her shoulders. She was already almost +wet through with spray and rain but this was colder. Then she made a dash for +the cabin door and got in and shut out for a moment the appalling sight of the +speed with which they were rushing into the dark, but not of course the horrible +confusion of creakings, groanings, snappings, clatterings, roarings and boomings +which only sounded more alarming below than they had done on the poop. + +And all next day and all the next it went on. It went on till one could hardly +even remember a time before it had begun. And there always had to be three +men at the tiller and it was as much as three could do to keep any kind of a +course. And there always had to be men at the pump. And there was hardly any +rest for anyone, and nothing could be cooked and nothing could be dried, and +one man was lost overboard, and they never saw the sun. + +When it was over Eustace made the following entry in his diary. + +“3 September. The first day for ages when I have been able to write. We had +been driven before a hurricane for thirteen days and nights. I know that because I +kept a careful count, though the others all say it was only twelve. Pleasant to be +embarked on a dangerous voyage with people who can’t even count right! I have +had a ghastly time, up and down enormous waves hour after hour, usually wet to + + + +the skin, and not even an attempt at giving us proper meals. Needless to say +there’s no wireless or even a rocket, so no chance of signalling anyone for help. +It all proves what I keep on telling them, the madness of setting out in a rotten +little tub like this. It would be bad enough even if one was with decent people +instead of fiends in human form. Caspian and Edmund are simply brutal to me. +The night we lost our mast (there’s only a stump left now), though I was not at +all well, they forced me to come on deck and work like a slave. Lucy shoved her +oar in by saying that Reepicheep was longing to go only he was too small. I +wonder she doesn’t see that everything that little beast does is all for the sake of +showing off. Even at her age she ought to have that amount of sense. Today the +beastly boat is level at last and the sun’s out and we have all been jawing about +what to do. We have food enough, pretty beastly stuff most of it, to last for +sixteen days. (The poultry were all washed overboard. Even if they hadn’t been, +the storm would have stopped them laying.) The real trouble is water. Two casks +seem to have got a leak knocked in them and are empty. (Narnian efficiency +again.) On short rations, half a pint a day each, we’ve got enough for twelve +days. (There’s still lots of rum and wine but even they realize that would only +make them thirstier.) + +“If we could, of course, the sensible thing would be to turn west at once and +make for the Lone Islands. But it took us eighteen days to get where we are, +running like mad with a gale behind us. Even if we got an east wind it might take +us far longer to get back. And at present there’s no sign of an east wind - in fact +there’s no wind at all. As for rowing back, it would take far too long and Caspian +says the men couldn’t row on half a pint of water a day. I’m pretty sure this is +wrong. I tried to explain that perspiration really cools people down, so the men +would need less water if they were working. He didn’t take any notice of this, +which is always his way when he can’t think of an answer. The others all voted +for going on in the hope of finding land. I felt it my duty to point out that we +didn’t know there was any land ahead and tried to get them to see the dangers of +wishful thinking. Instead of producing a better plan they had the cheek to ask me +what I proposed. So I just explained coolly and quietly that I had been kidnapped +and brought away on this idiotic voyage without my consent, and it was hardly +my business to get them out of their scrape. + +“4 September. Still becalmed. Very short rations for dinner and I got less +than anyone. Caspian is very clever at helping and thinks I don’t see! Lucy for +some reason tried to make up to me by offering me some of hers but that +interfering prig Edmund wouldn’t let her. Pretty hot sun. Terribly thirsty all +evening. + +“5 September. Still becalmed and very hot. Feeling rotten all day and am + + + +sure I’ve got a temperature. Of course they haven’t the sense to keep a +thermometer on board. + +“6 September. A horrible day. Woke up in the night knowing I was feverish +and must have a drink of water. Any doctor would have said so. Heaven knows +I’m the last person to try to get any unfair advantage but I never dreamed that +this water-rationing would be meant to apply to a sick man. In fact I would have +woken the others up and asked for some only I thought it would be selfish to +wake them. So I got up and took my cup and tiptoed out of the Black Hole we +slept in, taking great care not to disturb Caspian and Edmund, for they’ve been +sleeping badly since the heat and the short water began. I always try to consider +others whether they are nice to me or not. I got out all right into the big room, if +you can call it a room, where the rowing benches and the luggage are. The thing +of water is at this end. All was going beautifully, but before I’d drawn a cupful +who should catch me but that little spy Reep. I tried to explain that I was going +on deck for a breath of air (the business about the water had nothing to do with +him) and he asked me why I had a cup. He made such a noise that the whole ship +was roused. They treated me scandalously. I asked, as I think anyone would +have, why Reepicheep was sneaking about the water cask in the middle of the +night. He said that as he was too small to be any use on deck, he did sentry over +the water every night so that one more man could go to sleep. Now comes their +rotten unfairness: they all believed him. Can you beat it? + +“I had to apologize or the dangerous little brute would have been at me with +his sword. And then Caspian showed up in his true colours as a brutal tyrant and +said out loud for everyone to hear that anyone found “stealing” water in future +would “get two dozen”. I didn’t know what this meant till Edmund explained to +me. It comes in the sort of books those Pevensie kids read. + +“After this cowardly threat Caspian changed his tune and started being +patronizing. Said he was sorry for me and that everyone felt just as feverish as I +did and we must all make the best of it, etc., etc. Odious stuck-up prig. Stayed in +bed all day today. + +“7 September. A little wind today but still from the west. + +Made a few miles eastward with part of the sail, set on what Drinian calls the +jury-mast-that means the bowsprit set upright and tied (they call it “lashed”) to +the stump of the real mast. Still terribly thirsty. + +“8 September. Still sailing east. I stay in my bunk all day now and see no one +except Lucy till the two fiends come to bed. Lucy gives me a little of her water +ration. She says girls don’t get as thirsty as boys. I had often thought this but it +ought to be more generally known at sea. + +“9 September. Land in sight; a very high mountain a long way off to the + + + +south-east. + +“10 September. The mountain is bigger and clearer but still a long way off. +Gulls again today for the first time since I don’t know how long. + +“11 September. Caught some fish and had them for dinner. Dropped anchor +at about 7 p.m. in three fathoms of water in a bay of this mountainous island. +That idiot Caspian wouldn’t let us go ashore because it was getting dark and he +was afraid of savages and wild beasts. Extra water ration tonight.” + +What awaited them on this island was going to concern Eustace more than +anyone else, but it cannot be told in his words because after September 11 he +forgot about keeping his diary for a long time. + +When morning came, with a low, grey sky but very hot, the adventurers +found they were in a bay encircled by such cliffs and crags that it was like a +Norwegian fjord. In front of them, at the head of the bay, there was some level +land heavily overgrown with trees that appeared to be cedars, through which a +rapid stream came out. Beyond that was a steep ascent ending in a jagged ridge +and behind that a vague darkness of mountains which ran into dull-coloured +clouds so that you could not see their tops. The nearer cliffs, at each side of the +bay, were streaked here and there with lines of white which everyone knew to be +waterfalls, though at that distance they did not show any movement or make any +noise. Indeed the whole place was very silent and the water of the bay as smooth +as glass. It reflected every detail of the cliffs. The scene would have been pretty +in a picture but was rather oppressive in real life. It was not a country that +welcomed visitors. + +The whole ship’s company went ashore in two boatloads and everyone drank +and washed deliciously in the river and had a meal and a rest before Caspian sent +four men back to keep the ship, and the day’s work began. There was everything +to be done. The casks must be brought ashore and the faulty ones mended if +possible and all refilled; a tree - a pine if they could get it - must be felled and +made into a new mast; sails must be repaired; a hunting party organized to shoot +any game the land might yield; clothes to be washed and mended; and countless +small breakages on board to be set right. For the Dawn Treader herself - and this +was more obvious now that they saw her at a distance - could hardly be +recognized as the same gallant ship which had left Narrowhaven. She looked a +crippled, discoloured hulk which anyone might have taken for a wreck. And her +officers and crew were no better - lean, pale, red-eyed from lack of sleep, and +dressed in rags. + +As Eustace lay under a tree and heard all these plans being discussed his +heart sank. Was there going to be no rest? It looked as if their first day on the +longed-for land was going to be quite as hard work as a day at sea. Then a + + + +delightful idea occurred to him. Nobody was looking they were all chattering +about their ship as if they actually liked the beastly thing. Why shouldn’t he +simply slip away? He would take a stroll inland, find a cool, airy place up in the +mountains, have a good long sleep, and not rejoin the others till the day’s work +was over. He felt it would do him good. But he would take great care to keep the +bay and the ship in sight so as to be sure of his way back. He wouldn’t like to be +left behind in this country. + +He at once put his plan into action. He rose quietly from his place and +walked away among the trees, taking care to go slowly and in an aimless manner +so that anyone who saw him would think he was merely stretching his legs. He +was surprised to find how quickly the noise of conversation died away behind +hiin and how very silent and warm and dark green the wood became. Soon he +felt he could venture on a quicker and more determined stride. + +This soon brought him out of the wood. The ground began sloping steeply up +in front of him. The grass was dry and slippery but manageable if he used his +hands as well as his feet, and though he panted and mopped his forehead a good +deal, he plugged away steadily. This showed, by the way, that his new life, little +as he suspected it, had already done him some good; the old Eustace, Harold and +Alberta’s Eustace, would have given up the climb after about ten minutes. + +Slowly, and with several rests, he reached the ridge. Here he had expected to +have a view into the heart of the island, but the clouds had now come lower and +nearer and a sea of fog was rolling to meet him. He sat down and looked back. +He was now so high that the bay looked small beneath him and miles of sea were +visible. Then the fog from the mountains closed in all round him, thick but not +cold, and he lay down and turned this way and that to find the most comfortable +position to enjoy himself. + +But he didn’t enjoy himself, or not for very long. He began, almost for the +first time in his life, to feel lonely. At first this feeling grew very gradually. And +then he began to worry about the time. There was not the slightest sound. +Suddenly it occurred to him that he might have been lying there for hours. +Perhaps the others had gone! Perhaps they had let him wander away on purpose +simply in order to leave him behind! He leaped up in a panic and began the +descent. + +At first he tried to do it too quickly, slipped on the steep grass, and slid for +several feet. Then he thought this had carried him too far to the left - and as he +came up he had seen precipices on that side. So he clambered up again, as near +as he could guess to the place he had started from, and began the descent afresh, +bearing to his right. After that things seemed to be going better. He went very +cautiously, for he could not see more than a yard ahead, and there was still + + + +perfect silence all around him. It is very unpleasant to have to go cautiously +when there is a voice inside you saying all the time, “Hurry, hurry, hurry.” For +every moment the terrible idea of being left behind grew stronger. If he had +understood Caspian and the Pevensies at all he would have known, of course, +that there was not the least chance of their doing any such thing. But he had +persuaded himself that they were all fiends in human form. + +“At last!” said Eustace as he came slithering down a slide of loose stones +(scree, they call it) and found himself on the level. “And now, where are those +trees? There is something dark ahead. Why, I do believe the fog is clearing.” + +It was. The light increased every moment and made him blink. The fog +lifted. He was in an utterly unknown valley and the sea was nowhere in sight. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +THE ADVENTURES OF EUSTACE + +AT that very moment the others were washing hands and faces in the river +and generally getting ready for dinner and a rest. The three best archers had gone +up into the hills north of the bay and returned laden with a pair of wild goats +which were now roasting over a fire. Caspian had ordered a cask of wine ashore, +strong wine of Archenland which had to be mixed with water before you drank +it, so there would be plenty for all. The work had gone well so far and it was a +merry meal. Only after the second helping of goat did Edmund say, “Where’s +that blighter Eustace?” + +Meanwhile Eustace stared round the unknown valley. It was so narrow and +deep, and the precipices which surrounded it so sheer, that it was like a huge pit +or trench. The floor was grassy though strewn with rocks, and here and there +Eustace saw black burnt patches like those you see on the sides of a railway +embankment in a dry summer. + +About fifteen yards away from him was a pool of clear, smooth water. There +was, at first, nothing else at all in the valley; not an animal, not a bird, not an +insect. The sun beat down and grim peaks and horns of mountains peered over +the valley’s edge. + +Eustace realized of course that in the fog he had come down the wrong side +of the ridge, so he turned at once to see about getting back. But as soon as he had +looked he shuddered. Apparently he had by amazing luck found the only +possible way down - a long green spit of land, horribly steep and narrow, with +precipices on either side. There was no other possible way of getting back. But +could he do it, now that he saw what it was really like? His head swam at the +very thought of it. + +He turned round again, thinking that at any rate he’d better have a good drink +from the pool first. But as soon as he had turned and before he had taken a step +forward into the valley he heard a noise behind him. It was only a small noise +but it sounded loud in that immense silence. It froze him dead-still where he +stood for a second. Then he slewed round his neck and looked. + +At the bottom of the cliff a little on his left hand was a low, dark hole - the +entrance to a cave perhaps. And out of this two thin wisps of smoke were +coming. And the loose stones just beneath the dark hollow were moving (that +was the noise he had heard) just as if something were crawling in the dark +behind them. + + + +Something was crawling. Worse still, something was coming out. Edmund or +Lucy or you would have recognized it at once, but Eustace had read none of the +right books. The thing that came out of the cave was something he had never +even imagined - along lead-coloured snout, dull red eyes, no feathers or fur, a +long lithe body that trailed on the ground, legs whose elbows went up higher +than its back like a spider’s cruel claws, bat’s wings that made a rasping noise on +the stones, yards of tail. And the lines of smoke were coming from its two +nostrils. He never said the word Dragon to himself. Nor would it have made +things any better if he had. + +But perhaps if he had known something about dragons he would have been a +little surprised at this dragon’s behaviour. It did not sit up and clap its wings, nor +did it shoot out a stream of flame from its mouth. The smoke from its nostrils +was like the smoke of a fire that will not last much longer. Nor did it seem to +have noticed Eustace. It moved very slowly towards the pool - slowly and with +many pauses. Even in his fear Eustace felt that it was an old, sad creature. He +wondered if he dared make a dash for the ascent. But it might look round if he +made any noise. It might come more to life. Perhaps it was only shamming. +Anyway, what was the use of trying to escape by climbing from a creature that +could fly? + +It reached the pool and slid its horrible scaly chin down over the gravel to +drink: but before it had drunk there came from it a great croaking or clanging cry +and after a few twitches and convulsions it rolled round on its side and lay +perfectly still with one claw in the air. A little dark blood gushed from its wide- +opened mouth. The smoke from its nostrils turned black for a moment and then +floated away. No more came, this was the brute’s trick, the way it lured travellers +to their doom. But one couldn’t wait for ever. He took a step nearer, then two +steps, and halted again. The dragon remained motionless; he noticed too that the +red fire had gone out of its eyes. At last he came up to it. He was quite sure now +that it was dead. With a shudder he touched it; nothing happened. + +The relief was so great that Eustace almost laughed out loud. He began to +feel as if he had fought and killed the dragon instead of merely seeing it die. He +stepped over it and went to the pool for his drink, for the heat was getting +unbearable. He was not surprised when he heard a peal of thunder. Almost +immediately afterwards the sun disappeared and before he had finished his drink +big drops of rain were falling. + +The climate of this island was a very unpleasant one. In less than a minute +Eustace was wet to the skin and half blinded with such rain as one never sees in +Europe. There was no use trying to climb out of the valley as long as this lasted. +He bolted for the only shelter in sight - the dragon’s cave. There he lay down and + + + +tried to get his breath. + +Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon’s lair, but, as I +said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about +exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on +dragons. That is why he was so puzzled at the surface on which he was lying. +Parts of it were too prickly to be stones and too hard to be thorns, and there +seemed to be a great many round, flat things, and it all clinked when he moved. +There was light enough at the cave’s mouth to examine it by. And of course +Eustace found it to be what any of us could have told him in advance - treasure. +There were crowns (those were the prickly things), coins, rings, bracelets, ingots, +cups, plates and gems. + +Eustace (unlike most boys) had never thought much of treasure but he saw at +once the use it would be in this new world which he had so foolishly stumbled +into through the picture in Lucy’s bedroom at home. “They don’t have any tax +here,” he said, “And you don’t have to give treasure to the government. With +some of this stuff I could have quite a decent time here - perhaps in Calormen. It +sounds the least phoney of these countries. I wonder how much I can carry? That +bracelet now - those things in it are probably diamonds - I’ll slip that on my own +wrist. Too big, but not if I push it right up here above my elbow. Then fill my +pockets with diamonds - that’s easier than gold. I wonder when this infernal +rain’s going to let up?” He got into a less uncomfortable part of the pile, where it +was mostly coins, and settled down to wait. But a bad fright, when once it is +over, and especially a bad fright following a mountain walk, leaves you very +tired. Eustace fell asleep. + +By the time he was sound asleep and snoring the others had finished dinner +and became seriously alarmed about him. They shouted, “Eustace! Eustace! +Coo-ee!” till they were hoarse and Caspian blew his horn. + +“He’s nowhere near or he’d have heard that,” said Lucy with a white face. + +“Confound the fellow,” said Edmund. “What on earth did he want to slink +away like this for?” + +“But we must do something,” said Lucy. “He may have got lost, or fallen +into a hole, or been captured by savages.” + +“Or killed by wild beasts,” said Drinian. + +“And a good riddance if he has, I say,” muttered Rhince. + +“Master Rhince,” said Reepicheep, “you never spoke a word that became +you less. The creature is no friend of mine but he is of the Queen’s blood, and +while he is one of our fellowship it concerns our honour to find him and to +avenge him if he is dead.” + +“Of course we’ve got to find him (if we can),” said Caspian wearily. “That’s + + + +the nuisance of it. It means a search party and endless trouble. Bother Eustace.” + +Meanwhile Eustace slept and slept - and slept. What woke him was a pain in +his arm. The moon was shining in at the mouth of the cave, and the bed of +treasures seemed to have grown much more comfortable: in fact he could hardly +feel it at all. He was puzzled by the pain in his arm at first, but presently it +occurred to him that the bracelet which he had shoved up above his elbow had +become strangely tight. His arm must have swollen while he was asleep (it was +his left arm). + +He moved his right arm in order to feel his left, but stopped before he had +moved it an inch and bit his lip in terror. For just in front of him, and a little on +his right, where the moonlight fell clear on the floor of the cave, he saw a +hideous shape moving. He knew that shape: it was a dragon’s claw. It had moved +as he moved his hand and became still when he stopped moving his hand. + +“Oh, what a fool I’ve been,” thought Eustace. “Of course, the brute had a +mate and it’s lying beside me.” + +For several minutes he did not dare to move a muscle. He saw two thin +columns of smoke going up before his eyes, black against the moonlight; just as +there had been smoke coming from the other dragon’s nose before it died. This +was so alarming that he held his breath. The two columns of smoke vanished. +When he could hold his breath no longer he let it out stealthily; instantly two jets +of smoke appeared again. But even yet he had no idea of the truth. + +Presently he decided that he would edge very cautiously to his left and try to +creep out of the cave. Perhaps the creature was asleep - and anyway it was his +only chance. But of course before he edged to the left he looked to the left. Oh +horror! there was a dragon’s claw on that side too. + +No one will blame Eustace if at this moment he shed tears. He was surprised +at the size of his own tears as he saw them splashing on to the treasure in front of +him. They also seemed strangely hot; steam went up from them. + +But there was no good crying. He must try to crawl out from between the +two dragons. He began extending his right arm. The dragon’s fore-leg and claw +on his right went through exactly the same motion. Then he thought he would try +his left. The dragon limb on that side moved too. + +Two dragons, one on each side, mimicking whatever he did! His nerve broke +and he simply made a bolt for it. + +There was such a clatter and rasping, and clinking of gold, and grinding of +stones, as he rushed out of the cave that he thought they were both following +him. He daren’t look back. He rushed to the pool. The twisted shape of the dead +dragon lying in the moonlight would have been enough to frighten anyone but +now he hardly noticed it. His idea was to get into the water. + + + +But just as he reached the edge of the pool two things happened. First of all it +came over him like a thunder-clap that he had been running on all fours - and +why on earth had he been doing that? And secondly, as he bent towards the +water, he thought for a second that yet another dragon was staring up at him out +of the pool. But in an instant he realized the truth. The dragon face in the pool +was his own reflection. There was no doubt of it. It moved as he moved: it +opened and shut its mouth as he opened and shut his. + +He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon’s +hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon +himself. + +That explained everything. There had been no two dragons beside him in the +cave. The claws to right and left had been his own right and left claw. The two +columns of smoke had been coming from his own nostrils. As for the pain in his +left arm (or what had been his left arm) he could now see what had happened by +squinting with his left eye. The bracelet which had fitted very nicely on the +upper arm of a boy was far too small for the thick, stumpy foreleg of a dragon. It +had sunk deeply into his scaly flesh and there was a throbbing bulge on each side +of it. He tore at the place with his dragon’s teeth but could not get it off. + +In spite of the pain, his first feeling was one of relief. There was nothing to +be afraid of any more. He was a terror himself and nothing in the world but a +knight (and not all of those) would dare to attack him. He could get even with +Caspian and Edmund now But the moment he thought this he realized that he +didn’t want to. He wanted to be friends. He wanted to get back among humans +and talk and laugh and share things. He realized that he was a monster cut off +from the whole human race. An appalling loneliness came over him. He began to +see that the others had not really been fiends at all. He began to wonder if he +himself had been such a nice person as he had always supposed. He longed for +their voices. He would have been grateful for a kind word even from +Reepicheep. + +When he thought of this the poor dragon that had been Eustace lifted up its +voice and wept. A powerful dragon crying its eyes out under the moon in a +deserted valley is a sight and a sound hardly to be imagined. + +At last he decided he would try to find his way back to the shore. He realized +now that Caspian would never have sailed away and left him. And he felt sure +that somehow or other he would be able to make people understand who he was. + +He took a long drink and then (I know this sounds shocking, but it isn’t if +you think it over) he ate nearly all the dead dragon. He was half-way through it +before he realized what he was doing; for, you see, though his mind was the +mind of Eustace, his tastes and his digestion were dragonish. And there is + + + +nothing a dragon likes so well as fresh dragon. That is why you so seldom find +more than one dragon in the same county. + +Then he turned to climb out of the valley. He began the climb with a jump +and as soon as he jumped he found that he was flying. He had quite forgotten +about his wings and it was a great surprise to him - the first pleasant surprise he +had had for a long time. He rose high into the air and saw innumerable +mountain-tops spread out beneath him in the moonlight. He could see the bay +like a silver slab and the Dawn Treader lying at anchor and camp fires twinkling +in the woods beside the beach. From a great height he launched himself down +towards them in a single glide. + +Lucy was sleeping very soundly for she had sat up till the return of the +search party in hope of good news about Eustace. It had been led by Caspian and +had come back late and weary. Their news was disquieting. They had found no +trace of Eustace but had seen a dead dragon in a valley. They tried to make the +best of it and everyone assured everyone else that there were not likely to he +more dragons about, and that one which was dead at about three o’clock that +afternoon (which was when they had seen it) would hardly have been killing +people a very few hours before. + +“Unless it ate the little brat and died of him: he’d poison anything,” said +Rhince. But he said this under his breath and no one heard it. + +But later in the night Lucy was wakened, very softly, and found the whole +company gathered close together and talking in whispers. + +“What is it?” said Lucy. + +“We must all show great constancy,” Caspian was saying. “A dragon has just +flown over the tree-tops and lighted on the beach. Yes, I am afraid it is between +us and the ship. And arrows are no use against dragons. And they’re not at all +afraid of fire.” + +“With your Majesty’s leave-” began Reepicheep. + +“No, Reepicheep,” said the King very firmly, “you are not to attempt a single +combat with it. And unless you promise to obey me in this matter I’ll have you +tied up. We must just keep close watch and, as soon as it is light, go down to the +beach and give it battle. I will lead. King Edmund will be on my right and the +Lord Drinian on my left. There are no other arrangements to be made. It will be +light in a couple of hours. In an hour’s time let a meal be served out and what is +left of the wine. And let everything be done silently.” + +“Perhaps it will go away,” said Lucy. + +“It’ll be worse if it does,” said Edmund, “because then we shan’t know +where it is. If there’s a wasp in the room I like to be able to see it.” + +The rest of the night wa dreadful, and when the meal came, though they + + + +knew they ought to eat, many found that they had very poor appetites. And +endless hours seemed to pass before the darkness thinned and birds began +chirping here and there and the world got colder and wetter than it had been all +night and Caspian said, “Now for it, friends.” + +They got up, all with swords drawn, and formed themselves into a solid mass +with Lucy in the middle and Reepicheep on her shoulder. It was nicer than the +waiting about and everyone felt fonder of everyone else than at ordinary times. A +moment later they were marching. It grew lighter as they came to the edge of the +wood. And there on the sand, like a giant lizard, or a flexible crocodile, or a +serpent with legs, huge and horrible and humpy, lay the dragon. + +But when it saw them, instead of rising up and blowing fire and smoke, the +dragon retreated - you could almost say it waddled - back into the shallows of +the bay. + +“What’s it wagging its head like that for?” said Edmund. + +“And now it’s nodding,” said Caspian. + +“And there’s something coming from its eyes,” said Drinian. + +“Oh, can’t you see,” said Lucy. “It’s crying. Those are tears.” + +“I shouldn’t trust to that, Ma’am,” said Drinian. “That’s what crocodiles do, +to put you off your guard.” + +“It wagged its head when you said that,” remarked Edmund. “Just as if it +meant No. Look, there it goes again.” + +“Do you think it understands what we’re saying?” asked Lucy. + +The dragon nodded its head violently. + +Reepicheep slipped off Lucy’s shoulder and stepped to the front. + +“Dragon,” came his shrill voice, “can you understand speech?” + +The dragon nodded. + +“Can you speak?” + +It shook its head. + +“Then,” said Reepicheep, “it is idle to ask you your business. But if you will +swear friendship with us raise your left foreleg above your head.” + +It did so, but clumsily because that leg was sore and swollen with the golden +bracelet + +“Oh look,” said Lucy, “there’s something wrong with its leg. The poor thing +- that’s probably what it was crying about. Perhaps it came to us to be cured like +in Androcles and the lion.” + +“Be careful, Lucy,” said Caspian. “It’s a very clever dragon but it may be a +liar.” + +Lucy had, however, already run forward, followed by Reepicheep, as fast as +his short legs could carry him, and then of course the boys and Drinian came, + + + +too. + +“Show me your poor paw,” said Lucy, “I might be able to cure it.” + +The dragon-that-had-been-Eustace held out its sore leg gladly enough, +remembering how Lucy’s cordial had cured him of sea-sickness before he +became a dragon. But he was disappointed. The magic fluid reduced the swelling +and eased the pain a little but it could not dissolve the gold. + +Everyone had now crowded round to watch the treatment, and Caspian +suddenly exclaimed, “Look!” He was staring at the bracelet. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +HOW THE ADVENTURE ENDED + +“LOOK at what?” said Edmund. + +“Look at the device on the gold,” said Caspian. + +“A little hammer with a diamond above it like a star,” said Drinian. “Why, +I’ve seen that before.” + +“Seen it!” said Caspian. “Why, of course you have. It is the sign of a great +Narnian house. This is the Lord Octesian’s arm-ring.” + +“Villain,” said Reepicheep to the dragon, “have you devoured a Narnian +lord?” But the dragon shook his head violently. + +“Or perhaps,” said Lucy, “this is the Lord Octesian, turned into a dragon - +under an enchantment, you know.” + +“It needn’t be either,” said Edmund. “All dragons collect gold. But I think +it’s a safe guess that Octesian got no further than this island.” + +“Are you the Lord Octesian?” said Lucy to the dragon, and then, when it +sadly shook its head, “Are you someone enchanted - someone human, I mean?” + +It nodded violently. + +And then someone said - people disputed afterwards whether Lucy or +Edmund said it first - “You’re not - not Eustace by any chance?” + +And Eustace nodded his terrible dragon head and thumped his tail in the sea +and everyone skipped back (some of the sailors with ejaculations I will not put +down in writing) to avoid the enormous and boiling tears which flowed from his +eyes. + +Lucy tried hard to console him and even screwed up her courage to kiss the +scaly face, and nearly everyone said “Hard luck” and several assured Eustace +that they would all stand by him and many said there was sure to be some way of +disenchanting him and they’d have him as right as rain in a day or two. And of +course they were all very anxious to hear his story, but he couldn’t speak. More +than once in the days that followed he attempted to write it for them on the sand. +But, this never succeeded. In the first place Eustace (never having read the right +books) had no idea how to tell a story straight. And for another thing, the +muscles and nerves of the dragon-claws that he had to use had never learned to +write and were not built for writing anyway. As a result he never got nearly to +the end before the tide came in and washed away all the writing except the bits +he had already trodden on or accidentaly swished out with his tail. And all that +anyone had seen would be something like this - the dots are for the bits he had + + + +smudged + +out I WNET TO SL EE . . . RGOS AGRONS I MEAN DRANGONS + +CAVE CAUSE IT-WAS DEAD AND AWING SO HAR . . . WOKE UP +AND COU . . . GET OFFF MI ARM OH BOTHER . . . + +It was, however, clear to everyone that Eustace’s character had been rather +improved by becoming a dragon. He was anxious to help. He flew over the +whole island and found it was all mountainous and inhabited only by wild goats +and droves of wild swine. Of these he brought back many carcasses as +provisions for the ship. He was a very humane killer too, for he could dispatch a +beast with one blow of his tail so that it didn’t know (and presumably still +doesn’t know) it had been killed. He ate a few himself, of course, but always +alone, for now that he was a dragon he liked his food raw but he could never +bear to let others see him at his messy meals. And one day, flying slowly and +wearily but in great triumph, he bore back to camp a great tall pine tree which he +had torn up by the roots in a distant valley and which could be made into a +capital mast. And in the evening if it turned chilly, as it sometimes did after the +heavy rains, he was a comfort to everyone, for the whole party would come and +sit with their backs against his hot sides and get well warmed and dried; and one +puff of his fiery breath would light the most obstinate fire. Sometimes he would +take a select party for a fly on his back, so that they could see wheeling below +them the green slopes, the rocky heights, the narrow pit-like valleys and far out +over the sea to the eastward a spot of darker blue on the blue horizon which +might be land. + +The pleasure (quite new to him) of being liked and, still more, of liking other +people, was what kept Eustace from despair. For it was very dreary being a +dragon. He shuddered whenever he caught sight of his own reflection as he flew +over a mountain lake. He hated the huge batlike wings, the saw-edged ridge on +his back, and the cruel, curved claws. He was almost afraid to be alone with +himself and yet he was ashamed to be with the others. On the evenings when he +was not being used as a hot-water bottle he would slink away from the camp and +lie curled up like a snake between the wood and the water. On such occasions, +greatly to his surprise, Reepicheep was his most constant comforter. The noble +Mouse would creep away from the merry circle at the camp fire and sit down by +the dragon’s head, well to the windward to be out of the way of his smoky +breath. There he would explain that what had happened to Eustace was a striking +illustration of the turn of Fortune’s wheel, and that if he had Eustace at his own +house in Narnia (it was really a hole not a house and the dragon’s head, let alone +his body, would not have fitted in) he could show him more than a hundred +examples of emperors, kings, dukes, knights, poets, lovers, astronomers, + + + +philosophers, and magicians, who had fallen from prosperity into the most +distressing circumstances, and of whom many had recovered and lived happily +ever afterwards. It did not, perhaps, seem so very comforting at the time, but it +was kindly meant and Eustace never forgot it. + +But of course what hung over everyone like a cloud was the problem of what +to do with their dragon when they were ready to sail. They tried not to talk of it +when he was there, but he couldn’t help overhearing things like, “Would he fit +all along one side of the deck? And we’d have to shift all the stores to the other +side down below so as to balance,” or, “Would towing him be any good?” or +“Would he be able to keep up by flying?” and (most often of all), “But how are +we to feed him?” And poor Eustace realized more and more that since the first +day he came on board he had been an unmitigated nuisance and that he was now +a greater nuisance still. And this ate into his mind, just as that bracelet ate into +his foreleg. He knew that it only made it worse to tear at it with his great teeth, +but he couldn’t help tearing now and then, especially on hot nights. + +About six days after they had landed on Dragon Island, Edmund happened to +wake up very early one morning. It was just getting grey so that you could see +the tree-trunks if they were between you and the bay but not in the other +direction. As he woke he thought he heard something moving, so he raised +himself on one elbow and looked about him: and presently he thought he saw a +dark figure moving on the seaward side of the wood. The idea that at once +occurred to his mind was, “Are we so sure there are no natives on this island +after all?” Then he thought it was Caspian - it was about the right size - but he +knew that Caspian had been sleeping next to him and could see that he hadn’t +moved. Edmund made sure that his sword was in its place and then rose to +investigate. + +He came down softly to the edge of the wood and the dark figure was still +there. He saw now that it was too small for Caspian and too big for Lucy. It did +not run away. Edmund drew his sword and was about to challenge the stranger +when the stranger said in a low voice, “Is that you, Edmund?” + +“Yes. Who are you?” said he. + +“Don’t you know me?” said the other. “It’s me Eustace.” + +“By jove,” said Edmund, “so it is. My dear chap -“ + +“Hush,” said Eustace and lurched as if he were going to fall. + +“Hello!” said Edmund, steadying him. “What’s up? Are you ill?” + +Eustace was silent for so long that Edmund thought he was fainting; but at +last he said, “It’s been ghastly. You don’t know . . . but it’s all right now. Could +we go and talk somewhere? I don’t want to meet the others just yet.” + +“Yes, rather, anywhere you like,” said Edmund. “We can go and sit on the + + + +rocks over there. I say, I am glad to see you - er - looking yourself again. You +must have had a pretty beastly time.” + +They went to the rocks and sat down looking out across the bay while the +sky got paler and paler and the stars disappeared except for one very bright one +low down and near the horizon. + +“I won’t tell you how I became a - a dragon till I can tell the others and get it +all over,” said Eustace. “By the way, I didn’t even know it was a dragon till I +heard you all using the word when I turned up here the other morning. I want to +tell you how I stopped being one.” + +“Fire ahead,” said Edmund. + +“Well, last night I was more miserable than ever. And that beastly arm-ring +was hurting like anything-“ + +“Is that all right now?” + +Eustace laughed - a different laugh from any Edmund had heard him give +before - and slipped the bracelet easily off his arm. “There it is,” he said, “and +anyone who likes can have it as far as I’m concerned. Well, as I say, I was lying +awake and wondering what on earth would become of me. And then - but, mind +you, it may have been all a dream. I don’t know.” + +“Go on,” said Edmund, with considerable patience. + +“Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge +lion coming slowly towards me. And one queer thing was that there was no +moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer +and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could +have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn’t that kind of fear. I wasn’t +afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came +close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But +that wasn’t any good because it told me to follow it.” + +“You mean it spoke?” + +“I don’t know. Now that you mention it, I don’t think it did. But it told me all +the same. And I knew I’d have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. +And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this +moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the +top of a mountain I’d never seen before and on the top of this mountain there +was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a +well. + +“I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the +bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath +with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I +thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the + + + +lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don’t know if he said any words +out loud or not. + +“I was just going to say that I couldn’t undress because I hadn’t any clothes +on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can +cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that’s what the lion means. So I started +scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I +scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my +whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I +was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there +beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go +down into the well for my bathe. + +“But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw +that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been +before. Oh, that’s all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on +underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too. So 1 scratched and tore +again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying +beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe. + +“Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh +dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my +leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the +two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I +knew it had been no good. + +“Then the lion said - but I don’t know if it spoke - “You will have to let me +undress you.” I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly +desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. + +“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into +my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything +I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure +of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you’ve ever picked the scab off a sore +place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.” + +“I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund. + +“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I’d done it +myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt - and there it was lying on the +grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the +others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and +smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me -1 didn’t like that much for I +was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on - and threw me into the +water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became +perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that + + + +all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy +again. You’d think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own +arms. I know they’ve no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian’s, +but I was so glad to see them. + +“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me + +“Dressed you. With his paws?” + +“Well, I don’t exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in +new clothes - the same I’ve got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I +was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.” + +“No. It wasn’t a dream,” said Edmund. + +“Why not?” + +“Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been - well, un- +dragoned, for another.” + +“What do you think it was, then?” asked Eustace. + +“I think you’ve seen Aslan,” said Edmund. + +“Aslan!” said Eustace. “I’ve heard that name mentioned several times since +we joined the Dawn Treader. And I felt - I don’t know what - I hated it. But I +was hating everything then. And by the way, I’d like to apologize. I’m afraid +I’ve been pretty beastly.” + +“That’s all right,” said Edmund. “Between ourselves, you haven’t been as +bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were only an ass, but I was a traitor.” + +“Well, don’t tell me about it, then,” said Eustace. “But who is Aslan? Do you +know him?” + +“Well - he knows me,” said Edmund. “He is the great Lion, the son of the +Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, who saved me and saved Narnia. We’ve all seen him. +Lucy sees him most often. And it may be Aslan’s country we are sailing to.” + +Neither said anything for a while. The last bright star had vanished and +though they could not see the sunrise because of the mountains on their right, +they knew it was going on because the sky above them and the bay before them +turned the colour of roses. Then some bird of the parrot kind screamed in the +wood behind them, they heard movements among the trees, and finally a blast on +Caspian’s horn. The camp was astir. + +Great was the rejoicing when Edmund and the restored Eustace walked into +the breakfast circle round the camp fire. And now of course everyone heard the +earlier part of his story. People wondered whether the other dragon had killed the +Lord Octesian several years ago or whether Octesian himself had been the old +dragon. The jewels with which Eustace had crammed his pockets in the cave had +disappeared along with the clothes he had then been wearing: but no one, least of +all Eustace himself, felt any desire to go back to that valley for more treasure. + + + +In a few days now the Dawn Treader, remasted, re-painted, and well stored, +was ready to sail. Before they embarked Caspian caused to be cut on a smooth +cliff facing the bay the words: + +Two narrow escapes + +DRAGON ISLAND DISCOVERED BY CASPIAN X, KING OF NARNIA, +ETC. IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF HIS REIGN. HERE, AS WE SUPPOSE, +THE LORD OCTESIAN HAD HIS DEATH + +It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace +was a different boy”. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He +had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But +most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun. + +The Lord Octesian’s arm ring had a curious fate. Eustace did not want it and +offered it to Caspian and Caspian offered it to Lucy. She did not care about +having it. “Very well, then, catch as catch can,” said Caspian and flung it up in +the air. This was when they were all standing looking at the inscription. Up went +the ring, flashing in the sunlight, and caught, and hung, as neatly as a well- +thrown quoit, on a little projection on the rock. No one could climb up to get it +from below and no one could climb down to get it from above. And there, for all +I know, it is hanging still and may hang till that world ends. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +TWO NARROW ESCAPES + +EVERYONE was cheerful as the Dawn Treader sailed from Dragon Island. +They had fair winds as soon as they were out of the bay and came early next +morning to the unknown land which some of them had seen when flying over the +mountains while Eustace was still a dragon. It was a low green island inhabited +by nothing but rabbits and a few goats, but from the ruins of stone huts, and from +blackened places where fires had been, they judged that it had been peopled not +long before. There were also some bones and broken weapons. + +“Pirates’ work,” said Caspian. + +“Or the dragon’s,” said Edmund. + +The only other thing they found there was a little skin boat, or coracle, on the +sands. It was made of hide stretched over a wicker framework. It was a tiny boat, +barely four feet long, and the paddle which still lay in it was in proportion. They +thought that either it had been made for a child or else that the people of that +country had been Dwarfs. Reepicheep decided to keep it, as it was just the right +size for him; so it was taken on board. They called that land Burnt Island, and +sailed away before noon. + +For some five days they ran before a south-south-east wind, out of sight of +all lands and seeing neither fish nor gull. Then they had a day when it rained +hard till the afternoon. Eustace lost two games of chess to Reepicheep and began +to get like his old and disagreeable self again, and Edmund said he wished they +could have gone to America with Susan. Then Lucy looked out of the stern +windows and said: + +“Hello! I do believe it’s stopping. And what’s that?” + +They all tumbled up to the poop at this and found that the rain had stopped +and that Drinian, who was on watch, was also staring hard at something astern. +Or rather, at several things. They looked a little like smooth rounded rocks, a +whole line of them with intervals of about forty feet in between. + +“But they can’t be rocks,” Drinian was saying, “because they weren’t there +five minutes ago.” + +“And one’s just disappeared,” said Lucy. + +“Yes, and there’s another one coming up,” said Edmund. + +“And nearer,” said Eustace. + +“Hang it!” said Caspian. “The whole thing is moving this way.” + +“And moving a great deal quicker than we can sail, Sire,” said Drinian. “It’ll + + + +be up with us in a minute.” + +They all held their breath, for it is not at all nice to be pursued by an +unknown something either on land or sea. But what it turned out to be was far +worse than anyone had suspected. Suddenly, only about the length of a cricket +pitch from their port side, an appalling head reared itself out of the sea. It was all +greens and vermilions with purple blotches - except where shell fish clung to it - +and shaped rather like a horse’s, though without ears. It had enormous eyes, eyes +made for staring through the dark depths of the ocean, and a gaping mouth filled +with double rows of sharp fish-like teeth. It came up on what they first took to be +a huge neck, but as more and more of it emerged everyone knew that this was +not its neck but its body and that at last they were seeing what so many people +have foolishly wanted to see - the great Sea Serpent. The folds of its gigantic tail +could be seen far away, rising at intervals from the surface. And now its head +was towering up higher than the mast. + +Every man rushed to his weapon, but there was nothing to be done, the +monster was out of reach. “Shoot! Shoot!” cried the Master Bowman, and +several obeyed, but the arrows glanced off the Sea Serpent’s hide as if it was +ironplated. Then, for a dreadful minute, everyone was still, staring up at its eyes +and mouth and wondering where it would pounce. + +But it didn’t pounce. It shot its head forward across the ship on a level with +the yard of the mast. Now its head was just beside the fighting top. Still it +stretched and stretched till its head was over the starboard bulwark. Then down it +began to come - not on to the crowded deck but into the water, so that the whole +ship was under an arch of serpent. And almost at once that arch began to get +smaller: indeed on the starboard the Sea Serpent was now almost touching the +Dawn Treader’s side. + +Eustace (who had really been trying very hard to behave well, till the rain +and the chess put him back) now did the first brave thing he had ever done. He +was wearing a sword that Caspian had lent him. As soon as the serpent’s body +was near enough on the starboard side he jumped on to the bulwark and began +hacking at it with all his might. It is true that he accomplished nothing beyond +breaking Caspian’s second-best sword into bits, but it was a fine thing for a +beginner to have done. + +Others would have joined him if at that moment Reepicheep had not called +out, “Don’t fight! Push!” It was so unusual for the Mouse to advise anyone not +to fight that, even in that terrible moment, every eye turned to him. And when he +jumped up on to the bulwark, forward of the snake, and set his little furry back +against its huge scaly, slimy back, and began pushing as hard as he could, quite a +number of people saw what he meant and rushed to both sides of the ship to do + + + +the same. And when, a moment later, the Sea Serpent’s head appeared again, this +time on the port side, and this time with its back to them, then everyone +understood. + +The brute had made a loop of itself round the Dawn Treader and was +beginning to draw the loop tight. When it got quite tight - snap! - there would be +floating matchwood where the ship had been and it could pick them out of the +water one by one. Their only chance was to push the loop backward till it slid +over the stern; or else (to put the same thing another way) to push the ship +forward out of the loop. + +Reepicheep alone had, of course, no more chance of doing this than of lifting +up a cathedral, but he had nearly killed himself with trying before others shoved +him aside. Very soon the whole ship’s company except Lucy and the Mouse +(which was fainting) was in two long lines along the two bulwarks, each man’s +chest to the back of the man in front, so that the weight of the whole line was in +the last man, pushing for their lives. For a few sickening seconds (which seemed +like hours) nothing appeared to happen. Joints cracked, sweat dropped, breath +came in grunts and gasps. Then they felt that the ship was moving. They saw +that the snake-loop was further from the mast than it had been. But they also saw +that it was smaller. And now the real danger was at hand. Could they get it over +the poop, or was it already too tight? Yes. It would just fit. It was resting on the +poop rails. A dozen or more sprang up on the poop. This was far better. The Sea +Serpent’s body was so low now that they could make a line across the poop and +push side by side. Hope rose high till everyone remembered the high carved +stern, the dragon tail, of the Dawn Treader. It would be quite impossible to get +the brute over that. + +“An axe,” cried Caspian hoarsely, “and still shove.” Lucy, who knew where +everything was, heard him where she was standing on the main deck staring up +at the poop. In a few seconds she had been below, got the axe, and was rushing +up the ladder to the poop. But just as she reached the top there came a great +crashing noise like a tree coming down and the ship rocked and darted forward. +For at that very moment, whether because the Sea Serpent was being pushed so +hard, or because it foolishly decided to draw the noose tight, the whole of the +carved stern broke off and the ship was free. + +The others were too exhausted to see what Lucy saw. There, a few yards +behind them, the loop of Sea Serpent’s body got rapidly smaller and disappeared +into a splash. Lucy always said (but of course she was very excited at the +moment, and it may have been only imagination) that she saw a look of idiotic +satisfaction on the creature’s face. What is certain is that it was a very stupid +animal, for instead of pursuing the ship it turned its head round and began nosing + + + +all along its own body as if it expected to find the wreckage of the Dawn Treader +there. But the Dawn Treader was already well away, running before a fresh +breeze, and the men lay and sat panting and groaning all about the deck, till +presently they were able to talk about it, and then to laugh about it. And when +some rum had been served out they even raised a cheer; and everyone praised +the valour of Eustace (though it hadn’t done any good) and of Reepicheep. + +After this they sailed for three days more and saw nothing but sea and sky. +On the fourth day the wind changed to the north and the seas began to rise; by +the afternoon it had nearly become a gale. But at the same time they sighted land +on their port bow. + +“By your leave, Sire,” said Drinian, “we will try to get under the lee of that +country by rowing and lie in harbour, maybe till this is over.” Caspian agreed, +but a long row against the gale did not bring them to the land before evening. By +the last light of that day they steered into a natural harbour and anchored, but no +one went ashore that night. In the morning they found themselves in the green +bay of a rugged, lonely-looking country which sloped up to a rocky summit. +From the windy north beyond that summit clouds came streaming rapidly. They +lowered the boat and loaded + +her with any of the water casks which were now empty. + +“Which stream shall we water at, Drinian?” said Caspian as he took his seat +in the stern-sheets of the boat. “There seem to be two coming down into the +bay.” + +“It makes little odds, Sire,” said Drinian. “But I think it’s a shorter pull to +that on the starboard-the eastern one.” + +“Here comes the rain,” said Lucy. + +“I should think it does!” said Edmund, for it was already pelting hard. “I say, +let’s go to the other stream. There are trees there and we’ll have some shelter.” + +“Yes, let’s,” said Eustace. “No point in getting wetter than we need.” + +But all the time Drinian was steadily steering to the starboard, like tiresome +people in cars who continue at forty miles an hour while you are explaining to +them that they are on the wrong road. + +“They’re right, Drinian,” said Caspian. “Why don’t you bring her head round +and make for the western stream?” + +“As your Majesty pleases,” said Drinian a little shortly. He had had an +anxious day with the weather yesterday, and he didn’t like advice from +landsmen. But he altered course; and it turned out afterwards that it was a good +thing he did. + +By the time they had finished watering, the rain was over and Caspian, with +Eustace, the Pevensies, and Reepicheep, decided to walk up to the top of the hill + + + +and see what could be seen. It was a stiffish climb through coarse grass and +heather and they saw neither man nor beast, except seagulls. When they reached +the top they saw that it was a very small island, not more than twenty acres; and +from this height the sea looked larger and more desolate than it did from the +deck, or even the fighting top, of the Dawn Treader. + +“Crazy, you know,” said Eustace to Lucy in a low voice, looking at the +eastern horizon. “Sailing on and on into that with no idea what we may get to.” +But he only said it out of habit, not really nastily as he would have done at one +time. + +It was too cold to stay long on the ridge for the wind still blew freshly from +the north. + +“Don’t let’s go back the same way,” said Lucy as they turned; “let’s go along +a bit and come down by the other stream, the one Drinian wanted to go to.” + +Everyone agreed to this and after about fifteen minutes they were at the +source of the second river. It was a more interesting place than they had +expected; a deep little mountain lake, surrounded by cliffs except for a narrow +channel on the seaward side out of which the water flowed. Here at last they +were out of the wind, and all sat down in the heather above the cliff for a rest. + +All sat down, but one (it was Edmund) jumped up again very quickly. + +“They go in for sharp stones on this island,” he said, groping about in the +heather. “Where is the wretched thing? . . . Ah, now I’ve got it . . . Hullo! It +wasn’t a stone at all, it’s a sword-hilt. No, by jove, it’s a whole sword; what the +mst has left of it. It must have lain here for ages.” + +“Narnian, too, by the look of it,” said Caspian, as they all crowded round. + +“I’m sitting on something too,” said Lucy. “Something hard.” It turned out to +be the remains of a mail-shirt. By this time everyone was on hands and knees, +feeling in the thick heather in every direction. Their search revealed, one by one, +a helmet, a dagger, and a few coins; not Calormen crescents but genuine Narnian +“Lions” and “Trees” such as you might see any day in the market-place of +Beaversdam or Beruna. + +“Looks as if this might be all that’s left of one of our seven lords,” said +Edmund. + +“Just what I was thinking,” said Caspian. “I wonder which it was. There’s +nothing on the dagger to show. And I wonder how he died.” + +“And how we are to avenge him,” added Reepicheep. + +Edmund, the only one of the party who had read several detective stories, +had meanwhile been thinking. + +“Look here,” he said, “there’s something very fishy about this. He can’t have +been killed in a fight.” + + + +“Why not?” asked Caspian. + +“No bones,” said Edmund. “An enemy might take the armour and leave the +body. But who ever heard of a chap who’d won a fight carrying away the body +and leaving the armour?” + +“Perhaps he was killed by a wild animal,” Lucy suggested. + +“It’d be a clever animal,” said Edmund, “that would take a man’s mail shirt +off.” + +“Perhaps a dragon?” said Caspian. + +“Nothing doing,” said Eustace. “A dragon couldn’t do it. I ought to know.” + +“Well, let’s get away from the place, anyway,” said Lucy. She had not felt +like sitting down again since Edmund had raised the question of bones. + +“If you like,” said Caspian, getting up. “I don’t think any of this stuff is +worth taking away.” + +They came down and round to the little opening where the stream came out +of the lake, and stood looking at the deep water within the circle of cliffs. If it +had been a hot day, no doubt some would have been tempted to bathe and +everyone would have had a drink. Indeed, even as it was, Eustace was on the +very point of stooping down and scooping up some water in his hands when +Reepicheep and Lucy both at the same moment cried, “Look,” so he forgot about +his drink and looked. + +The bottom of the pool was made of large greyish-blue stones and the water +was perfectly clear, and on the bottom lay a life-size figure of a man, made +apparently of gold. It lay face downwards with its arms stretched out above its +head. And it so happened that as they looked at it, the clouds parted and the sun +shone out. The golden shape was lit up from end to end. Lucy thought it was the +most beautiful statue she had ever seen. + +“Well!” whistled Caspian. “That was worth coming to see! I wonder, can we +get it out?” + +“We can dive for it, Sire,” said Reepicheep. + +“No good at all,” said Edmund. “At least, if it’s really gold - solid gold - it’ll +be far too heavy to bring up. And that pool’s twelve or fifteen feet deep if it’s an +inch. Half a moment, though. It’s a good thing I’ve brought a hunting spear with +me. Let’s see what the depth is like. Hold on to my hand, Caspian, while I lean +out over the water a bit.” Caspian took his hand and Edmund, leaning forward, +began to lower his spear into the water. + +Before it was half-way in Lucy said, “I don’t believe the statue is gold at all. +It’s only the light. Your spear looks just the same colour.” + +“What’s wrong?” asked several voices at once; for Edmund had suddenly let +go of the spear. + + + +“I couldn’t hold it,” gasped Edmund, “it seemed so heavy.” + +“And there it is on the bottom now,” said Caspian, “and Lucy is right. It +looks just the same colour as the statue.” + +But Edmund, who appeared to be having some trouble with his boots - at +least he was bending down and looking at them - straightened himself all at once +and shouted out in the sharp voice which people hardly ever disobey: + +“Get back! Back from the water. All of you. At once!!” + +They all did and stared at him. + +“Look,” said Edmund, “look at the toes of my boots.” + +“They look a bit yellow,” began Eustace. + +“They’re gold, solid gold,” interrupted Edmund. “Look at them. Feel them. +The leather’s pulled away from it already. And they’re as heavy as lead.” + +“By Aslan!” said Caspian. “You don’t mean to say-?” + +“Yes, I do,” said Edmund. “That water turns things into gold. It turned the +spear into gold, that’s why it got so heavy. And it was just lapping against my +feet (it’s a good thing I wasn’t barefoot) and it turned the toe-caps into gold. And +that poor fellow on the bottom - well, you see.” + +“So it isn’t a statue at all,” said Lucy in a low voice. + +“No. The whole thing is plain now. He was here on a hot day. He undressed +on top of the cliff - where we were sitting. The clothes have rotted away or been +taken by birds to line nests with; the armour’s still there. Then he dived and -“ + +“Don’t,” said Lucy. “What a horrible thing.” + +“And what a narrow shave we’ve had,” said Edmund. + +“Narrow indeed,” said Reepicheep. “Anyone’s finger, anyone’s foot, +anyone’s whisker, or anyone’s tail, might have slipped into the water at any +moment.” + +“All the same,” said Caspian, “we may as well test it.” He stooped down and +wrenched up a spray of heather. Then, very cautiously, he knelt beside the pool +and dipped it in. It was heather that he dipped; what he drew out was a perfect +model of heather made of the purest gold, heavy and soft as lead. + +“The King who owned this island,” said Caspian slowly, and his face flushed +as he spoke, “would soon be the richest of all the Kings of the world. I claim this +land for ever as a Narnian possession. It shall be called Goldwater Island. And I +bind all of you to secrecy. No one must know of this. Not even Drinian - on pain +of death, do you hear?” + +“Who are you talking to?” said Edmund. “I’m no subject of yours. If +anything it’s the other way round. I am one of the four ancient sovereigns of +Narnia and you are under allegiance to the High King my brother.” + +“So it has come to that, King Edmund, has it?” said Caspian, laying his hand + + + +on his sword-hilt. + +“Oh, stop it, both of you,” said Lucy. “That’s the worst of doing anything +with boys. You’re all such swaggering, bullying idiots - oooh! Her voice died +away into a gasp. And everyone else saw what she had seen. + +Across the grey hillside above them - grey, for the heather was not yet in +bloom - without noise, and without looking at them, and shining as if he were in +bright sunlight though the sun had in fact gone in, passed with slow pace the +hugest lion that human eyes have ever seen. In describing the scene Lucy said +afterwards, “He was the size of an elephant,” though at another time she only +said, “The size of a cart-horse.” But it was not the size that mattered. Nobody +dared to ask what it was. They knew it was Aslan. + +And nobody ever saw how or where he went. They looked at one another +like people waking from sleep. + +“What were we talking about?” said Caspian. “Have I been making rather an +ass of myself?” + +“Sire,” said Reepicheep, “this is a place with a curse on it. Let us get back on +board at once. And if I might have the honour of naming this island, I should call +it Deathwater.” + +“That strikes me as a very good name, Reep,” said Caspian, “though now +that I come to think of it, I don’t know why. But the weather seems to be settling +and I dare say Drinian would like to be off. What a lot we shall have to tell him.” + +But in fact they had not much to tell for the memory of the last hour had all +become confused. + +“Their Majesties all seemed a bit bewitched when they came aboard,” said +Drinian to Rhince some hours later when the Dawn Treader was once more +under sail and Deathwater Island already below the horizon. “Something +happened to them in that place. The only thing I could get clear was that they +think they’ve found the body of one of these lords we’re looking for.” + +“You don’t say so, Captain,” answered Rhince. “Well, that’s three. Only four +more. At this rate we might be home soon after the New Year. And a good thing +too. My baccy’s running a bit low. Good night, Sir.” + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +THE ISLAND OF THE VOICES + +AND now the winds which had so long been from the north-west began to +blow from the west itself and every morning when the sun rose out of the sea the +curved prow of the Dawn Treader stood up right across the middle of the sun. +Some thought that the sun looked larger than it looked from Narnia, but others +disagreed. And they sailed and sailed before a gentle yet steady breeze and saw +neither fish nor gull- nor ship nor shore. And stores began to get low again, and +it crept into their hearts that perhaps they might have come to a sea which went +on for ever. But when the very last day on which they thought they could risk +continuing their eastward voyage dawned, it showed, right ahead between them +and the sunrise, a low land lying like a cloud. + +They made harbour in a wide bay about the middle of the afternoon and +landed. It was a very different country from any they had yet seen. For when +they had crossed the sandy beach they found all silent and empty as if it were an +uninhabited land, but before them there were level lawns in which the grass was +as smooth and short as it used to be in the grounds of a great English house +where ten gardeners were kept. The trees, of which there were many, all stood +well apart from one another, and there were no broken branches and no leaves +lying on the ground. Pigeons sometimes cooed but there was no other noise. + +Presently they came to a long, straight, sanded path with not a weed growing +on it and trees on either hand. Far off at the other end of this avenue they now +caught sight of a house - very long and grey and quiet-looking in the afternoon +sun. + +Almost as soon as they entered this path Lucy noticed that she had a little +stone in her shoe. In that unknown place it might have been wiser for her to ask +the others to wait while she took it out. But she didn’t; she just dropped quietly +behind and sat down to take off her shoe. Her lace had got into a knot. + +Before she had undone the knot the others were a fair distance ahead. By the +time she had got the stone out and was putting the shoe on again she could no +longer hear them. But almost at once she heard something else. It was not +coming from the direction of the house. + +What she heard was a thumping. It sounded as if dozens of strong workmen +were hitting the ground as hard as they could with great wooden mallets. And it +was very quickly coming nearer. She was already sitting with her back to a tree, +and as the tree was not one she could climb, there was really nothing to do but to + + + +sit dead still and press herself against the tree and hope she wouldn’t be seen. + +Thump, thump, thump . . . and whatever it was must be very close now for +she could feel the ground shaking. But she could see nothing. She thought the +thing - or things must be just behind her. But then there came a thump on the +path right in front of her. She knew it was on the path not only by the sound but +because she saw the sand scatter as if it had been struck a heavy blow. But she +could see nothing that had struck it. Then all the thumping noises drew together +about twenty feet away from her and suddenly ceased. Then came the Voice. + +It was really very dreadful because she could still see nobody at all. The +whole of that park-like country still looked as quiet and empty as it had looked +when they first landed. Nevertheless, only a few feet away from her, a voice +spoke. And what it said was: + +“Mates, now’s our chance.” + +Instantly a whole chorus of other voices replied, “Hear him. Hear him. 'Now +’s our chance’, he said. Well done, Chief. You never said a truer word.” + +“What I say,” continued the first voice, “is, get down to the shore between +them and their boat, and let every mother’s son look to his weapons. Catch ‘em +when they try to put to sea.” + +“Eh, that’s the way,” shouted all the other voices. “You never made a better +plan, Chief. Keep it up, Chief. You couldn’t have a better plan than that.” + +“Lively, then, mates, lively,” said the first voice. “Off we go. + +“Right again, Chief,” said the others. “Couldn’t have a better order. Just what +we were going to say ourselves. Off we go.” + +Immediately the thumping began again - very loud at first but soon fainter +and fainter, till it died out in the direction of the sea. + +Lucy knew there was no time to sit puzzling as to what these invisible +creatures might be. As soon as the thumping noise had died away she got up and +ran along the path after the others as quickly as her legs would carry her. They +must at all costs be warned. + +While this had been happening the others had reached the house. It was a +low building - only two stories high made of a beautiful mellow stone, many- +windowed, and partially covered with ivy. Everything was so still that Eustace +said, “I think it’s empty,” but Caspian silently pointed to the column of smoke +which rose from one chimney. + +They found a wide gateway open and passed through it into a paved +courtyard. And it was here that they had their first indication that there was +something odd about this island. In the middle of the courtyard stood a pump, +and beneath the pump a bucket. There was nothing odd about that. But the pump +handle was moving up and down, though there seemed to be no one moving it. + + + +“There’s some magic at work here,” said Caspian. + +“Machinery!” said Eustace. “I do believe we’ve come to a civilized country +at last.” + +At that moment Lucy, hot and breathless, rushed into the courtyard behind +them. In a low voice she tried to make them understand what she had overheard. +And when they had partly understood it even the bravest of them did not look +very happy. + +“Invisible enemies,” muttered Caspian. “And cutting us off from the boat. +This is an ugly furrow to plough.” + +“You’ve no idea what sort of creatures they are, Lu?” asked Edmund. + +“How can I, Ed, when I couldn’t see them?” + +“Did they sound like humans from their footsteps?” + +“I didn’t hear any noise of feet - only voices and this frightful thudding and +thumping - like a mallet.” + +“I wonder,” said Reepicheep, “do they become visible when you drive a +sword into them?” + +“It looks as if we shall find out,” said Caspian. “But let’s get out of this +gateway. There’s one of these gentry at that pump listening to all we say.” + +They came out and went back on to the path where the trees might possibly +make them less conspicuous. “Not that it’s any good really,” said Eustace, +“trying to hide from people you can’t see. They may be all round us.” + +“Now, Drinian,” said Caspian. “How would it be if we gave up the boat for +lost, went down to another part of the bay, and signalled to the Dawn Treader to +stand in and take us aboard?” + +“Not depth for her, Sire,” said Drinian. + +“We could swim,” said Lucy. + +“Your Majesties all,” said Reepicheep, “hear me. It is folly to think of +avoiding an invisible enemy by any amount of creeping and skulking. If these +creatures mean to bring us to battle, be sure they will succeed. And whatever +comes of it I’d sooner meet them face to face than be caught by the tail.” + +“I really think Reep is in the right this time,” said Edmund. + +“Surely,” said Lucy, “if Rhince and the others on the Dawn Treader see us +fighting on the shore they’ll be able to do something.” + +“But they won’t see us fighting if they can’t see any enemy,” said Eustace +miserably. “They’ll think we’re just swinging our swords in the air for fun.” + +There was an uncomfortable pause. + +“Well,” said Caspian at last, “let’s get on with it. We must go and face them. +Shake hands all round - arrow on the string, Lucy - swords out, everyone else - +and now for it. Perhaps they’ll parley.” + + + +It was strange to see the lawns and the great trees looking so peaceful as they +marched back to the beach. And when they arrived there, and saw the boat lying +where they had left her, and the smooth sand with no one to be seen on it, more +than one doubted whether Lucy had not merely imagined all she had told them. +But before they reached the sand, a voice spoke out of the air. + +“No further, masters, no further now,” it said. “We’ve got to talk with you +first. There’s fifty of us and more here with weapons in our fists.” + +“Hear him, hear him,” came the chorus. “That’s our Chief. You can depend +on what he says. He’s telling you the truth, he is.” + +“I do not see these fifty warriors,” observed Reepicheep. + +“That’s right, that’s right,” said the Chief Voice. “You don’t see us. And why +not? Because we’re invisible.” + +“Keep it up, Chief, keep it up,” said the Other Voices. “You’re talking like a +book. They couldn’t ask for a better answer than that.” + +“Be quiet, Reep,” said Caspian, and then added in a louder voice, “You +invisible people, what do you want with us? And what have we done to earn +your enmity?” + +“We want something that little girl can do for us,” said the Chief Voice. (The +others explained that this was just what they would have said themselves.) + +“Little girl!” said Reepicheep. “The lady is a queen.” + +“We don’t know about queens,” said the Chief Voice. + +(”No more we do, no more we do,” chimed in the others.) “But we want +something she can do.” + +“What is it?” said Lucy. + +“And if it is anything against her Majesty’s honour or safety,” added +Reepicheep, “you will wonder to see how many we can kill before we die.” + +“Well,” said the Chief Voice. “It’s a long story. Suppose we all sit down?” , + +The proposal was warmly approved by the other voices but the Narnians +remained standing. + +“Well,” said the Chief Voice. “It’s like this. This island has been the property +of a great magician time out of mind. And we all are - or perhaps in a manner of +speaking, I might say, we were - his servants. Well, to cut a long story short, this +magician that I was speaking about, he told us to do something we didn’t like. +And why not? Because we didn’t want to. Well, then, this same magician he fell +into a great rage; for I ought to tell you he owned the island and he wasn’t used +to being crossed. He was terribly downright, you know. But let me see, where +am I? Oh yes, this magician then, he goes upstairs (for you must know he kept +all his magic things up there and we all lived down below), I say he goes upstairs +and puts a spell on us. An uglifying spell. If you saw us now, which in my + + + +opinion you may thank your stars you can’t, you wouldn’t believe what we +looked like before we were uglified. You wouldn’t really. So there we all were so +ugly we couldn’t bear to look at one another. So then what did we do? Well, I’ll +tell you what we did. We waited till we thought this same magician would be +asleep in the afternoon and we creep upstairs and go to his magic book, as bold +as brass, to see if we can do anything about this uglification. But we were all of a +sweat and a tremble, so I won’t deceive you. But, believe me or believe me not, I +do assure you that we couldn’t find any thing in the way of a spell for taking off +the ugliness. And what with time getting on and being afraid that the old +gentleman might wake up any minute - I was all of a muck sweat, so I won’t +deceive you - well, to cut a long story short, whether we did right or whether we +did wrong, in the end we see a spell for making people invisible. And we +thought we’d rather be invisible than go on being as ugly as all that. And why? +Because we’d like it better. So my little girl, who’s just about your little girl’s +age, and a sweet child she was before she was uglified, though now - but least +said soonest mended - I say, my little girl she says the spell, for it’s got to be a +little girl or else the magician himself, if you see my meaning, for otherwise it +won’t work. And why not? Because nothing happens. So my Clipsie says the +spell, for I ought to have told you she reads beautifully, and there we all were as +invisible as you could wish to see. And I do assure you it was a relief not to see +one another’s faces. At first, anyway. But the long and the short of it is we’re +mortal tired of being invisible. And there’s another thing. We never reckoned on +this magician (the one I was telling you about before) going invisible too. But +we haven’t ever seen him since. So we don’t know if he’s dead, or gone .away, +or whether he’s just sitting upstairs being invisible, and perhaps coming down +and being invisible there. And, believe me, it’s no manner of use listening +because he always did go about with his bare feet on, making no more noise than +a great big cat. And I’ll tell all you gentlemen straight, it’s getting more than +what our nerves can stand.” + +Such was the Chief Voice’s story, but very much shortened, because I have +left out what the Other Voices said. Actually he never got out more than six or +seven words without being interrupted by their agreements and encouragements, +which drove the Narnians nearly out of their minds with impatience. When it +was over there was a very long silence. + +“But,” said Lucy at last, “what’s all this got to do with us? I don’t +understand.” + +“Why, bless me, if I haven’t gone and left out the whole point,” said the +Chief Voice. + +“That you have, that you have,” roared the Other Voices with great + + + +enthusiasm. “No one couldn’t have left it out cleaner and better. Keep it up, +Chief, keep it up.” + +“Well, I needn’t go over the whole story again,” began the Chief Voice. + +“No. Certainly not,” said Caspian and Edmund. + +“Well, then, to put it in a nutshell,” said the Chief Voice, “we’ve been +waiting for ever so long for a nice little girl from foreign parts, like it might be +you, Missie - that would go upstairs and go to the magic book and find the spell +that takes off the invisibleness, and say it. And we all swore that the first +strangers as landed on this island (having a nice little girl with them, I mean, for +if they hadn’t it’d be another matter) we wouldn’t let them go away alive unless +they’d done the needful for us. And that’s why, gentlemen, if your little girl +doesn’t come up to scratch, it will be our painful duty to cut all your throats. +Merely in the way of business, as you might say, and no offence, I hope.” + +“I don’t see all your weapons,” said Reepicheep. “Are they invisible too?” +The words were scarcely out of his mouth before they heard a whizzing sound +and next moment a spear had stuck, quivering, in one of the trees behind them. + +“That’s a spear, that is,” said the Chief Voice. + +“That it is, Chief, that it is,” said the others. “You couldn’t have put it better.” + +“And it came from my hand,” the Chief Voice continued. “They get visible +when they leave us.” + +“But why do you want me to do this?” asked Lucy. + +“Why can’t one of your own people? Haven’t you got any girls?” + +“We dursen’t, we dursen’t,” said all the Voices. “We’re not going upstairs +again.” + +“In other words,” said Caspian, “you are asking this lady to face some +danger which you daren’t ask your own sisters and daughters to face!” + +“That’s right, that’s right,” said all the Voices cheerfully. “You couldn’t have +said it better. Eh, you’ve had some education, you have. Anyone can see that.” + +“Well, of all the outrageous - ” began Edmund, but Lucy interrupted. + +“Would I have to go upstairs at night, or would it do in daylight?” + +“Oh, daylight, daylight, to be sure,” said the Chief Voice. “Not at night. No +one’s asking you to do that. Go upstairs in the dark? Ugh.” + +“All right, then, I’ll do it,” said Lucy. “No,” she said, turning to the others, +“don’t try to stop me. Can’t you see it’s no use? There are dozens of them there. +We can’t fight them. And the other way there is a chance.” + +“But a magician!” said Caspian. + +“I know,” said Lucy. “But he mayn’t be as bad as they make out. Don’t you +get the idea that these people are not very brave?” + +“They’re certainly not very clever,” said Eustace. + + + +“Look here, Lu,” said Edmund. “We really can’t let you do a thing like this. +Ask Reep, I’m sure he’ll say just the same.” + +“But it’s to save my own life as well as yours,” said Lucy. “I don’t want to be +cut to bits with invisible swords any more than anyone else.” + +“Her Majesty is in the right,” said Reepicheep. “If we had any assurance of +saving her by battle, our duty would be very-plain. It appears to me that we have +none. And the service they ask of her is in no way contrary to her Majesty’s +honour, but a noble and heroical act. If the Queen’s heart moves her to risk the +magician, I will not speak against it.” + +As no one had ever known Reepicheep to be afraid of anything, he could say +this without feeling at all awkward. But the boys, who had all been afraid quite +often, grew very red. None the less, it was such obvious sense that they had to +give in. Loud cheers broke from the invisible people when their decision was +announced, and the Chief Voice (warmly supported by all the others) invited the +Narnians to come to supper and spend the night. Eustace didn’t want to accept, +but Lucy said, “I’m sure they’re not treacherous. They’re not like that at all,” +and the others agreed. And so, accompanied by an enormous noise of thumpings +(which became louder when they reached the flagged and echoing courtyard) +they all went back to the house. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK + +THE invisible people feasted their guests royally. It was very funny to see +the plates and dishes coming to the table and not to see anyone carrying them. It +would have been funny even if they had moved along level with the floor, as you +would expect things to do in invisible hands. But they didn’t. They progressed +up the long dining-hall in a series of bounds or jumps. At the highest point of +each jump a dish would be about fifteen feet up in the air; then it would come +down and stop quite suddenly about three feet from the floor. When the dish +contained anything like soup or stew the result was rather disastrous. + +“I’m beginning to feel very inquisitive about these people,” whispered +Eustace to Edmund. “Do you think they’re human at all? More like huge +grasshoppers or giant frogs, I should say.” + +“It does look like it,” said Edmund. “But don’t put the idea of the +grasshoppers into Lucy’s head. She’s not too keen on insects; especially big +ones.” + +The meal would have been pleasanter if it had not been so exceedingly +messy, and also if the conversation had not consisted entirely of agreements. The +invisible people agreed about everything. Indeed most of their remarks were the +sort it would not be easy to disagree with: “What I always say is, when a chap’s +hungry, he likes some victuals,” or “Getting dark now; always does at night,” or +even “Ah, you’ve come over the water. Powerful wet stuff, ain’t it?” And Lucy +could not help looking at the dark yawning entrance to the foot of the staircase - +she could see it from where she sat - and wondering what she would find when +she went up those stairs next morning. But it was a good meal otherwise, with +mushroom soup and boiled chickens and hot boiled ham and gooseberries, +redcurrants, curds, cream, milk, and mead. The others liked the mead but +Eustace was sorry afterwards that he had drunk any. + +When Lucy woke up next morning it was like waking up on the day of an +examination or a day when you are going to the dentist. It was a lovely morning +with bees buzzing in and out of her open window and the lawn outside looking +very like somewhere in England. She got up and dressed and tried to talk and eat +ordinarily at breakfast. Then, after being instructed by the Chief Voice about +what she was to do upstairs, she bid goodbye to the others, said nothing, walked +to the bottom of the stairs, and began going up them without once looking back. + +It was quite light, that was one good thing. There was, indeed, a window + + + +straight ahead of her at the top of the first flight. As long as she was 9n that +flight she could hear the tick-tock-tick-tock of a grandfather clock in the hall +below. Then she came to the landing and had to turn to her left up the next flight; +after that she couldn’t hear the clock any more. + +Now she had come to the top of the stairs. Lucy looked and saw a long, wide +passage with a large window at the far end. Apparently the passage ran the +whole length of the house. It was carved and panelled and carpeted and very +many doors opened off it on each side. She stood still and couldn’t hear the +squeak of a mouse, or the buzzing of a fly, or the swaying of a curtain, or +anything - except the beating of her own heart. + +“The last doorway on the left,” she said to herself. It did seem a bit hard that +it should be the last. To reach it she would have to walk past room after room. +And in any room there might be the magician - asleep, or awake, or invisible, or +even dead. But it wouldn’t do to think about that. She set out on her journey. The +carpet was so thick that her feet made no noise. + +“There’s nothing whatever to be afraid of yet,” Lucy told herself. And +certainly it was a quiet, sunlit passage; perhaps a bit too quiet. It would have +been nicer if there had not been strange signs painted in scarlet on the doors +twisty, complicated things which obviously had a meaning and it mightn’t be a +very nice meaning either. It would have been nicer still if there weren’t those +masks hanging on the wall. Not that they were exactly ugly - or not so very ugly +- but the empty eye-holes did look queer, and if you let yourself you would soon +start imagining that the masks were doing things as soon as your back was +turned to them. + +After about the sixth door she got her first real fright. For one second she felt +almost certain that a wicked little bearded face had popped out of the wall and +made a grimace at her. She forced herself to stop and look at it. And it was not a +face at all. It was a little mirror just the size and shape of her own face, with hair +on the top of it and a beard hanging down from it, so that when you looked in the +mirror your own face fitted into the hair and beard and it looked as if they +belonged to you. “I just caught my own reflection with the tail of my eye as I +went past,” said Lucy to herself. “That was all it was. It’s quite harmless.” But +she didn’t like the look of her own face with that hair and beard, and went on. (I +don’t know what the Bearded Glass was for because I am not a magician.) + +Before she reached the last door on the left, Lucy was beginning to wonder +whether the corridor had grown longer since she began her journey and whether +this was part of the magic of the house. But she got to it at last. And the door +was open. + +It was a large room with three big windows and it was lined from floor to + + + +ceiling with books; more books than Lucy had ever seen before, tiny little books, +fat and dumpy books, and books bigger than any church Bible you have ever +seen, all bound in leather and smelling old and learned and magical. But she +knew from her instructions that she need not bother about any of these. For the +Book, the Magic Book, was lying on a reading-desk in the very middle of the +room. She saw she would have to read it standing (and anyway there were no +chairs) and also that she would have to stand with her back to the door while she +read it. So at once she turned to shut the door. + +It wouldn’t shut. + +Some people may disagree with Lucy about this, but I think she was quite +right. She said she wouldn’t have minded if she could have shut the door, but +that it was unpleasant to have to stand in a place like that with an open doorway +right behind your back. I should have felt just the same. But there was nothing +else to be done. + +One thing that worried her a good deal was the size of the Book. The Chief +Voice had not been able to give her any idea whereabouts in the Book the spell +for making things visible came. He even seemed rather surprised at her asking. +He expected her to begin at the beginning and go on till she came to it; obviously +he had never thought that there was any other way of finding a place in a book. +“But it might take me days and weeks!” said Lucy, looking at the huge volume, +“and I feel already as if I’d been in this place for hours.” + +She went up to the desk and laid her hand on the book; her fingers tingled +when she touched it as if it were full of electricity. She tried to open it but +couldn’t at first; this, however, was only because it was fastened by two leaden +clasps, and when she had undone these it opened easily enough. And what a +book it was! + +It was written, not printed; written in a clear, even hand, with thick +downstrokes and thin upstrokes, very large, easier than print, and so beautiful +that Lucy stared at it for a whole minute and forgot about reading it. The paper +was crisp and smooth and a nice smell came from it; and in the margins, and +round the big coloured capital letters at the beginning of each spell, there were +pictures. + +There was no title page or title; the spells began straight away, and at first +there was nothing very important in them. They were cures for warts (by +washing your hands in moonlight in a silver basin) and toothache and cramp, and +a spell for taking a swarm of bees. The picture of the man with toothache was so +lifelike that it would have set your own teeth aching if you looked at it too long, +and the golden bees which were dotted all round the fourth spell looked for a +moment as if they were really flying. + + + +Lucy could hardly tear herself away from that first page, but when she turned +over, the next was just as interesting. “But I must get on,” she told herself. And +on she went for about thirty pages which, if she could have remembered them, +would have taught her how to find buried treasure, how to remember things +forgotten, how to forget things you wanted to forget, how to tell whether anyone +was speaking the truth, how to call up (or prevent) wind, fog, snow, sleet or rain, +how to produce enchanted sleeps and how to give a man an ass’s head (as they +did to poor Bottom). And the longer she read the more wonderful and more real +the pictures became. + +Then she came to a page which was such a blaze of pictures that one hardly +noticed the writing. Hardly - but she did notice the first words. They were, An +infallible spell to make beautiful her that uttereth it beyond the lot of mortals. +Lucy peered at the pictures with her face close to the page, and though they had +seemed crowded and muddlesome before, she found she could now see them +quite clearly. The first was a picture of a girl standing at a reading-desk reading +in a huge book. And the girl was dressed exactly like Lucy. In the next picture +Lucy (for the girl in the picture was Lucy herself) was standing up with her +mouth open and a rather terrible expression on her face, chanting or reciting +something. In the third picture the beauty beyond the lot of mortals had come to +her. It was strange, considering how small the pictures had looked at first, that +the Lucy in the picture now seemed quite as big as the real Lucy; and they +looked into each other’s eyes and the real Lucy looked away after a few minutes +because she was dazzled by the beauty of the other Lucy; though she could still +see a sort of likeness to herself in that beautiful face. And now the pictures came +crowding on her thick and fast. She saw herself throned on high at a great +tournament in Calormen and all the Kings of the world fought because of her +beauty. After that it turned from tournaments to real wars, and all Narnia and +Archenland, Telmar and Calormen, Galma and Terebinthia, were laid waste with +the fury of the kings and dukes and great lords who fought for her favour. Then +it changed and Lucy, still beautiful beyond the lot of mortals, was back in +England. And Susan (who had always been the beauty of the family) came home +from America. The Susan in the picture looked exactly like the real Susan only +plainer and with a nasty expression. And Susan was jealous of the dazzling +beauty of Lucy, but that didn’t matter a bit because no one cared anything about +Susan now. + +“I will say the spell,” said Lucy. “I don’t care. I will.” + +She said I don’t care because she had a strong feeling that she mustn’t. + +But when she looked back at the opening words of the spell, there in the +middle of the writing, where she felt quite sure there had been no picture before, + + + +she found the great face of a lion, of The Lion, Aslan himself, staring into hers. +It was painted such a bright gold that it seemed to be coming towards her out of +the page; and indeed she never was quite sure afterwards that it hadn’t really +moved a little. At any rate she knew the expression on his face quite well. He +was growling and you could see most of his teeth. She became horribly afraid +and turned over the page at once. + +A little later she came to a spell which would let you know what your friends +thought about you. Now Lucy had wanted very badly to try the other spell, the +one that made you beautiful beyond the lot of mortals. So she felt that to make +up for not having said it, she really would say this one. And all in a hurry, for +fear her mind would change, she said the words (nothing will induce me to tell +you what they were). Then she waited for something to happen. + +As nothing happened she began looking at the pictures. And all at once she +saw the very last thing she expected - a picture of a third-class carriage in a train, +with two schoolgirls sitting in it. She knew them at once. They were Marjorie +Preston and Anne Featherstone. Only now it was much more than a picture. It +was alive. She could see the telegraph posts flicking past outside the window. +Then gradually (like when the radio is “coming on”) she could hear what they +were saying. + +“Shall I see anything of you this term?” said Anne, “or are you still going to +be all taken up with Lucy Pevensie. “ + +“Don’t know what you mean by taken up,” said Marjorie. + +“Oh yes, you do,” said Anne. “You were crazy about her last term.” + +“No, I wasn’t,” said Marjorie. “I’ve got more sense than that. Not a bad little +kid in her way. But I was getting pretty tired of her before the end of term.” + +“Well, you jolly well won’t have the chance any other term!” shouted Lucy. +“Two-faced little beast.” But the sound of her own voice at once reminded her +that she was talking to a picture and that the real Marjorie was far away in +another world. + +“Well,” said Lucy to herself, “I did think better of her than that. And I did all +sorts of things for her last term, and I stuck to her when not many other girls +would. And she knows it too. And to Anne Featherstone of all people! I wonder +are all my friends the same? There are lots of other pictures. No. I won’t look at +any more. I won’t, I won’t’ and with a great effort she turned over the page, but +not before a large, angry tear had splashed on it. + +On the next page she came to a spell “for the refreshment of the spirit’. The +pictures were fewer here but very beautiful. And what Lucy found herself +reading was more like a story than a spell. It went on for three pages and before +she had read to the bottom of the page she had forgotten that she was reading at + + + +all. She was living in the story as if it were real, and all the pictures were real +too. When she had got to the third page and come to the end, she said, “That is +the loveliest story I’ve ever read or ever shall read in my whole life. Oh, I wish I +could have gone on reading it for ten years. At least I’ll read it over again.” + +But here part of the magic of the Book came into play. You couldn’t turn +back. The right-hand pages, the ones ahead, could be turned; the left-hand pages +could not. + +“Oh, what a shame!” said Lucy. “I did so want to read it again. Well, at least +I must remember it. Let’s see . . . it was about . . . about ... oh dear, it’s all +fading away again. + +And even this last page is going blank. This is a very queer book. How can I +have forgotten? It was about a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill, I +know that much. But I can’t remember and what shall I do?” + +And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by +a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician’s +Book. + +She turned on and found to her surprise a page with no pictures at all; but the +first words were A Spell to make hidden things visible. She read it through to +make sure of all the hard words and then said it out loud. And she knew at once +that it was working because as she spoke the colours came into the capital letters +at the top of the page and the pictures began appearing in the margins. It was like +when you hold to the fire something written in Invisible Ink and the writing +gradually shows up; only instead of the dingy colour of lemon juice (which is the +easiest Invisible Ink) this was all gold and blue and scarlet. They were odd +pictures and contained many figures that Lucy did not much like the look of. +And then she thought, “I suppose I’ve made everything visible, and not only the +Thumpers. There might be lots of other invisible things hanging about a place +like this. I’m not sure that I want to see them all.” + +At that moment she heard soft, heavy footfalls coming along the corridor +behind her; and of course she remembered what she had been told about the +Magician walking in his bare feet and making no more noise than a cat. It is +always better to turn round than to have anything creeping up behind your back. +Lucy did so. + +Then her face lit up till, for a moment (but of course she didn’t know it), she +looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture, and she ran forward +with a little cry of delight and with her arms stretched out. For what stood in the +doorway was Aslan himself, The Lion, the highest of all High Kings. And he +was solid and real and warm and he let her kiss him and bury herself in his +shining mane. And from the low, earthquake-like sound that came from inside + + + +him, Lucy even dared to think that he was purring. + +“Oh, Aslan,” said she, “it was kind of you to come.” + +“I have been here all the time,” said he, “but you have just made me visible.” + +“Aslan!” said Lucy almost a little reproachfully. “Don’t make fun of me. As +if anything 1 could do would make you visible! ” + +“It did,” said Aslan. “Do you think I wouldn’t obey my own rules?” + +After a little pause he spoke again. + +“Child,” he said, “I think you have been eavesdropping.” + +“Eavesdropping?” + +“You listened to what your two schoolfellows were saying about you.” + +“Oh that? I never thought that was eavesdropping, Aslan. Wasn’t it magic?” + +“Spying on people by magic is the same as spying on them in any other way. +And you have misjudged your friend. She is weak, but she loves you. She was +afraid of the older girl and said what she does not mean.” + +“I don’t think I’d ever be able to forget what I heard her say.” + +“No, you won’t.” + +“Oh dear,” said Lucy. “Have I spoiled everything? Do you mean we would +have gone on being friends if it hadn’t been for this - and been really great +friends - all our lives perhaps- and now we never shall.” + +“Child,” said Aslan, “did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever +told what would have happened?” + +“Yes, Aslan, you did,” said Lucy. “I’m sorry. But please -“ + +“Speak on, dear heart.” + +“Shall I ever be able to, read that story again; the one I couldn’t remember? +Will you tell it to me, Aslan? Oh do, do, do.” + +“Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years. But now, come. We +must meet the master of this house.” + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +THE DUFFLEPUDS MADE HAPPY + +Lucy followed the great Lion out into the passage and at once she saw +coming towards them an old man, barefoot, dressed in a red robe. His white hair +was crowned with a chaplet of oak leaves, his beard fell to his girdle, and he +supported himself with a curiously carved staff. When he saw Aslan he bowed +low and said, + +“Welcome, Sir, to the least of your houses.” + +“Do you grow weary, Coriakin, of ruling such foolish subjects as I have +given you here?” + +“No,” said the Magician, “they are very stupid but there is no real harm in +them. I begin to grow rather fond of the creatures. Sometimes, perhaps, I am a +little impatient, waiting for the day when they can be governed by wisdom +instead of this rough magic.” + +“All in good time, Coriakin,” said Aslan. + +“Yes, all in very good time, Sir,” was the answer. “Do you intend to show +yourself to them?” + +“Nay,” said the Lion, with a little half-growl that meant (Lucy thought) the +same as a laugh. “I should frighten them out of their senses. Many stars will +grow old and come to take their rest in islands before your people are ripe for +that. And today before sunset I must visit Trumpkin the Dwarf where he sits in +the castle of Cair Paravel counting the days till his master Caspian comes home. +I will tell him all your story, Lucy. Do not look so sad. We shall meet soon +again.” + +“Please, Aslan,” said Lucy, “what do you call soon?” + +“I call all times soon,” said Aslan; and instantly he was vanished away and +Lucy was alone with the Magician. + +“Gone!” said he, “and you and I quite crestfallen. It’s always like that, you +can’t keep him; it’s not as if he were a tame lion. And how did you enjoy my +book?” + +“Parts of it very much indeed,” said Lucy. “Did you know I was there all the +time?” + +“Well, of course I knew when I let the Duffers make themselves invisible +that you would be coming along presently to take the spell off. I wasn’t quite +sure of the exact day. And I wasn’t especially on the watch this morning. You see +they had made me invisible too and being invisible always makes me so sleepy. + + + +Heigh-ho - there I’m yawning again. Are you hungry?” + +“Well, perhaps I am a little,” said Lucy. “I’ve no idea what the time is.” + +“Come,” said the Magician. “All times may be soon to Aslan; but in my +home all hungry times are one o’clock.” + +He led her a little way down the passage and opened a door. Passing in, Lucy +found herself in a pleasant room full of sunlight and flowers. The table was bare +when they entered, but it was of course a magic table, and at a word from the old +man the tablecloth, silver, plates, glasses and food appeared. + +“I hope that is-what you would like,” said he. “I have tried to give you food +more like the food of your own land than perhaps you have had lately.” + +“It’s lovely,” said Lucy, and so it was; an omelette, piping hot, cold lamb and +green peas, a strawberry ice, lemonsquash to drink with the meal and a cup of +chocolate to follow. But the magician himself drank only wine and ate only +bread. There was nothing alarming about him, and Lucy and he were soon +chatting away like old friends. + +“When will the spell work?” asked Lucy. “Will the Duffers be visible again +at once?” + +“Oh yes, they’re visible now. But they’re probably all asleep still; they +always take a rest in the middle of the day.” + +“And now that they’re visible, are you going to let them off being ugly? Will +you make them as they were before?” + +“Well, that’s rather a delicate question,” said the Magician. “You see, it’s +only they who think they were so nice to look at before. They say they’ve been +uglified, but that isn’t what I called it. Many people might say the change was +for the better.” + +“Are they awfully conceited?” + +“They are. Or at least the Chief Duffer is, and he’s taught all the rest to be. +They always believe every word he says.” + +“We’d noticed that,” said Lucy. + +“Yes - we’d get on better without him, in a way. Of course I could turn him +into something else, or even put a spell on him which would make them not +believe a word he said. But I don’t like to do that. It’s better for them to admire +him than to admire nobody.” + +“Don’t they admire you?” asked Lucy. + +“Oh, not me,” said the Magician. “They wouldn’t admire me.” + +“What was it you uglified them for -1 mean, what they call uglified?” + +“Well, they wouldn’t do what they were told. Their work is to mind the +garden and raise food - not for me, as they imagine, but for themselves. They +wouldn’t do it at all if I didn’t make them. And of course for a garden you want + + + +water. There is a beautiful spring about half a mile away up the hill. And from +that spring there flows a stream which comes right past the garden. All I asked +them to do was to take their water from the stream instead of trudging up to the +spring with their buckets two or three times a day and tiring themselves out +besides spilling half of it on the way back. But they wouldn’t see it. In the end +they refused point blank.” + +“Are they as stupid as all that?” asked Lucy. + +The Magician sighed. “You wouldn’t believe the troubles I’ve had with +them. A few months ago they were all for washing up the plates and knives +before dinner: they said it saved time afterwards. I’ve caught them planting +boiled potatoes to save cooking them when they were dug up. One day the cat +got into the dairy and twenty of them were at work moving all the milk out; no +one thought of moving the cat. But I see you’ve finished. Let’s go and look at the +Duffers now they can be looked at.” + +They went into another room which was full of polished instruments hard to +understand - such as Astrolabes, Orreries, Chronoscopes, Poesimeters, +Choriambuses and Theodolinds - and here, when they had come to the window, +the Magician said, “There. There are your Duffers.” + +“I don’t see anybody,” said Lucy. “And what are those mushroom things?” + +The things she pointed at were dotted all over the level grass. They were +certainly very like mushrooms, but far too big - the stalks about three feet high +and the umbrellas about the same length from edge to edge. When she looked +carefully she noticed too that the stalks joined the umbrellas not in the middle +but at one side which gave an unbalanced look to them. And there was +something - a sort of little bundle - lying on the grass at the foot of each stalk. In +fact the longer she gazed at them the less like mushrooms they appeared. The +umbrella part was not really round as she had thought at first. It was longer than +it was broad, and it widened at one end. There were a great many of them, fifty +or more. + +The clock struck three. + +Instantly a most extraordinary thing happened. Each of the “mushrooms” +suddenly turned upside-down. The little bundles which had lain at the bottom of +the stalks were heads and bodies. The stalks themselves were legs. But not two +legs to each body. Each body had a single thick leg right under it (not to one side +like the leg of a one-legged man) and at the end of it, a single enormous foot-a +broadtoed foot with the toes curling up a little so that it looked rather like a small +canoe. She saw in a moment why they had looked like mushrooms. They had +been lying flat on their backs each with its single leg straight up in the air and its +enormous foot spread out above it. She learned afterwards that this was their + + + +ordinary way of resting; for the foot kept off both rain and sun and for a +Monopod to lie under its own foot is almost as good as being in a tent. + +“Oh, the funnies, the funnies,” cried Lucy, bursting into laughter. “Did you +make them like that?” + +“Yes, yes. I made the Duffers into Monopods,” said the Magician. He too +was laughing till the tears ran down his cheeks. “But watch,” he added. + +It was worth watching. Of course these little one-footed men couldn’t walk +or run as we do. They got about by jumping, like fleas or frogs. And what jumps +they made! as if each big foot were a mass of springs. And with what a bounce +they came down; that was what made the thumping noise which had so puzzled +Lucy yesterday. For now they were jumping in all directions and calling out to +one another, “Hey, lads! We’re visible again.” + +“Visible we are,” said one in a tasselled red cap who was obviously the Chief +Monopod. “And what I say is, when chaps are visible, why, they can see one +another.” + +“Ah, there it is, there it is, Chief,” cried all the others. “There’s the point. No +one’s got a clearer head than you. You couldn’t have made it plainer.” + +“She caught the old man napping, that little girl did,” said the Chief +Monopod. “We’ve beaten him this time.” + +“Just what we were, going to say ourselves,” chimed the choms. “You’re +going stronger than ever today, Chief. Keep it up, keep it up.” + +“But do they dare to talk about you like that?” said Lucy. “They seemed to +be so afraid of you yesterday. Don’t they know you might be listening?” + +“That’s one of the funny things about the Duffers,” said the Magician. “One +minute they talk as if I ran everything and overheard everything and was +extremely dangerous. The next moment they think they can take me in by tricks +that a baby would see through - bless them!” + +“Will they have to be turned back into their proper shapes?” asked Lucy. +“Oh, I do hope it wouldn’t be unkind to leave them as they are. Do they really +mind very much? They seem pretty happy. I say - look at that jump. What were +they like before?” + +“Common little dwarfs,” said he. “Nothing like so nice as the sort you have +in Narnia.” + +“It would be a pity to change them back,” said Lucy. “They’re so funny: and +they’re rather nice. Do you think it would make any difference if I told them +that?” + +“I’m sure it would - if you could get it into their heads.” + +“Will you come with me and try?” + +“No, no. You’ll get on far better without me.” + + + +“Thanks awfully for the lunch,” said Lucy and turned quickly away. She ran +down the stairs which she had come up so nervously that morning and cannoned +into Edmund at the bottom. All the others were there with him waiting, and +Lucy’s conscience smote her when she saw their anxious faces and realized how +long she had forgotten them. + +“It’s all right,” she shouted. “Everything’s all right. The Magician’s a brick - +and I’ve seen Him - Aslan.” + +After that she went from them like the wind and out into the garden. Here the +earth was shaking with the jumps and the air ringing with the shouts of the +Monopods. Both were redoubled when they caught sight of her. + +“Here she comes, here she comes,” they cried. “Three cheers for the little +girl. Ah! She put it across the old gentleman properly, she did.” + +“And we’re extremely regrettable,” said the Chief Monopod, “that we can’t +give you the pleasure of seeing us as we were before we were uglified, for you +wouldn’t believe the difference, and that’s the truth, for there’s no denying we’re +mortal ugly now, so we won’t deceive you.” + +“Eh, that we are, Chief, that we are,” echoed the others, bouncing like so +many toy balloons. “You’ve said it, you’ve said it.” + +“But I don’t think you are at all,” said Lucy, shouting to make herself heard. +“I think you look very nice.” + +“Hear her, hear her,” said the Monopods. “True for you, Missie. Very nice we +look. You couldn’t find a handsomer lot.” They said this without any surprise +and did not seem to notice that they had changed their minds. + +“She’s a-saying,” remarked the Chief Monopod, “as how we looked very +nice before we were uglified.” + +“True for you, Chief, true for you,” chanted the others. “That’s what she +says. We heard her ourselves.” + +“I did not,” bawled Lucy. “I said you’re very nice now.” + +“So she did, so she did,” said the Chief Monopod, “said we were very nice +then.” + +“Hear 'em both, hear 'em both,” said the Monopods. “There’s a pair for you. +Always right. They couldn’t have put it better.” + +“But we’re saying just the opposite,” said Lucy, stamping her foot with +impatience. + +“So you are, to be sure, so you are,” said the Monopods. “Nothing like an +opposite. Keep it up, both of you.” + +“You’re enough to drive anyone mad,” said Lucy, and gave it up. But the +Monopods seemed perfectly contented, and she decided that on the whole the +conversation had been a success. + + + +And before everyone went to bed that evening something else happened +which made them even more satisfied with their one-legged condition. Caspian +and all the Narnians went back as soon as possible to the shore to give their news +to Rhince and the others on board the Dawn Treader, who were by now very +anxious. And, of course, the Monopods went with them, bouncing like footballs +and agreeing with one another in loud voices till Eustace said, “I wish the +Magician would make them inaudible instead of invisible.” (He was soon sorry +he had spoken because then he had to explain that an inaudible thing is +something you can’t hear, and though he took a lot of trouble he never felt sure +that the Monopods had really understood, and what especially annoyed him was +that they said in the end, “Eh, he can’t put things the way our Chief does. But +you’ll learn, young man. Hark to him. He’ll show you how to say things. There’s +a speaker for you!”) When they reached the bay, Reepicheep had a brilliant idea. +He had his little coracle lowered and paddled himself about in it till the +Monopods were thoroughly interested. He then stood up in it and said, “Worthy +and intelligent Monopods, you do not need boats. Each of you has a foot that +will do instead. Just jump as lightly as you can on the water and see what +happens.” + +The Chief Monopod hung back and warned the others that they’d find the +water powerful wet, but one or two of the younger ones tried it almost at once; +and then a few others followed their example, and at last the whole lot did the +same. It worked perfectly. The huge single foot of a Monopod acted as a natural +raft or boat, and when Reepicheep had taught them how to cut rude paddles for +themselves, they all paddled about the bay and round the Dawn Treader, looking +for all the world like a fleet of little canoes with a fat dwarf standing up in the +extreme stern of each. And they had races, and bottles of wine were lowered +down to them from the ship as prizes, and the sailors stood leaning over the +ship’s sides and laughed till their own sides ached. + +The Duffers were also very pleased with their new name of Monopods, +which seemed to them a magnificent name though they never got it right. “That’s +what we are,” they bellowed, “Moneypuds, Pomonods, Poddymons. Just what it +was on the tips of our tongues to call ourselves.” But they soon got it mixed up +with their old name of Duffers and finally settled down to calling themselves the +Dufflepuds; and that is what they will probably be called for centuries. + +That evening all the Narnians dined upstairs with the Magician, and Lucy +noticed how different the whole top floor looked now that she was no longer +afraid of it. The mysterious signs on the doors were still mysterious but now +looked as if they had kind and cheerful meanings, and even the bearded mirror +now seemed funny rather than frightening. At dinner everyone had by magic + + + +what everyone liked best to eat and drink, and after dinner the Magician did a +very useful and beautiful piece of magic. He laid two blank sheets of parchment +on the table and asked Drinian to give him an exact account of their voyage up to +date: and as Drinian spoke, everything he described came out on the parchment +in fine clear lines till at last each sheet was a splendid map of the Eastern Ocean, +showing Galma, Terebinthia, the Seven Isles, the Lone Islands, Dragon Island, +Burnt Island, Deathwater, and the land of the Duffers itself, all exactly the right +sizes and in the right positions. They were the first maps ever made of those seas +and better than any that have been made since without magic. For on these, +though the towns and mountains looked at first just as they would on an ordinary +map, when the Magician lent them a magnifying glass you saw that they were +perfect little pictures of the real things, so that you could see the very castle and +slave market and streets in Narrowhaven, all very clear though very distant, like +things seen through the wrong end of a telescope. The only drawback was that +the coastline of most of the islands was incomplete, for the map showed only +what Drinianhad seen with his own eyes. When they were finished the. Magician +kept one himself and presented the other to Caspian: it still hangs in his Chamber +of Instruments at Cair Paravel. But the Magician could tell them nothing about +seas or lands further east. He did, however, tell them that about seven years +before a Narnian ship had put in at his waters and that she had on board the lords +Revilian, Argoz, Mavramorn and Rhoop: so they judged that the golden man +they had seen lying in Deathwater must be the Lord Restimar. + +Next day, the Magician magically mended the stern of the Dawn Treader +where it had been damaged by the Sear Serpent and loaded her with useful gifts. +There was a most friendly parting, and when she sailed, two hours after noon, all +the Dufflepuds paddled out with her to the harbour mouth, and cheered until she +was out of sound of their cheering. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +THE DARK ISLAND + +AFTER this adventure they sailed on south and a little east for twelve days +with a gentle wind, the skies being mostly clear and the air warm, and saw no +bird or fish, except that once there were whales spouting a long way to starboard. +Lucy and Reepicheep played a good deal of chess at this time. Then on the +thirteenth day, Edmund, from the fighting top, sighted what looked like a great +dark mountain rising out of the sea on their port bow. + +They altered course and made for this land, mostly by oar, for the wind +would not serve them to sail north-east. When evening fell they were still a long +way from it and rowed all night. Next morning the weather was fair but a flat +calm. The dark mass lay ahead, much nearer and larger, but still very dim, so +that some thought it was still a long way off and others thought they were +running into a mist. + +About nine that morning, very suddenly, it was so close that they could see +that it was not land at all, nor even, in an ordinary sense, a mist. It was a +Darkness. It is rather hard to describe, but you will see what it was like if you +imagine yourself looking into the mouth of a railway tunnel - a tunnel either so +long or so twisty that you cannot see the light at the far end. And you know what +it would be like. For a few feet you would see the rails and sleepers and gravel in +broad daylight; then there would come a place where they were in twilight; and +then, pretty suddenly, but of course without a sharp dividing line, they would +vanish altogether into smooth, solid blackness. It was just so here. For a few feet +in front of their bows they could see the swell of the bright greenish-blue water. +Beyond that, they could see the water looking pale and grey as it would look late +in the evening. But beyond that again, utter blackness as if they had come to the +edge of moonless and starless night. + +Caspian shouted to the boatswain to keep her back, and all except the rowers +mshed forward and gazed from the bows. But there was nothing to be seen by +gazing. Behind them was the sea and the sun, before them the Darkness. + +“Do we go into this?” asked Caspian at length. + +“Not by my advice,” said Drinian. + +“The Captain’s right,” said several sailors. + +“I almost think he is,” said Edmund. + +Lucy and Eustace didn’t speak but they felt very glad inside at the turn things +seemed to be taking. But all at once the clear voice of Reepicheep broke in upon + + + +the silence. + +“And why not?” he said. “Will someone explain to me why not.” + +No one was anxious to explain, so Reepicheep continued: + +“If I were addressing peasants or slaves,” he said, “I might suppose that this +suggestion proceeded from cowardice. But I hope it will never be told in Narnia +that a company of noble and royal persons in the flower of their age turned tail +because they were afraid of the dark.” + +“But what manner of use would it be ploughing through that blackness?” +asked Drinian. + +“Use?” replied Reepicheep. “Use, Captain? If by use you mean filling our +bellies or our purses, I confess it will be no use at all. So far as I know we did +not set sail to look for things useful but to seek honour and adventure. And here +is as great an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no tittle +impeachment of all our honours.” + +Several of the sailors said things under their breath that sounded like +“Honour be blowed”, but Caspian said: + +“Oh, bother you, Reepicheep. I almost wish we’d left you at home. All right! +If you put it that way, I suppose we shall have to go on. Unless Lucy would +rather not?” + +Lucy felt that she would very much rather not, but what she said out loud +was, “I’m game.” + +“Your Majesty will at least order lights?” said Drinian. + +“By all means,” said Caspian. “See to it, Captain.” + +So the three lanterns, at the stern, and the prow and the masthead, were all +lit, and Drinian ordered two torches amidships. Pale and feeble they looked in +the sunshine. Then all the men except some who were left below at the oars were +ordered on deck and fully armed and posted in their battle stations with swords +drawn. Lucy and two archers were posted on the fighting top with bows bent and +arrows on the string. Rynelf was in the bows with his line ready to take +soundings. Reepicheep, Edmund, Eustace and Caspian, glittering in mail, were +with him. Drinian took the tiller. + +“And now, in Aslan’s name, forward!” cried Caspian. “A slow, steady stroke. +And let every man be silent and keep his ears open for orders.” + +With a creak and a groan the Dawn Treader started to creep forward as the +men began to row. Lucy, up in the fighting top, had a wonderful view of the +exact moment at which they entered the darkness. The bows had already +disappeared before the sunlight had left the stern. She saw it go. At one minute +the gilded stern, the blue sea, and the sky, were all in broad daylight: next minute +the sea and sky had vanished, the stern lantern - which had been hardly + + + +noticeable before - was the only thing to show where the ship ended. In front of +the lantern she could see the black shape of Drinian crouching at the tiller. Down +below her the two torches made visible two small patches of deck and gleamed +on swords and helmets, and forward there was another island of light on the +forecastle. Apart from that, the fighting top, lit by the masthead light which was +only just above her, seemed to be a little lighted world of its own floating in +lonely darkness. And the lights themselves, as always happens with lights when +you have to have them at the wrong time of day, looked lurid and unnatural. She +also noticed that she was very cold. + +How long this voyage into the darkness lasted, nobody knew. Except for the +creak of the rowlocks and the splash of the oars there was nothing to show that +they were moving at all. Edmund, peering from the bows, could see nothing +except the reflection of the lantern in the water before him. It looked a greasy +sort of reflection, and the ripple made by their advancing prow appeared to be +heavy, small, and lifeless. As time went on everyone except the rowers began to +shiver with cold. + +Suddenly, from somewhere - no one’s sense of direction was very clear by +now - there came a cry, either of some inhuman voice or else a voice of one in +such extremity of terror that he had almost lost his humanity. + +Caspian was still trying to speak - his mouth was too dry - when the shrill +voice of Reepicheep, which sounded louder than usual in that silence, was heard. + +“Who calls?” it piped. “If you are a foe we do not fear you, and if you are a +friend your enemies shall be taught the fear of us.” + +“Mercy!” cried the voice. “Mercy! Even if you are only one more dream, +have merry. Take me on board. Take me, even if you strike me dead. But in the +name of all mercies do not fade away and leave me in this horrible land.” + +“Where are you?” shouted Caspian. “Come aboard and welcome.” + +There came another cry, whether of joy or terror, and then they knew that +someone was swimming towards them. + +“Stand by to heave him up, men,” said Caspian. + +“Aye, aye, your Majesty,” said the sailors. Several crowded to the port +bulwark with ropes and one, leaning far out over the side, held the torch. A wild, +white face appeared in the blackness of the water, and then, after some +scrambling and pulling, a dozen friendly hands had heaved the stranger on +board. + +Edmund thought he had never seen a wilder-looking man. Though he did not +otherwise look very old, his hair was an untidy mop of white, his face was thin +and drawn, and, for clothing, only a few wet rags hung about him. But what one +mainly noticed were his eyes, which were so widely opened that he seemed to + + + +have no eyelids at all, and stared as if in an agony of pure fear. The moment his +feet reached the deck he said: + +“Fly! Fly! About with your ship and fly! Row, row, row for your lives away +from this accursed shore.” + +“Compose yourself,” said Reepicheep, “and tell us what the danger is. We +are not used to flying.” + +The stranger started horribly at the voice of the Mouse, which he had not +noticed before. + +“Nevertheless you will fly from here,” he gasped. “This is the Island where +Dreams come true.” + +“That’s the island I’ve been looking for this long time,” said one of the +sailors. “I reckoned I’d find I was married to Nancy if we landed here.” + +“And I’d find Tom alive again,” said another. + +“Fools!” said the man, stamping his foot with rage. “That is the sort of talk +that brought me here, and I’d better have been drowned or never born. Do you +hear what I say? This is where dreams -dreams, do you understand, come to life, +come real. Not daydreams: dreams.” + +There was about half a minute’s silence and then, with a great clatter of +armour, the whole crew were tumbling down the main hatch as quick as they +could and flinging themselves on the oars to row as they had never rowed +before; and Drinian was swinging round the tiller, and the boatswain was giving +out the quickest stroke that had ever been heard at sea. For it had taken everyone +just that halfminute to remember certain dreams they had had - dreams that make +you afraid of going to sleep again - and to realize what it would mean to land on +a country where dreams come true. + +Only Reepicheep remained unmoved. + +“Your Majesty, your Majesty,” he said, “are you going to tolerate this mutiny, +this poltroonery? This is a panic, this is a rout.” + +“Row, row,” bellowed Caspian. “Pull for all our lives. Is her head right, +Drinian? You can say what you like, Reepicheep. There are some things no man +can face.” + +“It is, then, my good fortune not to be a man,” replied Reepicheep with a +very stiff bow. + +Lucy from up aloft had heard it all. In an instant that one of her own dreams +which she had tried hardest to forget came back to her as vividly as if she had +only just woken from it. So that was what was behind them, on the island, in the +darkness! For a second she wanted to go down to the deck and be with Edmund +and Caspian. But what was the use? If dreams began coming true, Edmund and +Caspian themselves might turn into something horrible just as she reached them. + + + +She gripped the rail of the fighting top and tried to steady herself. They were +rowing back to the light as hard as they could: it would be all right in a few +seconds. But oh, if only it could be all right now! + +Though the rowing made a good deal of noise it did not quite conceal the +total silence which surrounded the ship. + +Everyone knew it would be better not to listen, not to strain his ears for any +sound from the darkness. But no one could help listening. And soon everyone +was hearing things. Each one heard something different. + +“Do you hear a noise like . . . like a huge pair of scissors opening and +shutting .. . over there?” Eustace asked Rynelf. + +“Hush!” said Rynelf. “I can hear them crawling up the sides of the ship.” + +“It’s just going to settle on the mast,” said Caspian. + +“Ugh!” said a sailor. “There are the gongs beginning. I knew they would.” + +Caspian, trying not to look at anything (especially not to keep looking behind +him), went aft to Drinian. + +“Drinian,” he said in a very low voice. “How long did we take rowing in? -1 +mean rowing to where we picked up . the stranger.” + +“Five minutes, perhaps,” whispered Drinian. “Why?” + +“Because we’ve been more than that already trying to get out.” + +Drinian’s hand shook on the tiller and a line of cold sweat ran down his face. +The same idea was occurring to everyone on board. “We shall never get out, +never get’ out,” moaned the rowers. “He’s steering us wrong. We’re going round +and round in circles. We shall never get out.” The stranger, who had been lying +in a huddled heap on the deck, sat up and burst out into a horrible screaming +laugh. + +“Never get out!” he yelled. “That’s it. Of course. We shall never get out. +What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that. No, no, +we shall never get out.” + +Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting top and whispered, “Aslan, +Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now.” The darkness did not grow +any less, but she began to feel a little - a very, very little - better. “After all, +nothing has really happened to us yet,” she thought. + +“Look!” cried Rynelf’s voice hoarsely from the bows. There was a tiny speck +of light ahead, and while they watched a broad beam of light fell from it upon +the ship. It did not alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up +as if by searchlight. Caspian blinked, stared round, saw the faces of his +companions all with wild, fixed expressions. Everyone was staring in the same +direction: behind everyone lay his black, sharply-edged shadow. + +Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first it + + + +looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite, +and at last with a whirring of wings it was right overhead and was an albatross. It +circled three times round the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of +the gilded dragon at the prow. It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed +to be words though no one understood them. After that it spread its wings, rose, +and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard. Drinian steered after +it not doubting that it offered good guidance. But no one except Lucy knew that +as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, “Courage, dear heart,” and the +voice, she felt sure, was Aslan’s, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in +her face. + +In a few moments the darkness turned into a greyness ahead, and then, +almost before they dared to begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight and +were in the warm, blue world again. And all at once everybody realized that +there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been. They blinked their eyes +and looked about them. The brightness of the ship herself astonished them: they +had half expected to find that the darkness would cling to the white and the +green and the gold in the form of some grime or scum. And then first one, and +then another, began laughing. + +“I reckon we’ve made pretty good fools of ourselves,” said Rynelf. + +Lucy lost no time in coming down to the deck, where she found the others all +gathered round the newcomer. For a long time he was too happy to speak, and +could only gaze at the sea and the sun and feel the bulwarks and the ropes, as if +to make sure he was really awake, while tears rolled down his cheeks. + +“Thank you,” he said at last. “You have saved me from . . . but I won’t talk +of that. And now let me know who you are. I am a Telmarine of Narnia, and +when I was worth anything men called me the Lord Rhoop.” + +“And I,” said Caspian, “am Caspian, King of Narnia, and I sail to find you +and your companions who were my father’s friends.” + +Lord Rhoop fell on his knees and kissed the King’s hand. “Sire,” he said, +“you are the man in all the world I most wished to see. Grant me a boon.” + +“What is it?” asked Caspian. + +“Never to bring me back there,” he said. He pointed astern. They all looked. +But they saw only bright blue sea and bright blue sky. The Dark Island and the +darkness had vanished for ever. + +“Why!” cried Lord Rhoop. “You have destroyed it!” + +“I don’t think it was us,” said Lucy. + +“Sire,” said Drinian, “this wind is fair for the southeast. Shall I have our poor +fellows up and set sail? And after that, every man who can be spared, to his +hammock.” + + + +“Yes,” said Caspian, “and let there be grog all round. Heigh-ho, I feel I could +sleep the clock round myself.” + +So all afternoon with great joy they sailed south-east with a fair wind. But +nobody noticed when the albatross had disappeared. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +THE THREE SLEEPERS + +THE wind never failed but it grew gentler every day till at length the waves +were little more than ripples, and the ship glided on hour after hour almost as if +they were sailing on a lake. And every night they saw that there rose in the east +new constellations which no one had ever seen in Narnia and perhaps, as Lucy +thought with a mixture of joy and fear, no living eye had seen at all. Those new +stars were big and bright and the nights were warm. Most of them slept on deck +and talked far into the night or hung over the ship’s side watching the luminous +dance of the foam thrown up by their bows. + +On an evening of startling beauty, when the sunset behind them was so +crimson and purple and widely spread that the very sky itself seemed to have +grown larger, they came in sight of land on their starboard bow. It came slowly +nearer and the light behind them made it look as if the capes and headlands of +this new country were all on fire. But presently they were sailing along its coast +and its western cape now rose up astern of them, black against the red sky and +sharp as if it was cut out of cardboard, and then they could see better what this +country was like. It had no mountains but many gentle hills with slopes like +pillows. An attractive smell came from it - what Lucy called “a dim, purple kind +of smell”, which Edmund said (and Rhince thought) was rot, but Caspian said, “I +know what you mean.” + +They sailed on a good way, past point after point, hoping to find a nice deep +harbour, but had to content themselves in the end with a wide and shallow bay. +Though it had seemed calm out at sea there was of course surf breaking on the +sand and they could not bring the Dawn Treader as far in as they would have +liked. They dropped anchor a good way from the beach and had a wet and +tumbling landing in the boat. The Lord Rhoop remained on board the Dawn +Treader. He wished to see no more islands. All the time that they remained in +this country the sound of the long breakers was in their ears. + +Two men were left to guard the boat and Caspian led the others inland, but +not far because it was too late for exploring and the light would soon go. But +there was no need to go far to find an adventure. The level valley which lay at +the head of the bay showed no road or track or other sign of habitation. +Underfoot was tine springy turf dotted here and there with a low bushy growth +which Edmund and Lucy took for heather. Eustace, who was really rather good +at botany; said it wasn’t, and he was probably right; but it was something of very + + + +much the same kind. + +When they had gone less than a bowshot from the shore, Drinian said, +“Look! What’s that?” and everyone stopped. + +“Are they great trees?” said Caspian. + +“Towers, 1 think,” said Eustace. + +“It might be giants,” said Edmund in a lower voice. + +“The way to find out is to go right iv among them,” said Reepicheep, +drawing his sword and pattering off ahead of everyone else. + +“I think it’s a ruin,” said Lucy when they had got a good deal nearer, and her +guess was the best so far. What they now saw was a wide oblong space flagged +with smooth stones and surrounded by grey pillars but unroofed. And from end +to end of it ran a long table laid with a rich crimson cloth that came down nearly +to the pavement. At either side of it were many chairs of stone richly carved and +with silken cushions upon the seats. But on the table itself there was set out such +a banquet as had never been seen, not even when Peter the High King kept his +court at Cair Paravel. There were turkeys and geese and peacocks, there were +boars’ heads and sides of venison, there were pies shaped like ships under full +sail or like dragons and elephants, there were ice puddings and bright lobsters +and gleaming salmon, there were nuts and grapes, pineapples and peaches, +pomegranates and melons and tomatoes. There were flagons of gold and silver +and curiouslywrought glass; and the smell of the fruit and the wine blew towards +them like a promise of all happiness. + +“I say!” said Lucy. + +They came nearer and nearer, all very quietly. + +“But where are the guests?” asked Eustace. + +“We can provide that, Sir,” said Rhince. + +“Look!” said Edmund sharply. They were actually within the pillars now and +standing on the pavement. Everyone looked where Edmund had pointed. The +chairs were not all empty. At the head of the table and in the two places beside it +there was something- or possibly three somethings. + +“What are those?” asked Lucy in a whisper. “It looks like three beavers +sitting on the table.” + +“Or a huge bird’s nest,” said Edmund. + +“It looks more like a haystack to me,” said Caspian. + +Reepicheep ran forward, jumped on a chair and thence on to the table, and +ran along it, threading his way as nimbly as a dancer between jewelled cups and +pyramids of fruit and -ivory salt-cellars. He ran right up to the mysterious grey +mass at the end: peered, touched, and then called out: + +“These will not fight, I think.” + + + +Everyone now came close and saw that what sat in those three chairs was +three men, though hard to recognize as men till you looked closely. Their hair, +which was grey, had grown over their eyes till it almost concealed their, faces, +and their beards had grown over the table, climbing pound and entwining plates +and goblets as brambles; entwine a fence, until, all mixed in one great mat of +hair, they flowed over the edge and down to the floor. And from their heads the +hair hung over the backs of their chairs so that they were wholly hidden. In fact +the three men were; nearly all hair. + +“Dead?” said Caspian. + +“I think not, Sire,” said Reepicheep, lifting one of their hands out of its +tangle of hair in his two paws. “This one is warm and his pulse beats.” + +“This one, too, and this,” said Drinian. + +“Why, they’re only asleep,” said Eustace. + +“It’s been a long sleep, though,” said Edmund, “to let their hair grow like +this.” + +“It must be an enchanted sleep,” said Lucy. “I felt the moment we landed on +this island that it was full of magic. Oh! do you think we have perhaps come +here to break it?” + +“We can try,” said Caspian, and began shaking the nearest of the three +sleepers. For a moment everyone thought he was going to be successful, for the +man breathed hard and muttered, “I’ll go eastward no more. Out oars for +Narnia.” But he sank back almost at once into a yet deeper sleep than before: +that is, his heavy head sagged a few inches lower towards the table and all +efforts to rouse him again were useless. With the second it was much the same. +“Weren’t born to live like animals. Get to the east while you’ve a chance - lands +behind the sun,” and sank down. And the third only said, “Mustard, please,” and +slept hard. + +“Out oars for Narnia, eh?” said Drinian. + +“Yes,” said Caspian, “you are right, Drinian. I think our quest is at an end. +Let’s look at their rings. Yes, these are their devices. This is the Lord Revilian. +This is the Lord Argoz: and this, the Lord Mavramorn.” + +“But we can’t wake them,” said Lucy. “What are we to do?” + +“Begging your Majesties’ pardons all,” said Rhince, “but why not fall to +while you’re discussing it? We don’t see a dinner like this every day.” + +“Not for your life!” said Caspian. + +“That’s right, that’s right,” said several of the sailors. + +“Too much magic about here. The sooner we’re back on board the better.” + +“Depend upon it,” said Reepicheep, “it was from eating this food that these +three lords came by a seven years’ sleep.” + + + +“I wouldn’t touch it to save my life,” said Drinian. + +“The light’s going uncommon quick,” said Rynelf. + +“Back to ship, back to ship,” muttered the men. + +“I really think,” said Edmund, “they’re right. We can decide what to do with +the three sleepers tomorrow. We daren’t eat the food and there’s no point in +staying here for the night. The whole place smells of magic - and danger.” + +“I am entirely of King Edmund’s opinion,” said Reepicheep, “as far as +concerns the ship’s company in general. But I myself will sit at this table till +sunrise.” + +“Why on earth?” said Eustace. + +“Because,” said the Mouse, “this is a very great adventure, and no danger +seems to me so great as that of knowing when I get back to Narnia that I left a +mystery behind me through fear.” + +“I’ll stay with you, Reep,” said Edmund. + +“And I too,” said Caspian. + +“And me,” said Lucy. And then Eustace volunteered also. This was very +brave of him because never having read of such things or even heard of them till +he joined the Dawn Treader made it worse for him than for the others. + +“I beseech your Majesty began Drinian. + +“No, my Lord,” said Caspian. “Your place is with the ship, and you have had +a day’s work while we five have idled.” There was a lot of argument about this +but in the end Caspian had his way. As the crew marched off to the shore in the +gathering dusk none of the five watchers, except perhaps Reepicheep, could +avoid a cold feeling in the stomach. + +They took some time choosing their seats at the perilous table. Probably +everyone had the same reason but no one said it out loud. For it was really a +rather nasty choice. One could hardly bear to sit all night next to those three +terrible hairy objects which, if not dead, were certainly not alive in the ordinary +sense. On the other hand, to sit at the far end, so that you would see them less +and less as the night grew darker, and wouldn’t know if they were moving, and +perhaps wouldn’t see them at all by about two o’clock no, it was not to be +thought of. So they sauntered round and round the table saying, “What about +here?” and “Or perhaps a bit further on,” or, “Why not on this side?” till at last +they settled down somewhere about the middle but nearer to the sleepers than to +the other end. It was about ten by now and almost dark. Those strange new +constellations burned in the east. Lucy would have liked it better if they had +been the Leopard and the Ship and other old friends of the Narnian sky. + +They wrapped themselves in their sea cloaks and sat still and waited. At first +there was some attempt at talk but it didn’t come to much. And they sat and sat. + + + +And all the time they heard the waves breaking on the beach. + +After hours that seemed like ages there came a moment when they all knew +they had been dozing a moment before but were all suddenly wide awake. The +stars were all in quite different positions from those they had last noticed. The +sky was very black except for the faintest possible greyness in the east. They +were cold, though thirsty, and stiff. And none of them spoke because now at last +something was happening. + +Before them, beyond the pillars, there was the slope of a low hill. And now a +door opened in the hillside, and light appeared in the doorway, and a figure came +out, and the door shut behind it. The figure carried a light, and this light was +really all that they could see distinctly. It came slowly nearer and nearer till at +last it stood right at the table opposite to them. Now they could see that it was a +tall girl, dressed in a single long garment of clear blue which left her arms bare. +She was bareheaded and her yellow hair hung down her back. And when they +looked at her they thought they had never before known what beauty meant. + +The light which she had been carrying was a tall candle in a silver +candlestick which she now set upon the table. If there had been any wind off the +sea earlier in the night it must have died down by now, for the flame of the +candle burned as straight and still as if it were in a room with the windows shut +and the curtains drawn. Gold and silver on the table shone in its light. + +Lucy now noticed something lying lengthwise on the table which had +escaped her attention before. It was a knife of stone, sharp as steel, a cruel- +looking, ancient looking thing. + +No one had yet spoken a word. Then - Reepicheep first, and Caspian next - +they all rose to their feet, because they felt that she was a great lady. + +“Travellers who have come from far to Aslan’s table,” said the girl. “Why do +you not eat and drink?” + +“Madam,” said Caspian, “we feared the food because we thought it had cast +our friends into an enchanted sleep. + +“They have never tasted it,” she said. + +“Please,” said Lucy, “what happened to them?” + +“Seven years ago,” said the girl, “they came here in a ship whose sails were +rags and timbers ready to fall apart. There were a few others with them, sailors, +and when they came to this table one said, 'Here is the good place. Let us set sail +and reef sail and row no longer but sit down and end our days in peace!’ And the +second said, 'No, let us re-embark and sail for Narnia and the west; it may be +that Miraz is dead.’ But the third, who was a very masterful man, leaped up and +said, 'No, by heaven. We are men and Telmarines, not brutes. What should we +do but seek adventure after adventure? We have not long to live in any event. Let + + + +us spend what is left in seeking the unpeopled world behind the sunrise.’ And as +they quarrelled he caught up the Knife of Stone which lies there on the table and +would have fought with his comrades. But it is a thing not right for him to touch. +And as his fingers closed upon the hilt, deep sleep fell upon all the three. And till +the enchantment is undone they will never wake.” + +“What is this Knife of Stone?” asked Eustace. + +“Do none of you know it?” said the girl. + +“I - I think,” said Lucy, “I’ve seen something like it before. It was a knife +like it that the White Witch used when she killed Aslan at the Stone Table long +ago.” + +“It was the same.,” said the girl, “and it was brought here to be kept in +honour while the world lasts.” + +Edmund, who had been looking more and more uncomfortable for the last +few minutes, now spoke. + +“Look here,” he said, “I hope I’m not a coward - about eating this food, I +mean - and I’m sure I don’t mean to be rude. But we have had a lot of queer +adventures on this voyage of ours and things aren’t always what they seem. +When I look in your face I can’t help believing all you say: but then that’s just +what might happen with a witch too. How are we to know you’re a friend?” + +“You can’t know,” said the girl. “You can only believe or not.” + +After a moment’s pause Reepicheep’s small voice was heard. + +“Sire,” he said to Caspian, “of your courtesy fill my cup with wine from that +flagon: it is too big for me to lift. I will drink to the lady.” + +Caspian obeyed and the Mouse, standing on the table, held up a golden cup +between its tiny paws and said, “Lady, I pledge you.” Then it fell to on cold +peacock, and in a short while everyone else followed its example. All were very +hungry and the meal, if not quite what you wanted for a very early breakfast, +was excellent as a very late supper. + +“Why is it called Aslan’s table?” asked Lucy presently. + +“It is set here by his bidding,” said the girl, “for those who come so far. +Some call this island the World’s End, for though you can sail further, this is the +beginning of the end.” + +“But how does the food keep?” asked the practical Eustace. ? + +“It is eaten, and renewed every day,” said the girl. “This you will see.” + +“And what are we to do about the Sleepers?” asked Caspian. “In the world +from which my friends come” (here, he nodded at Eustace and the Pevensies) +“they have a story of a prince or a king coming to a castle where all the people +lay in an enchanted sleep. In that story he could not dissolve the enchantment +until he had kissed the Princess.” + + + +“But here,” said the girl, “it is different. Here he cannot kiss the Princess till +he has dissolved the enchantment.” + +“Then,” said Caspian, “in the name of Aslan, show me how to set about that +work at once.” + +“My father will teach you that,” said the girl. + +“Your father!” said everyone. “Who is he? And where?” + +“Look,” said the girl, turning round and pointing at the door in the hillside. +They could see it more easily now, for while they had been talking the stars had +grown fainter and great gaps of white light were appearing in the greyness of the +eastern sky. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE WORLD + +Slowly the door opened again and out there came a figure as tall and straight +as the girl’s but not so slender. It carried no light but light seemed to come from +it. As it came nearer, Lucy saw that it was like an old man. His silver beard came +down to his bare feet in front and his saver hair hung down to his heels behind +and his robe appeared to be made from the fleece of silver sheep. He looked so +mild and grave that once more all the travellers rose to their feet and stood in +silence. + +But the old man came on without speaking to the travellers and stood on the +other side of the table opposite to his daughter. Then both of them held up their +arms before them and turned to face the east. In that position the began to sing. I +wish I could write down the song, but one who was present could remember it. +Lucy said afterwards that it was high, almost shrill, but very beautiful, cold kind +of song, an early morning kind of song. And they sang, the grey clouds lifted +from the eastern sky a the white patches 'grew bigger and bigger till it was +white, and the sea began to shine like silver. And long afterwards (but those two +sang all the time) the east began to turn red and at last, unclouded, the sun came +up out the sea and its long level ray shot down the length of the table on the gold +and silver sand on the Stone Knife. + +Once or twice before, the Narnians had wondered whether the sun at its +rising did not look bigger in these seas than it had looked at home. This time +they we certain. There was no mistaking it. And the brightness its ray on the dew +and on the table was far beyond an. morning brightness they had ever seen. And +as Edmu said afterwards, “Though lots of things happened on that trip which +sound more exciting, that moment was really the most exciting.” For now they +knew that they had truly come to the beginning of the End of the World. + +Then something seemed to be flying at them out of the very centre of the +rising sun: but of course one couldn’t look steadily in that direction to make sure. +But presently the air became full of voices - voices which took up same song +that the Lady and her Father were singing, but in far wilder tones and in a +language which no one knew And soon after that the owners of these voices +could be seen. They were birds, large and white, and they came hundreds and +thousands and alighted on everything; the grass, and the pavement, on the table, +on your shoulders, your hands, and your head, till it looked as heavy snow had +fallen. For, like snow, they not only make everything white but blurred and + + + +blunted all shapes. But Lucy, looking out from between the wings of the birds +that covered her, saw one bird fly to the Old Man with something in its beak that +looked like a little fruit, unless it was a little live coal, which it might have been, +for it was too bright to look at. And the bird laid it in the Old Man’s mouth. + +Then the birds stopped their singing and appeared to be very busy about the +table. When they rose from it again everything on the table that could be eaten or +drunk had disappeared. These birds rose from their meal in their thousands and +hundreds and carried away all the things that could not be eaten or drunk, such +as bones, rinds, and shells, and took their flight back to the rising sun. But now, +because they were not singing, the whir of their wings seemed to set the whole +air a-tremble. And there was the table pecked clean and empty, and the three old +Lords of Narnia still fast asleep. + +Now at last the Old Man turned to the travellers and bade them welcome. + +“Sir,” said Caspian, “will you tell us how to undo the enchantment which +holds these three Narnian Lords asleep.” + +“I will gladly tell you that, my son,” said the Old Man. “To break this +enchantment you must sail to the World’s End, or as near as you can come to it, +and you must come back having left at least one of your company behind.” + +“And what must happen to that one?” asked Reepicheep. + +“He must go on into the utter east and never return into the world.” + +“That is my heart’s desire,” said Reepicheep. + +“And are we near the World’s End now, Sir?” asked Caspian. “Have you any +knowledge of the seas and lands further east than this?” + +“I saw them long ago,” said the Old Man, “but it was from a great height. I +cannot tell you such things as sailor need to know.” + +“Do you mean you were flying in the air?” Eustace blurted out. + +“I was a long way above the air, my son,” replied the Old Man. “I am +Ramandu. But I see that you stare at on another and have not heard this name. +And no wonder, for the days when I was a star had ceased long before any of +you knew this world, and all the constellations have changed.” + +“Golly,” said Edmund under his breath. “He’s a retired star.” + +“Aren’t you a star any longer?” asked Lucy. + +“I am a star at rest, my daughter,” answered Ramandu + +“When I set for the last time, decrepit and old beyond all that you can +reckon, I was carried to this island. I am not so old now as I was then. Every +morning a bird brings me a fire-berry from the valleys in the Sun, and each fire- +berry takes away a little of my age. And when I have become as young as the +child that was born yesterday, then I shall take my rising again (for we are at +earth’s eastern rim) and once more tread the great dance.” + + + +“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” + +“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is +made of. And in this world you ave already met a star, for I think you have been +with Coriakin.” + +“Is he a retired star, too?” said Lucy. + +“Well, not quite the same,” said Ramandu. “It was not quite as a rest than he +was set to govern the Duffers. You might call it a punishment. He might have +shone for thousands of years more in the southern winter sky if all had gone +well.” + +“What did he do, Sir?” asked Caspian. + +“My son,” said Ramandu, “it is not for you, a son of Adam, to know what +faults a star can commit. But come, we waste time in such talk. Are you yet +resolved? Will you sail further east and come again, leaving one to return no +more, and so break the enchantment? Or will you sail westward?” + +“Surely, Sire,” said Reepicheep, “there is no question about that? It is very +plainly part of our quest to rescue these three lords from enchantment.” + +“I think the same, Reepicheep,” replied Caspian. “And even if it were not so, +it would break my heart not to go as near the World’s End as the Dawn Treader +will take us. But I am thinking of the crew. They signed on to seek the seven +lords, not to reach the rim of the Earth. If we sail east from here we sail to find +the edge, the utter east. And not one knows how far it is. They’re brave fellows, +but I set signs that some of them are weary of the voyage and long to have our +prow pointing to Narnia again. I don’t think should take them further without +their knowledge an consent. And then there’s the poor Lord Rhoop. He’s broken +man.” + +“My son,” said the star, “it would be no use, even though you wished it, to +sail for the World’s End with men unwilling or men deceived. That is not how +great unenchantments are achieved. They must know where they go and why. +But who is this broken man you speak of?” + +Caspian told Ramandu the story of Rhoop. + +“I can give him what he needs most,” said Ramandu. “I this island there is +sleep without stint or measure, and sleep in which no faintest footfall of a dream +was ever heard. Let him sit beside these other three and drink oblivion till you +return.” + +“Oh, do let’s do that, Caspian,” said Lucy. “I’m sure its just what he would +love.” + +At that moment they were interrupted by the sound of many feet and voices: +Drinian and the rest of the ship company were approaching. They halted in +surprise whey they saw Ramandu and his daughter; and then, because these were + + + +obviously great people, every man uncovered his head. Some sailors eyed the +empty dishes and flagons on the table with regret. + +“My lord,” said the King to Drinian, “pray send two men back to the Dawn +Treader with a message to the Lord Rhoop. Tell him that the last of his old +shipmates are here asleep - a sleep without dreams - and that he can share it.” + +When this had been done, Caspian told the rest to sit down and laid the +whole situation before them. When he had finished there was a long silence and +some whispering until presently the Master Bowman got to his feet, and said: + +“What some of us have been wanting to ask for a long time, your Majesty, is +how we’re ever to get home when we do turn, whether we turn here or +somewhere else. It’s been west and north-west winds all the way, barring an +occasional calm. And if that doesn’t change, I’d like to know what hopes we +have of seeing Narnia again. There’s not much chance of supplies lasting while +we row all that way. + +“That’s landsman’s talk,” said Drinian. “There’s always a prevailing west +wind in these seas all through the late summer, and it always changes after the +New Year. We’ll have plenty of wind for sailing westward; more than we shall +like from all accounts.” + +“That’s true, Master,” said an old sailor who was a Galmian by birth. “You +get some ugly weather rolling up from the east in January and February. And by +your leave, Sire, if I was in command of this ship I’d say to winter here and +begin the voyage home in March.” + +“What’d you eat while you were wintering here?” asked Eustace. + +“This table,” said Ramandu, “will be filled with a king’s feast every day at +sunset.” + +“Now you’re talking!” said several sailors. + +“Your Majesties and gentlemen and ladies all,” said Rynelf, “there’s just one +thing I want to say. There’s not one of us chaps as was pressed on this journey. +We’re volunteers. And there’s some here chat are looking very hard at that table +and thinking about king’s feasts who were talking very loud about adventures on +the day we sailed from Cair Paravel, and swearing they wouldn’t come home till +we’d found the end of the world. And there were some standing on the quay who +would have given all they had to come with us. It was thought a finer thing then +to have a cabin-boy’s berth on the Dawn Treader than to wear a knight’s belt. I +don’t know if you get the hang of what I’m saying. But what I mean is that I +think chaps who set out like us will look as silly as - as those Dufflepuds - if we +come home and say we got to the beginning of the world’s end and hadn’t the +heart to go further.” + +Some of the sailors cheered at this but some said that that was all very well. + + + +“This isn’t going to be much fun,” whispered Edmund to Caspian. “What are +we to do if half those fellows hang back?” + +“Wait,” Caspian whispered back. “I’ve still a card to play.” + +“Aren’t you going to say anything, Reep?” whispered Lucy. + +“No. Why should your Majesty expect it?” answered Reepicheep in a voice +that most people heard. “My owns plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the +Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I +shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have +not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast +cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise and Peepiceek will be head of +the talking mice in Narnia.” + +“Hear, hear,” said a sailor, “I’ll say the same, barring the bit about the +coracle, which wouldn’t bear me.” He added in a lower voice, “I’m not going to +be outdone by a mouse.” + +At this point Caspian jumped to his feet. “Friends,” he said, “I think you +have not quite understood our purpose. You talk as if we had come to you with +our hat in our hand, begging for shipmates. It isn’t like that at all. We and our +royal brother and sister and their kinsman and Sir Reepicheep, the good knight, +and the Lord Drinian have an errand to the world’s edge. It is our pleasure to +choose from among such of you as are willing those whom we deem worthy of +so high an enterprise. We have not said that any can come for the asking. That is +why we shall now command the Lord Drinian and Master Rhince to consider +carefully what men among you are the hardest in battle, the most skilled seamen, +the purest in blood, the most loyal to our person, and the cleanest of life and +manners; and to give their names to us in a schedule.” He paused and went on in +a quicker voice, “Aslan’s mane!” he exclaimed. “Do you think that the privilege +of seeing the last things is to be bought for a song? Why, every man that comes +with us shall bequeath the title of Dawn Treader to all his descendants, and when +we land at Cair Paravel on the homeward voyage he shall have either gold or +land enough to make him rich all his life. Now - scatter over the island, all of +you. In half an hour’s time I shall receive the names that Lord Drinian brings +me.” + +There was rather a sheepish silence and then the crew made their bows and +moved away, one in this direction and one in that, but mostly in little knots or +bunches, talking. + +“And now for the Lord Rhoop,” said Caspian. + +But turning to the head of the table he saw that Rhoop was already there. He +had arrived, silent and unnoticed, while the discussion was going on, and was +seated beside the Lord Argoz. The daughter of Ramandu stood beside him as if + + + +she had just helped him into his chair; Ramandu stood behind him and laid both +his hands on Rhoop’s grey head. Even in daylight a faint silver light came from +the hands of the star. There was a smile on Rhoop’s haggard face. He held out +one of his hands to Lucy and the other to Caspian. For a moment it looked as if +he were going to say something. Then his smile brightened as if he were feeling) +some delicious sensation, a long sigh of contentment came from his lips, his +head fell forward, and he slept. + +“Poor Rhoop,” said Lucy. “I am glad. He must have had terrible times.” ‘ + +“Don’t let’s even think of it,” said Eustace. + +Meanwhile Caspian’s speech, helped perhaps by some magic of the island, +was having just the effect he intended. A good many who had been anxious +enough to get out of the voyage felt quite differently about being left out of it. +And of course whenever any one sailor announced that he had made up his mind +to ask for permission to sail, the ones who hadn’t said this felt that they were +getting fewer and more uncomfortable. So that before the half-hour was nearly +over several people were positively “sucking up” to Drinian and Rhince (at least +that was what they called it at my school) to get a good report. And soon there +were only three left who didn’t want to go, and those three were trying very hard +to persuade others to stay with them. And very shortly after that there was only +one left. And in they end he began to be afraid of being left behind all on his +own and changed his mind. + +At the end of the half-hour they all came trooping back to Aslan’s Table and +stood at one end while Drinian and Rhince went and sat down with Caspian and +made their report; and Caspian accepted all the man but that one who’d had +changed his mind at the last moment. His name was Pittencream and he stayed +on the Island of the Star all the time the others were away looking for the +World’s End, and he very much wished he had gone with them. He wasn’t the +sort of man who could enjoy talking to Ramandu and Ramandu’s daughter (nor +they to him), and it rained a good deal, and though there was a wonderful feast +on the Table every night, he didn’t very much enjoy it. He said it gave him the +creeps sitting there alone (and in the rain as likely as not) with those four Lords +asleep at the end of the Table. And when the others returned he felt so out of +things that he deserted on the voyage home at the Lone Islands, and went and +lived in Calormen, where he told wonderful stories about his adventures at the +End of the World, until at last he came to believe them himself. So you may say, +in a sense, that he lived happily ever after. But he could never bear mice. + +That night they all ate and drank together at the great table between the +pillars where the feast was magically renewed: and next morning the Dawn +Treader set sail once more just when the great birds had come and gone again. + + + +“Lady,” said Caspian, “I hope to speak with you again when I have broken +the enchantments.” And Ramandu’s daughter looked at him and smiled. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +THE WONDERS OF THE LAST SEA + +VERY soon after they had left Ramandu’s country they began to feel that +they had already sailed beyond the world. All was different. For one thing they +all found that they were needing less sleep. One did not want to go to bed. nor to +eat much, nor even to talk except in low voices. Another thing was the light. +There was too much of it. The sun when it came up each morning looked twice, +if not; three times, its usual size. And every morning (which gave Lucy the +strangest feeling of all) the huge white birds, singing their song with human +voices in a language no one knew, streamed overhead and vanished astern on +their way to their breakfast at Aslan’s Table. A little later they came flying back +and vanished into the east. + +“How beautifully clear the water is!” said Lucy to herself, as she leaned over +the port side early in the afternoon of the second day. + +And it was. The first thing that she noticed was a little black object, about the +size of a shoe, travelling along at the same speed as the ship. For a moment she +thought it was something floating on the surface. But then there came floating +past a bit of stale bread which the cook had just thrown out of the galley. And the +bit of bread looked as if it were going to collide with the black thing, but it +didn’t. It passed above it, and Lucy now saw that the black thing could not be on +the surface. Then the black thing suddenly got very much bigger and flicked +back to normal size a moment later. + +Now Lucy knew she had seen something just like that happen somewhere +else - if only she could remember where. She held her hand to her head and +screwed up her face and put out her tongue in the effort to remember. At last she +did. Of course! It was like what you saw from a train on a bright sunny day. You +saw the black shadow of your own coach running along the fields at the same +pace as the train. Then you went into a cutting; and immediately the same +shadow flicked close up to you and got big, racing dong the grass of the cutting- +bank. Then you came out of the cutting and - Pick! - once more the black +shadow had gone back to its normal size and was running along the fields. + +“It’s our shadow! - the shadow of the Dawn Treader,” said Lucy. “Our +shadow running along on the bottom of the sea. That time when it got bigger it +went over a hill. But in that case the water must be clearer than I thought! Good +gracious, I must he seeing the bottom of the sea; fathoms and fathoms down.” + +As soon as she had said this she realized that the great silvery expanse which + + + +she had been seeing (without noticing) for some time was really the sand on the +sea-bed and that ail sorts of darker or brighter patches were not lights and +shadows on the surface but real things on the bottom. At present, for instance, +they were passing over a mass of soft purply green with a broad, winding strip of +pale grey in the middle of it But now that she knew it was on the bottom she saw +it much better. She could see that bits of the dark stuff were much higher than +other bits and were waving gently. “Just like trees in a wind,” said Lucy. “And +do believe that’s what they are. It’s a submarine forest.” + +They passed on above it and presently the pale streak was joined by another +pale streak. “If I was down there,” thought Lucy, “that streak would be just like a +road through the wood. And that place where it joins the other Would be a +crossroads. Oh, I do wish I was. Hallo! the forest is coming to an end. And I do +believe the streak really was a road! I can still see it going on across the open +sand. It’s a different colour. And it’s marked out with something at the edges - +dotted lines. Perhaps they are stones. And now it’s getting wider.” + +But it was not really getting wider, it was getting nearer. She realized this +because of the way in which the shadow of the ship came rushing up towards +her. And the road she felt sure it was a road now - began to go in zigzags. +Obviously it was climbing up a steep hill. And when she held her head sideways +and looked back, what she saw was very like what you see when you look down +a winding road from the top of a hill. She could even see the shafts of sunlight +falling through the deep water on to the wooded valley - and, in the extreme +distance, everything melting away into a dim greenness. But some places - the +sunny ones, she thought - were ultramarine blue. + +She could not, however, spend much time looking back; what was coming +into view in the forward direction was too exciting. The road had apparently now +reached the top of the hill and ran straight forward. Little specks were moving to +and fro on it. And now something most wonderful, fortunately in full sunlight - +or as full as it can be when it falls through fathoms of water - flashed into sight. +It was knobbly and jagged and of a pearly, or perhaps an ivory, colour. She was +so nearly straight above it that at first she could hardly make out what it was. But +everything became plain when she noticed its shadow. The sunlight was falling +across Lucy’s shoulders, so the shadow of the thing lay stretched out on the sand +behind it. And by its shape she saw clearly that it was a shadow of towers and +pinnacles, minarets and domes. + +“Why! - it’s a city or a huge castle,” said Lucy to herself “But I wonder why +they’ve built it on top of a high mountain?” + +Long afterwards when she was back in England and talked all these +adventures over with Edmund, they thought of a reason and I am pretty sure it is + + + +the true one. In the sea, the deeper you go, the darker and colder it gets, and it is +down there, in the dark and cold, that dangerous things live - the squid and the +Sea Serpent and the Kraken. The valleys are the wild, unfriendly places. The +sea-people feel about their valleys as we do about mountains, and feel about +their mountains as we feel about valleys. It is on the heights (or, as we would +say, “in the shallows”) that there is warmth and peace. The reckless hunters and +brave knights of the sea go down into the depths on quests and adventures, but +return home to the heights for rest and peace, courtesy and council, the sports, +the dances and the songs. + +They had passed the city and the sea-bed was still rising. It was only a few +hundred feet below the ship now. The road had disappeared. They were sailing +above an open park-like country, dotted with little groves of brightlycoloured +vegetation. And then - Lucy nearly squealed aloud with excitement-she had seen +People. + +There were between fifteen and twenty of them, and all mounted on sea¬ +horses - not the tiny little sea-horses which you may have seen in museums but +horses rather bigger than themselves. They must be noble and lordly people, +Lucy thought, for she could catch the gleam of gold on some of their foreheads +and streamers of emerald- or orange-coloured stuff fluttered from their shoulders +in the current. Then: + +“Oh, bother these fish!” said Lucy, for a whole shoal of small fat fish, +swimming quite close to the surface, had come between her and the Sea People. +But though this spoiled her view it led to the most interesting thing of all. + +Suddenly a fierce little fish of a kind she had never seen before came darting +up from below, snapped, grabbed, and sank rapidly with one of the fat fish in its +mouth. And all the Sea People were sitting on their horses staring up at what had +happened. They seemed to be talking and laughing. And before the hunting fish +had got back to them with its prey, another of the same kind came up from the +Sea People. And Lucy was almost certain that one big Sea Man who sat on his +sea-horse in the middle of the party had sent it or released it; as if he had been +holdng it back till then in his hand or on his wrist. + +“Why, I do declare,” said Lucy, “it’s a hunting party. Or more like a hawking +party. Yes, that’s it. They ride out with these little fierce fish on their wrists just +as we used to ride out with falcons on our wrists when we were Kings and +Queens at Cair Paravel long ago. And then they fly them - or I suppose I should +say swim them - at the others.” + +She stopped suddenly because the scene was changing. The Sea People had +noticed the Dawn Treader. The shoal of fish hard scattered in every direction: the +People themselves were coming up to find out the meaning of this big, black + + + +thing which had come between them and the sun. And now they were so close to +the surface that if they had been in air, instead of water, Lucy could have spoken +to them. There were men and women both. All wore coronets of some kind and +many had chains of pearls. They wore no other clothes. Their bodies were the +colour of old ivory, their hair dark purple. The King in the centre (no one could +mistake him for anything but the King) looked proudly and fiercely into Lucy’s +face and shook a spear in his hand. His knights did the same. The faces of the +ladies were filled with astonishment. Lucy felt sure they had never seen a ship or +a human before - and how should they, in seas beyond the world’s end where no +ship ever came? + +“What are you staring at, Lu?” said a voice close beside her. + +Lucy had been so absorbed in what she was seeing that she started at the +sound, and when she turned she found that her arm had gone “dead” from +leaning so long on the rail in one position. Drinian and Edmund were beside her. + +“Look,” she said. + +They both looked, but almost at once Drinian said in a low voice: + +“Turn round at once, your Majesties - that’s right, with our backs to the sea. +And don’t look as if we were talking about anything important.” + +“Why, what’s the matter?” said Lucy as she obeyed. + +“It’ll never do for the sailors to see all that,” said Drinian. “We’ll have men +falling in love with a seawoman, or falling in love with the under-sea country +itself, and jumping overboard. I’ve heard of that kind of thing happening before +in strange seas. It’s always unlucky to see these people.” + +“But we used to know them,” said Lucy. “In the old days at Cair Paravel +when my brother Peter was High King. They came to the surface and sang at our +coronation.” + +“I think that must have been a different kind, Lu,” said Edmund. “They could +live in the air as well as under water. I rather think these can’t. By the look of +them they’d have surfaced and started attacking us long ago if they could. They +seem very fierce.” + +“At any rate,” said Drinian, but at that moment two sounds were heard. One +was a plop. The other was a voice from the fighting top shouting, “Man +overboard!” Then everyone was busy. Some of the sailors hurried aloft to take in +the sail: others hurried below to get to the oars; and Rhince, who was on duty on +the poop, began to put the helm hard over so as to come round and back to the +man who had gone overboard. But by now everyone knew that it wasn’t strictly +a man. It was Reepicheep. + +“Drat that mouse!” said Drinian. “It’s more trouble than all the rest of the +ship’s company put together. If there is any scrape to be got into, in it will get! It + + + +ought to be put in irons - keel-hauled - marooned - have its whiskers cut off. Can +anyone see the little blighter?” + +All this didn’t mean that Drinian really disliked Reepicheep. On the contrary +he liked him very much and was therefore frightened about him, and being +frightened put him in a bad temper - just as your mother is much angrier with +you for running out into the road in front of a car than a stranger would be. No +one, of course, was afraid of Reepicheep’s drowning, for he was an excellent +swimmer; but the three who knew what was going on below the water were +afraid of those long, cruel spears in the hands of the Sea People. + +In a few minutes the Dawn Treader had come round and everyone could see +the black blob in the water which was Reepicheep. He was chattering with the +greatest excitement but as his mouth kept on getting filled with water nobody +could understand what he was saying. + +“He’ll blurt the whole thing out if we don’t shut him up,” cried Drinian. To +prevent this he rushed to the side and lowered a rope himself, shouting to the +sailors, “All right, all right. Back to your places. I hope I can heave a mouse up +without help.” And as Reepicheep began climbing up the rope not very nimbly +because his wet fur made him heavy - Drinian leaned over and whispered to him, + +“Don’t tell. Not a word.” + +But when the dripping Mouse had reached the deck it turned out not to be at +all interested in the Sea People. + +“Sweet!” he cheeped. “Sweet, sweet!” + +“What are you talking about?” asked Drinian crossly. “And you needn’t +shake yourself all over me, either.” + +“I tell you the water’s sweet,” said the Mouse. “Sweet, fresh. It isn’t salt.” + +For a moment no one quite took in the importance of this. But then +Reepicheep once more repeated the old prophecy: + +“Where the waves grow sweet, Doubt not, Reepicheep, There is the utter +East.” + +Then at last everyone understood. + +“Let me have a bucket, Rynelf,” said Drinian. + +It was handed him and he lowered it and up it came again. The water shone +in it like glass. + +“Perhaps your Majesty would like to taste it first,” said Drinian to Caspian. + +The King took the bucket in both hands, raised it to his lips, sipped, then +drank deeply and raised his head. His face was changed. Not only his eyes but +everything about him seemed to be brighter. + +“Yes,” he said, “it is sweet. That’s real water, that. I’m not sure that it isn’t +going to kill me. But it is the death I would have chosen - if I’d known about it + + + +till now.” + +“What do you mean?” asked Edmund. + +“It - it’s like light more than anything else,” said Caspian. + +“That is what it is,” said Reepicheep. “Drinkable light. We must be very near +the end of the world now.” + +There was a moment’s silence and then Lucy knelt down on the deck and +drank from the bucket. + +“It’s the loveliest thing I have ever tasted,” she said with a kind of gasp. “But +oh - it’s strong. We shan’t need to eat anything now.” + +And one by one everybody on board drank. And for a long time they were all +silent. They felt almost too well and strong to bear it; and presently they began to +notice another result. As I have said before, there had been too much light ever +since they left the island of Ramandu - the sun too large (though not too hot), the +sea too bright, the air too shining. Now, the light grew no less - if anything, it +increased - but they could bear it. They could look straight up at the sun without +blinking. They could see more light than they had ever seen before. And the +deck and the sail and their own faces and bodies became brighter and brighter +and every rope shone. And next morning, when the sun rose, now five or six +times its old size, they stared hard into it and could see the very feathers of the +birds that came flying from it. + +Hardly a word was spoken on board all that day, till about dinner-time (no +one wanted any dinner, the water was enough for them) Drinian said: + +“I can’t understand this. There is not a breath of wind. The sail hangs dead. +The sea is as flat as a pond. And yet we drive on as fast as if there were a gale +behind us.” + +“I’ve been thinking that, too,” said Caspian. “We must be caught in some +strong current.” + +“H’m,” said Edmund. “That’s not so nice if the World really has an edge and +we’re getting near it.” + +“You mean,” said Caspian, “that we might be just well, poured over it?” + +“Yes, yes,” cried Reepicheep, clapping his paws together. “That’s how I’ve +always imagined it - the World like a great round table and the waters of all the +oceans endlessly pouring over the edge. The ship will tip up stand on her head - +for one moment we shall see over the edge - and then, down, down, the rush, the +speed -“ + +“And what do you think will be waiting for us at the bottom, eh?” said +Drinian. + +“Aslan’s country perhaps,” said the Mouse, its eyes shining. “Or perhaps +there isn’t any bottom. Perhaps it goes down for ever and ever. But whatever it + + + +is, won’t it be worth anything just to have looked for one moment beyond the +edge of the world.” + +“But look -here,” said Eustace, “this is all rot. The world’s round - I mean, +round like a ball, not like a table.” + +“Our world is,” said Edmund. “But is this?” + +“Do you mean to say,” asked Caspian, “that you three come from a round +world (round like a ball) and you’ve never told me! It’s really too bad of you. +Because we have fairy-tales in which there are round worlds and I always loved +them. I never believed there were any real ones. But I’ve always wished there +were and I’ve always longed to live in one. Oh, I’d give anything -1 wonder why +you can get into our world and we never get into yours? If only I had the chance! +It must be exciting to live on a thing like a ball. Have you ever been to the parts +where people walk about upside-down?” + +Edmund shook his head. “And it isn’t like that,” he added. “There’s nothing +particularly exciting about a round world when you’re there. + + + +Narnia 3 - The Voyage of the Dawn + +Treader + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +THE VERY END OF THE WORLD + +REEPICHEEP was the only person on board besides Drinian and the two +Pevensies who had noticed the Sea People. He had dived in at once when he saw +the Sea King shaking his spear, for he regarded this as a sort of threat or +challenge and wanted to have the matter out there and then. The excitement of +discovering that the water was now fresh had distracted his attention, and before +he remembered the Sea People again Lucy and Drinian had taken him aside and +warned him not to mention what he had seen. + +As things turned out they need hardly have bothered, for by this time the +Dawn Treader was gliding over a part of the sea which seemed to be +uninhabited. No one except Lucy saw anything more of the People, and even she +had only one short glimpse. All morning on the following day they sailed in +fairly shallow water and the bottom was weedy. Just before midday Lucy saw a +large shoal of fishes grazing on the weed. They were all eating steadily and all +moving in the same direction. “Just like a flock of sheep,” thought Lucy. +Suddenly she saw a little Sea Girl of about her own age in the middle of them - a +quiet, lonely-looking girl with a sort of crook in her hand. Lucy felt sure that this +girl must be a shepherdess - or perhaps a fish-herdess and that the shoal was +really a flock at pasture. Both the fishes and the girl were quite close to the +surface. And just as the girl, gliding in the shallow water, and Lucy, leaning over +the bulwark, came opposite to one another, the girl looked up and stared straight +into Lucy’s face. Neither could speak to the other and in a moment the Sea Girl +dropped astern. But Lucy will never forget her face. It did not look frightened or +angry like those of the other Sea People. Lucy had liked that girl and she felt +certain the girl had liked her. In that one moment they had somehow become +friends. There does not seem to be much chance of their meeting again in that +world or any other. But if ever they do they will rush together with their hands +held out. + +After that for many days, without wind in her shrouds or foam at her bows, +across a waveless sea, the Dawn Treader glided smoothly east. Every day and +every hour the light became more brilliant and still they could bear it. No one ate +or slept and no one wanted to, but they drew buckets of dazzling water from the +sea, stronger than wine and somehow wetter, more liquid, than ordinary water, +and pledged one another silently in deep draughts of it. And one or two of the +sailors who had been oldish men when the voyage began now grew younger + + + +every day. Everyone on board was filled with joy and excitement, but not an +excitement that made one talk. The further they sailed the less they spoke, and +then almost in a whisper. The stillness of that last sea laid hold on them. + +“My Lord,” said Caspian to Drinian one day, “what do you see ahead?” + +“Sire,” said Drinian, “I see whiteness. All along the horizon from north to +south, as far as my eyes can reach.” + +“That is what I see too,” said Caspian, “and I cannot imagine what it is.” + +“If we were in higher latitudes, your Majesty,” said Drinian, “I would say it +was ice. But it can’t be that; not here. All the same, we’d better get men to the +oars and hold the ship back against the current. Whatever the stuff is, we don’t +want to crash into it at this speed!” + +They did as Drinian said, and so continued to go slower and slower. The +whiteness did not get any less mysterious as they- approached it. If it was land it +must be a very strange land, for it seemed just as smooth as the water and on the +same level with it. When they got very close to it Drinian put the helm hard over +and turned the Dawn Treader south so that she was broadside on to the current +and rowed a little way southward along the edge of the whiteness. In so doing +they accidentally made the important discovery that the current was only about +forty feet wide and the rest of the sea as still as a pond. This was good news for +the crew, who had already begun to think that the return journey to Ramandu’s +land, rowing against stream all the way, would be pretty poor sport. (It also +explained why the shepherd girl had dropped so quickly astern. She was not in +the current. If she had been she would have been moving east at the same speed +as the ship.) + +And still no one could make out what the white stuff was. Then the boat was +lowered and it put off to investigate. Those who remained on the Dawn Treader +could see that the boat pushed right in amidst the whiteness. Then they could +hear the voices of the party in the boat clear across the still water) talking in a +shrill and surprised way. Then there was a pause while Rynelf in the bows of the +boat took a sounding; and when, after that, the boat came rowing back there +seemed to be plenty of the white stuff inside her. Everyone crowded to the side +to hear the news. + +“Lilies, your Majesty!” shouted Rynelf, standing up in the bows. + +“What did you say?” asked Caspian. + +“Blooming lilies, your Majesty,” said Rynelf. “Same as in a pool or in a +garden at home.” + +“Look!” said Lucy, who was in the stern of the boat. She held up her wet +arms full of white petals and broad flat leaves. + +“What’s the depth, Rynelf?” asked Drinian. + + + +“That’s the funny thing, Captain,” said Rynelf. “It’s still deep. Three and a +half fathoms clear.” + +“They can’t be real lilies - not what we call lilies,” said Eustace. + +Probably they were not, but they were very like them. And when, after some +consultation, the Dawn Treader turned back into the current and began to glide +eastward through the Lily Lake or the Silver Sea (they tried both these names but +it was the Silver Sea that stuck and is now on Caspian’s map) the strangest part +of their travels began. Very soon the open sea which they were leaving was only +a thin rim of blue on the western horizon. Whiteness, shot with faintest colour of +gold, spread round them on every side, except just astern where their passage +had thrust the lilies apart and left an open lane of water that shone like dark +green glass. To look at, this last sea was very like the Arctic; and if their eyes +had not by now grown as strong as eagles’ the sun on all that whiteness - +especially at early morning when the sun was hugest would have been +unbearable. And every evening the same whiteness made the daylight last +longer. There seemed no end to the lilies. Day after day from all those miles and +leagues of flowers there rose a smell which Lucy found it very hard to describe; +sweet - yes, but not at all sleepy or overpowering, a fresh, wild, lonely smell that +seemed to get into your brain and make you feel that you could go up mountains +at a run or wrestle with an elephant. She and Caspian said to one another, “I feel +that I can’t stand much more of this, yet I don’t want it to stop.” + +They took soundings very often but it was only several days later that the +water became shallower. After that it went on getting shallower. There came a +day when they had to row out of the current and feel their way forward at a +snail’s pace, rowing. And soon it was clear that the Dawn Treader could sail no +further east. Indeed it was only by very clever handling that they saved her from +grounding. + +“Lower the boat,” cried Caspian, “and then call the men aft. I must speak to +them.” + +“What’s he going to do?” whispered Eustace to Edmund. “There’s a queer +look in his eyes.” + +“I think we probably all look the same,” said Edmund. + +They joined Caspian on the poop and soon all the men were crowded +together at the foot of the ladder to hear the King’s speech. “Lriends,” said +Caspian, “we have now fulfilled the quest on which you embarked. The seven +lords are all accounted for and as Sir Reepicheep has sworn never to return, +when you reach Ramandu’s Land you will doubtless find the Lords Revilian and +Argoz and Mavramorn awake. To you, my Lord Drinian, I entrust this ship, +bidding you sail to Narnia with all the speed you may, and above all not to land + + + +on the Island of Deathwater. And instruct my regent, the Dwarf Trumpkin, to +give to all these, my shipmates, the rewards I promised them. They have been +earned well. And if I come not again it is my will that the Regent, and Master +Cornelius, and Trufflehunter the Badger, and the Lord Drinian choose a King of +Narnia with the consent- 4 * + +“But, Sire,” interrupted Drinian, “are you abdicating?” + +“I am going with Reepicheep to see the World’s End,” said Caspian. + +A low murmur of dismay ran through the sailors. + +“We will take the boat,” said Caspian. “You will have no need of it in these +gentle seas and you must build a new one in Ramandu’s island. And now-“ + +“Caspian,” said Edmund suddenly and sternly, “you can’t do this.” + +“Most certainly,” said Reepicheep, “his Majesty cannot.” + +“No indeed,” said Drinian. + +“Can’t?” said Caspian sharply, looking for a moment not unlike his uncle +Miraz. + +“Begging your Majesty’s pardon,” said Rynelf from the deck below, “but if +one of us did the same it would be called deserting.” + +“You presume too much on your long service, Rynelf,” said Caspian. + +“No, Sire! He’s perfectly right,” said Drinian. + +“By the Mane of Aslan,” said Caspian, “I had thought you were all my +subjects here, not my schoolmasters.” + +“I’m not,” said Edmund, “and I say you can not do this.” + +“Can’t again,” said Caspian. “What do you mean?” + +“If it please your Majesty, we mean shall not,” said Reepicheep with a very +low bow. “You are the King of Narnia. You break faith with all your subjects, +and especially with Trumpkin, if you do not return. You shall not please yourself +with adventures as if you were a private person. And if your Majesty will not +hear reason it will be the truest loyalty of every man on board to follow me in +disarming and binding you till you come to your senses.” + +“Quite right,” said Edmund. “Like they did with Ulysses when he wanted to +go near the Sirens.” + +Caspian’s hand had gone to his sword hilt, when Lucy said, “And you’ve +almost promised Ramandu’s daughter to go back.” + +Caspian paused. “Well, yes. There is that,” he said. He stood irresolute for a +moment and then shouted out to the ship in general. + +“Well, have your way. The quest is ended. We all return. Get the boat up +again.” + +“Sire,” said Reepicheep, “we do not all return. I, as I explained before -“ + +“Silence!” thundered Caspian. “I’ve been lessoned but I’ll not be baited. Will + + + +no one silence that Mouse?” + +“Your Majesty promised,” said Reepicheep, “to be good lord to the Talking +Beasts of Narnia.” + +“Talking beasts, yes,” said Caspian. “I said nothing about beasts that never +stop talking.” And he flung down the ladder in a temper and went into the cabin, +slamming the door. + +But when the others rejoined him a little later they found him changed; he +was white and there were tears in his eyes. + +“It’s no good,” he said. “I might as well have behaved decently for all the +good I did with my temper and swagger. Aslan has spoken to me. No - I don’t +mean he was actually here. He wouldn’t fit into the cabin, for one thing. But that +gold lion’s head on the wall came to life and spoke to me. It was terrible his +eyes. Not that he was at all rough with me - only a bit stern at first. But it was +terrible all the same. And he said - he said - oh, I can’t bear it. The worst thing +he could have said. You’re to go on - Reep and Edmund, and Lucy, and Eustace; +and I’m to go back. Alone. And at once. And what is the good of anything?” + +“Caspian, dear,” said Lucy. “You knew we’d have to go back to our own +world sooner or later.” + +“Yes,” said Caspian with a sob, “but this is sooner.” + +“You’ll feel better when you get back to Ramandu’s Island,” said Lucy. + +He cheered up a little later on, but it was a grievous parting oo both sides and +I will not dwell on it. About two o’clock in the afternoon, well victualled and +watered (though they thought they would need neither food nor drink) and with +Reepicheep’s coracle on board, the boat pulled away from the Dawn Treader to +row through the endless carpet of lilies. The Dawn Trader flew all her flags and +hung out her shields to honour their departure. Tall and big and homelike she +looked from their low position with the lilies all round them. And before she was +out of sight they saw her turn and begin rowing slowly westward. Yet though +Lucy shed a few tears, she could not feel it as much as you might have expected. +The light, the silence, the tingling smell of the Silver Sea, even (in some odd +way) the loneliness itself, were too exciting. + +There was no need to row, for the current drifted them steadily to the east. +None of them slept or ate. All that night and all next day they glided eastward, +and when the third day dawned - with a brightness you or I could not bear even +if we had dark glasses on - they saw a wonder ahead. It was as if a wall stood up +between them and the sky, a greenish-grey, trembling, shimmering wall. Then up +came the sun, and at its first rising they saw it through the wall and it turned into +wonderful rainbow colours. Then they knew that the wall was really a long, tall +wave - a wave endlessly fixed in one place as you may often see at the edge of a + + + +waterfall. It seemed to be about thirty feet high, and the current was gliding them +swiftly towards it. You might have supposed they would have thought of their +danger. They didn’t. I don’t think anyone could have in their position. For now +they saw something not only behind the wave but behind the sun. They could not +have seen even the sun if their eyes had not been strengthened by the water of +the Last Sea. But now they could look at the rising sun and see it clearly and see +things beyond it. What they saw - eastward, beyond the sun - was a range of +mountains. It was so high that either they never saw the top of it or they forgot it. +None of them remembers seeing any sky in that direction. And the mountains +must really have been outside the world. For any mountains even a quarter of a +twentieth of that height ought to have had ice and snow on them. But these were +warm and green and full, of forests and waterfalls however high you looked. +And suddenly there came a breeze from the east, tossing the top of the wave into +foamy shapes and ruffling the smooth water all round them. It lasted only a +second or so but what it brought them in that second none of those three children +will ever forget. It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound Edmund +and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, “It would +break your heart.” “Why,” said I, “was it so sad: ” “Sad!! No,” said Lucy. + +No one in that boat doubted chat they were seeing beyond the End of the +World into Aslan’s country. + +At that moment, with a crunch, the boat ran aground. The water was too +shallow now for it. “This,” said Reepicheep, “is where I go on alone.” + +They did not even try to stop dim, for everything now felt as if it had been +fated or had happened before. They helped him to lower his little coracle. Then +he took off his sword (”I shall need it no more,” he said) and flung it far away +across the Idled sea. Where it fell it stood upright with the hilt above the surface. +Then he bade them goodbye trying to be sad for their sakes but he was quivering +with happiness. Lucy, for the first and last time, did what she had always wanted +to do, taking him in her arms and caressing him. Then hastily he got into his +coracle and took his paddle, and the current caught it and away he went, very +black against the lilies. But no lilies grew on the wave; it was a smooth green +slope. The coracle went more and more quickly, and beautifully it rushed up the +wave’s side. For one split second they saw its shape and Reepicheep’s on the +very top. Then it vanished, and since that moment no one can truly claim to have +seen Reepicheep the Mouse. But my belief is that he came safe to Aslan’s +country and is alive there to this day. + +As the sun rose the sight of those mountains outside the world faded away. +The wave remained but there was only blue sky behind it. + +The children got out of the boat and waded - not towards the wave but + + + +southward with the wall of water on their left. They could not have told you why +they did this; it was their fate. And though they had felt - and been very grown¬ +up on the Dawn Treader, they now felt just the opposite and held hands as they +waded through the lilies. They never felt tired. The water was warm and all the +time it got shallower. At last they were on dry sand, and then on grass - a huge +plain of very fine short grass, almost level with the Silver Sea and spreading in +every direction without so much as a molehill. + +And of course, as it always does in a perfectly flat place without trees, it +looked as if the sky came down to meet the grass in front of them. But as they +went on they got the strangest impression that here at last the sky did really +come down and join the earth - a blue wall, very bright, but real and solid: more +like glass than anything else. And soon they were quite sure of it. It was very +near now. + +But between them and the foot of the sky there was something so white on +the green grass that even with their eagles’ eyes they could hardly look at it. +They came on and saw that it was a Lamb. + +“Come and have breakfast,” said the Lamb in its sweet milky voice. + +Then they noticed for the first time that there was a fire lit on the grass and +fish roasting on it. They sat down and ate the fish, hungry now for the first time +for many days. And it was the most delicious food they had ever tasted. + +“Please, Lamb,” said Lucy, “is this the way to Aslan’s country?” + +“Not for you,” said the Lamb. “For you the door into Aslan’s country is from +your own world.” + +“What!” said Edmund. “Is there a way into Aslan’s country from our world +too?” + +“There is a way into my country from all the worlds,” said the Lamb; but as +he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he +was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane. + +“Oh, Aslan,” said Lucy. “Will you tell us how to get into your country from +our world?” + +“I shall be telling you all the time,” said Aslan. “But I will not tell you how +long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, +for I am the great Bridge Builder. And now come; I will open the door in the sky +and send you to your own land.” + +“Please, Aslan,” said Lucy. “Before we go, will you tell us when we can +come back to Narnia again? Please. And oh, do, do, do make it soon.” ‘ + +“Dearest,” said Aslan very gently, “you and your brother will never come +balk to Narnia.” + +“Oh, Aslan!!” said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices. + + + +“You are too old, children,” said Aslan, “and you must begin to come close +to your own world now.” + +“It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you +there. And how can we live, never meeting you?” + +“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan. + +“Are are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund. + +“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know +me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that +by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” + +“And is Eustace never to come back here either?” said Lucy. + +“Child,” said Aslan, “do you really need to know that? Come, I am opening +the door in the sky.” Then all in one moment there was a rending of the blue wall +(like a curtain being torn) and a terrible white light from beyond the sky, and the +feel of Aslan’s mane and a Lion’s kiss on their foreheads and then - the bark +bedroom in Aunt Alberta’s home in Cambridge. + +Only two more things need to be told. One is that Caspian and his men all +came safely back to Ramandu’s Island. And the three lords woke from their +sleep. Caspian married Ramandu’s daughter and they all reached Narnia in the +end, and she became a great queen and the mother and grandmother of great +kings. The other is that back in our own world everyone soon started saying how +Eustace had improved, and how “You’d never know him for the same boy”: +everyone except Aunt Alberta, who said he had become very commonplace and +tiresome and it must have been the influence of those Pevensie children. + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +BEHIND THE GYM + +IT was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym. + +She was crying because they had been bullying her. This is not going to be a +school story, so I shall say as little as possible about Jill’s school, which is not a +pleasant subject. It was “Co-educational,” a school for both boys and girls, what +used to be called a “mixed” school; some said it was not nearly so mixed as the +minds of the people who ran it. These people had the idea that boys and girls +should be allowed to do what they liked. And unfortunately what ten or fifteen +of the biggest boys and girls liked best was bullying the others. All sorts of +things, horrid things, went on which at an ordinary school would have been +found out and stopped in half a term; but at this school they weren’t. Or even if +they were, the people who did them were not expelled or punished. The Head +said they were interesting psychological cases and sent for them and talked to +them for hours. And if you knew the right sort of things to say to the Head, the +main result was that you became rather a favourite than otherwise. + +That was why Jill Pole was crying on that dull autumn day on the damp little +path which runs between the back of the gym and the shrubbery. And she hadn’t +nearly finished her cry when a boy came round the corner of the gym whistling, +with his hands in his pockets. He nearly ran into her. + +“Can’t you look where you’re going?” said Jill Pole. + +“All right,” said the boy, “you needn’t start and then he noticed her face. +“I say, Pole,” he said, “what’s up?” + +Jill only made faces; the sort you make when you’re trying to say something +but find that if you speak you’ll start crying again. + +“It’s Them, I suppose - as usual,” said the boy grimly, digging his hands +farther into his pockets. + +Jill nodded. There was no need for her to say anything, even if she could +have said it. They both knew. + +“Now, look here,” said the boy, “there’s no good us all -“ + +He meant well, but he did talk rather like someone beginning a lecture. Jill +suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have +been interrupted in a cry). + +“Oh, go away and mind your own business,” she said. “Nobody asked you to +come barging in, did they? And you’re a nice person to start telling us what we +all ought to do, aren’t you? I suppose you mean we ought to spend all our time + + + +sucking up to Them, and currying favour, and dancing attendance on Them like +you do.” + +“Oh, Lor!” said the boy, sitting down on the grassy bank at the edge of the +shrubbery and very quickly getting up again because the grass was soaking wet. +His name unfortunately was Eustace Scmbb, but he wasn’t a bad sort. + +“Pole!” he said. “Is that fair? Have I been doing anything of the sort this +term? Didn’t I stand up to Carter about the rabbit? And didn’t I keep the secret +about Spiwins - under torture too? And didn’t I -“ + +“I d-don’t know and I don’t care,” sobbed Jill. + +Scrubb saw that she wasn’t quite herself yet and very sensibly offered her a +peppermint. He had one too. Presently Jill began to see things in a clearer light. + +“I’m sorry, Scrubb,” she said presently. “I wasn’t fair. You have done all that +- this term.” + +“Then wash out last term if you can,” said Eustace. “I was a different chap +then. I was - gosh! what a little tick I was.” + +“Well, honestly, you were,” said Jill. + +“You think there has been a change, then?” said Eustace. + +“It’s not only me,” said Jill. “Everyone’s been saying so. They’ve noticed it. +Eleanor Blakiston heard Adela Pennyfather talking about it in our changing +room yesterday. She said, 'Someone’s got hold of that Scrubb kid. He’s quite +unmanageable this term. We shall have to attend to him next.’” + +Eustace gave a shudder. Everyone at Experiment House knew what it was +like being “attended to” by Them. + +Both children were quiet for a moment. The drops dripped off the laurel +leaves. + +“Why were you so different last term?” said Jill presently. + +“A lot of queer things happened to me in the hols,” said Eustace +mysteriously. + +“What sort of things?” asked Jill. + +Eustace didn’t say anything for quite a long time. Then he said: + +“Look here, Pole, you and I hate this place about as much as anybody can +hate anything, don’t we?” + +“I know I do,” said Jill. + +“Then I really think I can trust you.” + +“Dam’ good of you,” said Jill. + +“Yes, but this is a really terrific secret. Pole, I say, are you good at believing +things? I mean things that everyone here would laugh at?” + +“I’ve never had the chance,” said Jill, “but I think I would be.” + +“Could you believe me if I said I’d been right out of the world - outside this + + + +world - last hols?” + +“I wouldn’t know what you meant.” + +“Well, don’t let’s bother about that then. Supposing I told you I’d been in a +place where animals can talk and where there are - er - enchantments and +dragons - and well, all the sorts of things you have in fairy-tales.” Scrubb felt +terribly awkward as he said this and got red in the face. + +“How did you get there?” said Jill. She also felt curiously shy. + +“The only way you can - by Magic,” said Eustace almost in a whisper. “I was +with two cousins of mine. We were just - whisked away. They’d been there +before.” + +Now that they were talking in whispers Jill somehow felt it easier to believe. +Then suddenly a horrible suspicion came over her and she said (so fiercely that +for the moment she looked like a tigress): + +“If I find you’ve been pulling my leg I’ll never speak to you again; never, +never, never.” + +“I’m not,” said Eustace. “I swear I’m not. I swear by everything.” + +(When I was at school one would have said, “I swear by the Bible.” But +Bibles were not encouraged at Experiment House.) + +“All right,” said Jill, “I’ll believe you.” + +“And tell nobody?” + +“What do you take me for?” + +They were very excited as they said this. But when they had said it and Jill +looked round and saw the dull autumn sky and heard the drip off the leaves and +thought of all the hopelessness of Experiment House (it was a thirteen-week +term and there were still eleven weeks to come) she said: + +“But after all, what’s the good? We’re not there: we’re here. And we jolly +well can’t get there. Or can we?” + +“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” said Eustace. “When we came back +from That Place, Someone said that the two Pevensie kids (that’s my two +cousins) could never go there again. It was their third time, you see. I suppose +they’ve had their share. But he never said I couldn’t. Surely he would have said +so, unless he meant that I was to get back? And I can’t help wondering, can we - +could we -?” + +“Do you mean, do something to make it happen?” + +Eustace nodded. + +“You mean we might draw a circle on the ground - and write in queer letters +in it - and stand inside it - and recite charms and spells?” + +“Well,” said Eustace after he had thought hard for a bit. “I believe that was +the sort of thing I was thinking of, though I never did it. But now that it comes to + + + +the point, I’ve an idea that all those circles and things are rather rot. I don’t think +he’d like them. It would look as if we thought we could make him do things. But +really, we can only ask him.” + +“Who is this person you keep on talking about?” + +“They call him Aslan in That Place,” said Eustace. + +“What a curious name! ” + +“Not half so curious as himself,” said Eustace solemnly. “But let’s get on. It +can’t do any harm, just asking. Let’s stand side by side, like this. And we’ll hold +out our arms in front of us with the palms down: like they did in Ramandu’s +island -“ + +“Whose island?” + +“I’ll tell you about that another time. And he might like us to face the east. +Let’s see, where is the east?” + +“I don’t know,” said Jill. + +“It’s an extraordinary thing about girls that they never know the points of the +compass,” said Eustace. + +“You don’t know either,” said Jill indignantly. + +“Yes I do, if only you didn’t keep on interrupting. I’ve got it now. That’s the +east, facing up into the laurels. Now, will you say the words after me?” + +“What words?” asked Jill. + +“The words I’m going to say, of course,” answered Eustace. “Now -“ + +And he began, “Aslan, Aslan, Aslan!” + +“Aslan, Aslan, Aslan,” repeated Jill. + +“Please let us two go into -“ + +At that moment a voice from the other side of the gym was heard shouting +out, “Pole? Yes. I know where she is. She’s blubbing behind the gym. Shall I +fetch her out?” + +Jill and Eustace gave one glance at each other, dived under the laurels, and +began scrambling up the steep, earthy slope of the shrubbery at a speed which +did them great credit. (Owing to the curious methods of teaching at Experiment +House, one did not learn much French or Maths or Latin or things of that sort; +but one did learn a lot about getting away quickly and quietly when They were +looking for one.) + +After about a minute’s scramble they stopped to listen, and knew by the +noises they heard that they were being followed. + +“If only the door was open again!” said Scrubb as they went on, and Jill +nodded. For at the top of the shrubbery was a high stone wall and in that wall a +door by which you could get out on to open moor. This door was nearly always +locked. But there had been times when people had found it open; or perhaps + + + +there had been only one time. But you may imagine how the memory of even +one time kept people hoping, and trying the door; for if it should happen to be +unlocked it would be a splendid way of getting outside the school grounds +without being seen. + +Jill and Eustace, now both very hot and very grubby from going along bent +almost double under the laurels, panted up to the wall. And there was the door, +shut as usual. + +“It’s sure to be no good,” said Eustace with his hand on the handle; and then, +“O-o-oh. By Gum!!” For the handle turned and the door opened. + +A moment before, both of them had meant to get through that doorway in +double quick time, if by any chance the door was not locked. But when the door +actually opened, they both stood stock still. For what they saw was quite +different from what they had expected. + +They had expected to see the grey, heathery slope of the moor going up and +up to join the dull autumn sky. Instead, a blaze of sunshine met them. It poured +through the doorway as the light of a June day pours into a garage when you +open the door. It made the drops of water on the grass glitter like beads and +showed up the dirtiness of Jill’s tear-stained face. And the sunlight was coming +from what certainly did look like a different world - what they could see of it. +They saw smooth turf, smoother and brighter than Jill had ever seen before, and +blue sky, and, darting to and fro, things so bright that they might have been +jewels or huge butterflies. + +Although she had been longing for something like this, Jill felt frightened. +She looked at Scrubb’s face and saw that he was frightened too. + +“Come on, Pole,” he said in a breathless voice. + +“Can we get back? Is it safe?” asked Jill. + +At that moment a voice shouted from behind, a mean, spiteful little voice. +“Now then, Pole,” it squeaked. “Everyone knows you’re there. Down you +come.” It was the voice of Edith Jackie, not one of Them herself but one of their +hangers-on and tale-bearers. + +“Quick!” said Scrubb. “Here. Hold hands. We mustn’t get separated.” And +before she quite knew what was happening, he had grabbed her hand and pulled +her through the door, out of the school grounds, out of England, out of our whole +world into That Place. + +The sound of Edith Jackie’s voice stopped as suddenly as the voice on the +radio when it is switched off. Instantly there was a quite different sound all about +them. It came from those bright things overhead, which now turned out to be +birds. They were making a riotous noise, but it was much more like music - +rather advanced music which you don’t quite take in at the first hearing - than + + + +birds’ songs ever are in our world. Yet, in spite of the singing, there was a sort of +background of immense silence. That silence, combined with the freshness of +the air, made Jill think they must be on the top of a very high mountain. + +Scrubb still had her by the hand and they were walking forward, staring +about them on every side. Jill saw that huge trees, rather like cedars but bigger, +grew in every direction. But as they did not grow close together, and as there +was no undergrowth, this did not prevent one from seeing a long way into the +forest to left and right. And as far as Jill’s eye could reach, it was all the same - +level turf, darting birds with yellow, or dragonfly blue, or rainbow plumage, blue +shadows, and emptiness. There was not a breath of wind in that cool, bright air. +It was a very lonely forest. + +Right ahead there were no trees: only blue sky. They went straight on +without speaking till suddenly Jill heard Scrubb say, “Look out!” and felt herself +jerked back. They were at the very edge of a cliff. + +Jill was one of those lucky people who have a good head for heights. She +didn’t mind in the least standing on the edge of a precipice. She was rather +annoyed with Scrubb for pulling her back - “just as if I was a kid”, she said and +she wrenched her hand out of his. When she saw how very white he had turned, +she despised him. + +“What’s the matter?” she said. And to show that she was not afraid, she stood +very near the edge indeed; in fact, a good deal nearer than even she liked. Then +she looked down. + +She now realized that Scrubb had some excuse for looking white, for no cliff +in our world is to be compared with this. Imagine yourself at the top of the very +highest cliff you know. And imagine yourself looking down to the very bottom. +And then imagine that the precipice goes on below that, as far again, ten times as +far, twenty times as far. And when you’ve looked down all that distance imagine +little white things that might, at first glance, be mistaken for sheep, but presently +you realize that they are clouds - not little wreaths of mist but the enormous +white, puffy clouds which are themselves as big as most mountains. And at last, +in between those clouds, you get your first glimpse of the real bottom, so far +away that you can’t make out whether it’s field or wood, or land or water: farther +below those clouds than you are above them. + +Jill stared at it. Then she thought that perhaps, after all, she would step back +afoot or so from the edge; but she didn’t like to for fear of what Scrubb would +think. Then she suddenly decided that she didn’t care what he thought, and that +she would jolly well get away from that horrible edge and never laugh at anyone +for not liking heights again. But when she tried to move, she found she couldn’t. +Her legs seemed to have turned into putty. Everything was swimming before her + + + +eyes. + +“What are you doing, Pole? Come back-blithering little idiot!” shouted +Scrubb. But his voice seemed to he coming from a long way off. She felt him +grabbing at her. But by now she had no control over her own arms and legs. +There was a moment’s struggling on the cliff edge. Jill was too frightened and +dizzy to know quite what she was doing, but two things she remembered as long +as she lived (they often came back to her in dreams). One was that she had +wrenched herself free of Scrubb’s clutches; the other was that, at the same +moment, Scrubb himself, with a terrified scream, had lost his balance and gone +hurtling to the depths. + +Fortunately, she was given no time to think over what she had done. Some +huge, brightly coloured animal had rushed to the edge of the cliff. It was lying +down, leaning over, and (this was the odd thing) blowing. Not roaring or +snorting, but just blowing from its wide-opened mouth; blowing out as steadily +as a vacuum cleaner sucks in. Jill was lying so close to the creature that she +could feel the breath vibrating steadily through its body. She was lying still +because she couldn’t get up. She was nearly fainting: indeed, she wished she +could really faint, but faints don’t come for the asking. At last she saw, far away +below her, a tiny black speck floating away from the cliff and slightly upwards. +As it rose, it also got farther away. By the time it was nearly on a level with the +cliff-top it was so far off that she lost sight of it. It was obviously moving away +from them at a great speed. Jill couldn’t help thinking that the creature at her +side was blowing it away. + +So she turned and looked at the creature. It was a lion. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +JILL IS GIVEN A TASK + +WITHOUT a glance at Jill the lion rose to its feet and gave one last blow. +Then, as if satisfied with its work, it turned and stalked slowly away, back into +the forest. + +“It must be a dream, it must, it must,” said Jill to herself. “Til wake up in a +moment.” But it wasn’t, and she didn’t. + +“I do wish we’d never come to this dreadful place,” said Jill. “I don’t believe +Scrubb knew any more about it than I do. Or if he did, he had no business to +bring me here without warning me what it was like. It’s not my fault he fell over +that cliff. If he’d left me alone we should both be all right.” Then she +remembered again the scream that Scrubb had given when he fell, and burst into +tears. + +Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or +later, and then you still have to decide what to do. When Jill stopped, she found +she was dreadfully thirsty. She had been lying face downward, and now she sat +up. The birds had ceased singing and there was perfect silence except for one +small, persistent sound, which seemed to come from a good distance away. She +listened carefully, and felt almost sure it was the sound of running water. + +Jill got up and looked round her very carefully. There was no sign of the lion; +but there were so many trees about that it might easily be quite close without her +seeing it. For all she knew, there might be several lions. But her thirst was very +bad now, and she plucked up her courage to go and look for that running water. +She went on tiptoes, stealing cautiously from tree to tree, and stopping to peer +round her at every step. + +The wood was so still that it was not difficult to decide where the sound was +coming from. It grew clearer every moment and, sooner than she expected, she +came to an open glade and saw the stream, bright as glass, running across the +turf a stone’s throw away from her. But although the sight of the water made her +feel ten times thirstier than before, she didn’t rush forward and drink. She stood +as still as if she had been turned into stone, with her mouth wide open. And she +had a very good reason; just on this side of the stream lay the lion. + +It lay with its head raised and its two fore-paws out in front of it, like the +lions in Trafalgar Square. She knew at once that it had seen her, for its eyes +looked straight into hers for a moment and then turned away - as if it knew her +quite well and didn’t think much of her. + + + +“If I run away, it’ll be after me in a moment,” thought Jill. “And if I go on, I +shall run straight into its mouth.” Anyway, she couldn’t have moved if she had +tried, and she couldn’t take her eyes off it. How long this lasted, she could not be +sure; it seemed like hours. And the thirst became so bad that she almost felt she +would not mind being eaten by the lion if only she could be sure of getting a +mouthful of water first. + +“If you’re thirsty, you may drink.” + +They were the first words she had heard since Scrubb had spoken to her on +the edge of the cliff. For a second she stared here and there, wondering who had +spoken. Then the voice said again, “If you are thirsty, come and drink,” and of +course she remembered what Scrubb had said about animals talking in that other +world, and realized that it was the lion speaking. Anyway, she had seen its lips +move this time, and the voice was not like a man’s. It was deeper, wilder, and +stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened +than she had been before, but it made her frightened in rather a different way. + +“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion. + +“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill. + +“Then drink,” said the Lion. + +“May I - could I - would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill. + +The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill +gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the +whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. + +The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. + +“Will you promise not to - do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill. + +“I make no promise,” said the Lion. + +Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. + +“Do you eat girls?” she said. + +“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, +cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if +it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it. + +“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill. + +“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. + +“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and +look for another stream then.” + +“There is no other stream,” said the Lion. + +It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion - no one who had seen his +stern face could do that - and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst +thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, +and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing + + + +water she had ever tasted. You didn’t need to drink much of it, for it quenched +your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash +away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now, she realized that this +would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all. She got up and stood +there with her lips still wet from drinking. + +“Come here,” said the Lion. And she had to. She was almost between its +front paws now, looking straight into its face. But she couldn’t stand that for +long; she dropped her eyes. + +“Human Child,” said the Lion. “Where is the Boy?” + +“He fell over the cliff,” said Jill, and added, “Sir.” She didn’t know what else +to call him, and it sounded cheek to call him nothing. + +“How did he come to do that, Human Child?” + +“He was trying to stop me from falling, Sir.” + +“Why were you so near the edge, Human Child?” + +“I was showing off, Sir.” + +“That is a very good answer, Human Child. Do so no more. And now” (here +for the first time the Lion’s face became a little less stern) “the boy is safe. I have +blown him to Narnia. But your task will be the harder because of what you have +done.” + +“Please, what task, Sir?” said Jill. + +“The task for which I called you and him here out of your own world.” + +This puzzled Jill very much. “It’s mistaking me for someone else,” she +thought. She didn’t dare to tell the Lion this, though she felt things would get +into a dreadful muddle unless she did. + +“Speak your thought, Human Child,” said the Lion. + +“I was wondering - I mean - could there be some mistake? Because nobody +called me and Scmbb, you know. It was we who asked to come here. Scrubb said +we were to call to - to Somebody - it was a name I wouldn’t know - and perhaps +the Somebody would let us in. And we did, and then we found the door open.’ + +“You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,” said the +Lion. + +“Then you are Somebody, Sir?” said Jill. + +“I am. And now hear your task. Far from here in the land of Narnia there +lives an aged king who is sad because he has no prince of his blood to be king +after him. He has no heir because his only son was stolen from him many years +ago, and no one in Narnia knows where that prince went or whether he is still +alive. But he is. I lay on you this command, that you seek this lost prince until +either you have found him and brought him to his father’s house, or else died in +the attempt, or else gone back into your own world.” + + + +“How, please?” said Jill. + +“I will tell you, Child,” said the Lion. “These are the signs by which I will +guide you in your quest. First; as soon as the Boy Eustace sets foot in Narnia, he +will meet an old and dear friend. He must greet that friend at once; if he does, +you will both have good help. Second; you must journey out of Narnia to the +north till you come to the ruined city of the ancient giants. Third; you shall find a +writing on a stone in that ruined city, and you must do what the writing tells you. +Fourth; you will know the lost prince (if you find him) by this, that he will be the +first person you have met in your travels who will ask you to do something in +my name, in the name of Aslan.” + +As the Lion seemed to have finished, Jill thought she should say something. +So she said, “Thank you very much. I see.” + +“Child,” said Aslan, in a gentler voice than he had yet used, “perhaps you do +not see quite as well as you think. But the first step is to remember. Repeat to +me, in order, the four signs.” + +Jill tried, and didn’t get them quite right. So the Lion corrected her, and made +her repeat them again and again till she could say them perfectly. He was very +patient over this, so that, when it was done, Jill plucked up courage to ask: + +“Please, how am I to get to Narnia?” + +“On my breath,” said the Lion. “I will blow you into the west of the world as +I blew Eustace.” + +“Shall I catch him in time to tell him the first sign? But I suppose it won’t +matter. If he sees an old friend, he’s sure to go and speak to him, isn’t he?” + +“You will have no time to spare,” said the Lion. “That is why I must send +you at once. Come. Walk before me to the edge of the cliff.” + +Jill remembered very well that if there was no time to spare, that was her +own fault. “If I hadn’t made such a fool of myself, Scrubb and I would have +been going together. And he’d have heard all the instructions as well as me,” she +thought. So she did as she was told. It was very alarming walking back to the +edge of the cliff, especially as the Lion did not walk with her but behind her - +making no noise on his soft paws. + +But long before she had got anywhere near the edge, the voice behind her +said, “Stand still. In a moment I will blow. But, first, remember, remember, +remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and +when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And +whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from +following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I +have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the +mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, + + + +the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the +signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to +look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by +heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the +signs. Nothing else matters. And now, daughter of Eve, farewell + +The voice had been growing softer towards the end of this speech and now it +faded away altogether. Jill looked behind her. To her astonishment she saw the +cliff already more than a hundred yards behind her, and the Lion himself a speck +of bright gold on the edge of it. She had been setting her teeth and clenching her +fists for a terrible blast of lion’s breath; but the breath had really been so gentle +that she had not even noticed the moment at which she left the earth. And now, +there was nothing but air for thousands upon thousands of feet below her. + +She felt frightened only for a second. For one thing, the world beneath her +was so very far away that it seemed to have nothing to do with her. For another, +floating on the breath of the Lion was so extremely comfortable. She found she +could lie on her back or on her face and twist any way she pleased, just as you +can in water (if you’ve learned to float really well). And because she was +moving at the same pace as the breath, there was no wind, and the air seemed +beautifully warm. It was not in the least like being in an aeroplane, because there +was no noise and no vibration. If Jill had ever been in a balloon she might have +thought it more like that; only better. + +When she looked back now she could take in for the first time the real size of +the mountain she was leaving. She wondered why a mountain so huge as that +was not covered with snow and ice - “but I suppose all that sort of thing is +different in this world,” thought Jill. Then she looked below her; but she was so +high that she couldn’t make out whether she was floating over land or sea, nor +what speed she was going at. + +“By Jove! The signs!” said Jill suddenly. “I’d better repeat them.” She was in +a panic for a second or two, but she found she could still say them all correctly. +“So that’s all right,” she said, and lay back on the air as if it was a sofa, with a +sigh of contentment. + +“Well, I do declare,” said Jill to herself some hours later, “I’ve been asleep. +Fancy sleeping on air. I wonder if anyone’s done it before. I don’t suppose they +have. Oh bother - Scrubb probably has! On this same journey, a little bit before +me. Let’s see what it looks like down below.” + +What it looked like was an enormous, very dark blue plain. There were no +hills to be seen; but there were biggish white things moving slowly across it. +“Those must be clouds,” she thought. “But far bigger than the ones we saw from +the cliff. I suppose they’re bigger because they’re nearer. I must be getting lower. + + + +Bother this sun.” + +The sun which had been high overhead when she began her journey was now +getting into her eyes. This meant that it was getting lower, ahead of her. Scrubb +was quite right in saying that Jill (I don’t know about girls in general) didn’t +think much about points of the compass. Otherwise she would have known, +when the sun began getting in her eyes, that she was travelling pretty nearly due +west. + +Staring at the blue plain below her, she presently noticed that there were little +dots of brighter, paler colour in it here and there. “It’s the sea!” thought Jill. “I do +believe those are islands.” And so they were. She might have felt rather jealous +if she had known that some of them were islands which Scrubb had seen from a +ship’s deck and even landed on; but she didn’t know this. Then, later on, she +began to see that there were little wrinkles on the blue flatness: little wrinkles +which must be quite big ocean waves if you were down among them. And now, +all along the horizon there was a thick dark line which grew thicker and darker +so quickly that you could see it growing. That was the first sign she had had of +the great speed at which she was travelling. And she knew that the thickening +line must be land. + +Suddenly from her left (for the wind was in the south) a great white cloud +came rushing towards her, this time on the same level as herself. And before she +knew where she was, she had shot right into the middle of its cold, wet +fogginess. That took her breath away, but she was in it only for a moment. She +came out blinking in the sunlight and found her clothes wet. (She had on a blazer +and sweater and shorts and stockings and pretty thick shoes; it had been a muddy +sort of day in England.) She came out lower than she had gone in; and as soon as +she did so she noticed something which, I suppose, she ought to have been +expecting, but which came as a surprise and a shock. It was Noises. Up till then +she had travelled in total silence. Now, for the first time, she heard the noise of +waves and the crying of seagulls. And now, too, she smelled the smell of the sea. +There was no mistake about her speed now. She saw two waves meet with a +smack and a spout of foam go up between them; but she had hardly seen it +before it was a hundred yards behind her. The land was getting nearer at a great +pace. She could see mountains far inland, and other nearer mountains on her left. +She could see bays and headlands, woods and fields, stretches of sandy beach. +The sound of waves breaking on the shore was growing louder every second and +drowning the other sea noises. + +Suddenly the land opened right ahead of her. She was coming to the mouth +of a river. She was very low now, only a few feet above the water. A wave-top +came against her toe and a great splash of foam spurted up, drenching her nearly + + + +to the waist. Now she was losing speed. Instead of being carried up the river she +was gliding in to the river bank on her left. There were so many things to notice +that she could hardly take them all in; a smooth, green lawn, a ship so brightly +coloured that it looked like an enormous piece of jewellery, towers and +battlements, banners fluttering in the air, a crowd, gay clothes, armour, gold, +swords, a sound of music. But this was all jumbled. The first thing that she knew +clearly was that she had alighted and was standing under a thicket of trees close +by the river side, and there, only a few feet away from her, was Scrubb. + +The first thing she thought was how very grubby and untidy and generally +unimpressive he looked. And the second was “How wet I am!” + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +THE SAILING OF THE KING + +WHAT made Scrubb look so dingy (and Jill too, if she could only have seen +herself) was the splendour of their surroundings. I had better describe them at +once. + +Through a cleft in those mountains which Jill had seen far inland as she +approached the land, the sunset light was pouring over a level lawn. On the far +side of the lawn, its weather-vanes glittering in the light, rose a many-towered +and many-turreted castle; the most beautiful castle Jill had ever seen. On the near +side was a quay of white marble and, moored to this, the ship: a tall ship with +high forecastle and high poop, gilded and crimson, with a great flag at the mast¬ +head, and many banners waving from the decks, and a row of shields, bright as +silver, along the bulwarks. The gang-plank was laid to her, and at the foot of it, +just ready to go on board, stood an old, old man. He wore a rich mantle of scarlet +which opened in front to show his silver mail shirt. There was a thin circlet of +gold on his head. His beard, white as wool, fell nearly to his waist. He stood +straight enough, leaning one hand on the shoulder of a richly dressed lord who +seemed younger than himself: but you could see he was very old and frail. He +looked as if a puff of wind could blow him away, and his eyes were watery. + +Immediately in front of the King - who had turned round to speak to his +people before going on board the ship - there was a little chair on wheels, and, +harnessed to it, a little donkey: not much bigger than a big retriever. In this chair +sat a fat little dwarf. He was as richly dressed as the King, but because of his +fatness and because he was sitting hunched up among cushions, the effect was +quite different: it made him look like a shapeless little bundle of fur and silk and +velvet. He was as old as the King, but more hale and hearty, with very keen eyes. +His bare head, which was bald and extremely large, shone like a gigantic billiard +ball in the sunset light. + +Farther back, in a half-circle, stood what Jill at once knew to be the courtiers. +They were well worth looking at for their clothes and armour alone. As far as +that went, they looked more like a flower-bed than a crowd. But what really +made Jill open her eyes and mouth as wide as they would go, was the people +themselves. If “people” was the right word. For only about one in every five was +human. The rest were things you never see in our world. Fauns, satyrs, centaurs: +Jill could give a name to these, for she had seen pictures of them. Dwarfs too. +And there were a lot of animals she knew as well; bears, badgers, moles, + + + +leopards, mice, and various birds. But then they were so very different from the +animals which one called by the same names in England. Some of them were +much bigger - the mice, for instance, stood on their hind legs and were over two +feet high. But quite apart from that, they all looked different. You could see by +the expression in their faces that they could talk and think just as well as you +could. + +“Golly!” thought Jill. “So it’s true after all.” But next moment she added, “I +wonder are they friendly?” For she had just noticed, on the outskirts of the +crowd, one or two giants and some people whom she couldn’t give a name to at +all. + +At that moment Aslan and the signs rushed back into her mind. She had +forgotten all about them for the last half-hour. + +“Scrubb!” she whispered, grabbing his arm. “Scrubb, quick! Do you see +anyone you know?” + +“So you’ve turned up again, have you?” said Scrubb disagreeably (for which +he had some reason). “Well, keep quiet, can’t you? I want to listen.” + +“Don’t be a fool,” said Jill. “There isn’t a moment to lose. Don’t you see +some old friend here? Because you’ve got to go and speak to him at once.” + +“What are you talking about?” said Scrubb. + +“It’s Aslan - the Lion - says you’ve got to,” said Jill despairingly. “I’ve seen +him.” + +“Oh, you have, have you? What did he say?” + +“He said the very first person you saw in Narnia would be an old friend, and +you’d got to speak to him at once.” + +“Well, there’s nobody here I’ve ever seen in my life before; and anyway, I +don’t know whether this is Narnia.” + +“Thought you said you’d been here before,” said Jill. + +“Well, you thought wrong then.” + +“Well, I like that! You told me -“ + +“For heaven’s sake dry up and let’s hear what they’re saying.” + +The King was speaking to the Dwarf, but Jill couldn’t hear what he said. +And, as far as she could make out, the Dwarf made no answer, though he nodded +and wagged his head a great deal. Then the King raised his voice and addressed +the whole court: but his voice was so old and cracked that she could understand +very little of his speech - especially since it was all about people and places she +had never heard of. When the speech was over, the King stooped down and +kissed the Dwarf on both cheeks, straightened himself, raised his right hand as if +in blessing, and went, slowly and with feeble steps, up the gangway and on +board the ship. The courtiers appeared to be greatly moved by his departure. + + + +Handkerchiefs were got out, sounds of sobbing were heard in every direction. +The gangway was cast off, trumpets sounded from the poop, and the ship moved +away from the quay. (It was being towed by a rowing-boat, but Jill didn’t see +that.) + +“Now said Scrubb, but he didn’t get any farther, because at that moment a +large white object - Jill thought for a second that it was a kite - came gliding +through the air and alighted at his feet. It was a white owl, but so big that it stood +as high as a good-sized dwarf. + +It blinked and peered as if it were short-sighted, and put its head a little on +one side, and said in a soft, hooting kind of voice: + +“Tu-whoo, tu-whoo! Who are you two?” + +“My name’s Scrubb, and this is Pole,” said Eustace. “Would you mind telling +us where we are?” + +“In the land of Narnia, at the King’s castle of Cair Paravel.” + +“Is that the King who’s just taken ship?” + +“Too true, too true,” said the Owl sadly, shaking its big head. “But who are +you? There’s something magic about you two. I saw you arrive: you flew. +Everyone else was so busy seeing the King off that nobody knew. Except me. I +happened to notice you, you flew.” + +“We were sent here by Aslan,” said Eustace in a low voice. + +“Tu-whoo, tu-whoo!” said the Owl, ruffling out its feathers. “This is almost +too much for me, so early in the evening. I’m not quite myself till the sun’s +down.” + +“And we’ve been sent to find the lost Prince,” said Jill, who had been +anxiously waiting to get into the conversation. + +“It’s the first I’ve heard about it,” said Eustace. “What prince?” + +“You had better come and speak to the Lord Regent at once,” it said. “That’s +him, over there in the donkey carriage; Trumpkin the Dwarf.” The bird turned +and began leading the way, muttering to itself, “Whoo! Tu-whoo! What a to-do! +I can’t think clearly yet. It’s too early.” + +“What is the King’s name?” asked Eustace. + +“Caspian the Tenth,” said the Owl. And Jill wondered why Scrubb had +suddenly pulled up short in his walk and turned an extraordinary colour. She +thought she had never seen him look so sick about anything. But before she had +time to ask any questions they had reached the dwarf, who was just gathering up +the reins of his donkey and preparing to drive back to the castle. The crowd of +courtiers had broken up and were going in the same direction, by ones and twos +and little knots, like people coming away from watching a game or a race. + +“Tu-whoo! Ahem! Lord Regent,” said the Owl, stooping down a little and + + + +holding its beak near the Dwarf’s ear. + +“Heh? What’s that?” said the Dwarf. + +“Two strangers, my lord,” said the Owl. + +“Rangers! What d’ye mean?” said the Dwarf. “I see two uncommonly +gmbby man-cubs. What do they want?” + +“My name’s Jill,” said Jill, pressing forward. She was very eager to explain +the important business on which they had come. + +“The girl’s called Jill,” said the Owl, as loud as it could. + +“What’s that?” said the Dwarf. “The girls are all killed! I don’t believe a +word of it. What girls? Who killed 'em?” + +“Only one girl, my lord,” said the Owl. “Her name is Jill.” + +“Speak up, speak up,” said the Dwarf. “Don’t stand there buzzing and +twittering in my ear. Who’s been killed?” + +“Nobody’s been killed,” hooted the Owl. + +“Who?” + +“NOBODY.” + +“All right, all right. You needn’t shout. I’m not so deaf as all that. What do +you mean by coming here to tell me that nobody’s been killed? Why should +anyone have been killed?” + +“Better tell him I’m Eustace,” said Scrubb. + +“The boy’s Eustace, my lord,” hooted the Owl as loud as it could. + +“Useless?” said the Dwarf irritably. “I dare say he is. Is that any reason for +bringing him to court? Hey?” + +“Not useless,” said the Owl. “EUSTACE.” + +“Used to it, is he? I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m sure. I tell +you what it is, Master Glimfeather; when I was a young Dwarf there used to be +talking beasts and birds in this country who really could talk. There wasn’t all +this mumbling and muttering and whispering. It wouldn’t have been tolerated for +a moment. Not for a moment, Sir. Urnus, my trumpet please -“ + +A little Faun who had been standing quietly beside the Dwarf’s elbow all this +time now handed him a silver eartrumpet. It was made like the musical +instrument called a serpent, so that the tube curled right round the Dwarf’s neck. +While he was getting it settled the Owl, Glimfeather, suddenly said to the +children in a whisper: + +“My brain’s a bit clearer now. Don’t say anything about the lost Prince. I’ll +explain later. It wouldn’t do, wouldn’t do, Tu-Whoo! Oh what a to-do!” + +“Now,” said the Dwarf, “if you have anything sensible to say, Master +Glimfeather, try and say it. Take a deep breath and don’t attempt to speak too +quickly.” + + + +With help from the children, and in spite of a fit of coughing on the part of +the Dwarf, Glimfeather explained that the strangers had been sent by Aslan to +visit the court of Narnia. The Dwarf glanced quickly up at them with a new +expression in his eyes. + +“Sent by the Lion Himself, hey?” he said. “And from nTm - from that other +Place - beyond the world’s end, hey?” + +“Yes, my lord,” bawled Eustace into the trumpet. + +“Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve, hey?” said the Dwarf. But people at +Experiment House haven’t heard of Adam and Eve, so Jill and Eustace couldn’t +answer this. But the Dwarf didn’t seem to notice. + +“Well, my dears,” he said, taking first one and then the other by the hand and +bowing his head a little. “You are very heartily welcome. If the good King, my +poor Master, had not this very hour set sail for Seven Isles, he would have been +glad of your coming. It would have brought back his youth to him for a moment +- for a moment. And now, it is high time for supper. You shall tell me your +business in full council tomorrow morning. Master Glimfeather, see that +bedchambers and suitable clothes and all else are provided for these guests in the +most honourable fashion. And - Glimfeather - in your ear -“ + +Here the Dwarf put his mouth close to the Owl’s head and, no doubt, +intended to whisper: but, like other deaf people, he wasn’t a very good judge of +his own voice, and both children heard him say, “See that they’re properly +washed.” + +After that, the Dwarf touched up his donkey and it set off towards the castle +at something between a trot and a waddle (it was a very fat little beast), while the +Faun, the Owl, and the children followed at a rather slower pace. The sun had set +and the air was growing cool. + +They went across the lawn and then through an orchard and so to the North +Gate of Cair Paravel, which stood wide open. Inside, they found a grassy +courtyard. Lights were already showing from the windows of the great hall on +their right and from a more complicated mass of buildings straight ahead. Into +these the Owl led them, and there a most delightful person was called to look +after Jill. She was not much taller than Jill herself, and a good deal slenderer, but +obviously full grown, graceful as a willow, and her hair was willowy too, and +there seemed to be moss in it. She brought Jill to a round room in one of the +turrets, where there was a little bath sunk in the floor and a fire of sweet¬ +smelling woods burning on the flat hearth and a lamp hanging by a silver chain +from the vaulted roof. The window looked west into the strange land of Narnia, +and Jill saw the red remains of the sunset still glowing behind distant mountains. +It made her long for more adventures and feel sure that this was only the + + + +beginning. + +When she had had her bath, and brushed her hair, and put on the clothes that +had been laid out for her - they were the kind that not only felt nice, but looked +nice and smelled nice and made nice sounds when you moved as well - she +would have gone back to gaze out of that exciting window, but she was +interrupted by a bang on the door. + +“Come in,” said Jill. And in came Scrubb, also bathed and splendidly dressed +in Narnian clothes. But his face didn’t look as if he were enjoying it. + +“Oh, here you are at last,” he said crossly, flinging himself into a chair. “I’ve +been trying to find you for ever so long.” + +“Well, now you have,” said Jill. “I say, Scrubb, isn’t it all simply too exciting +and scrumptious for words.” She had forgotten all about the signs and the lost +Prince for the moment. + +“Oh! That’s what you think, is it?” said Scrubb: and then, after a pause, “I +wish to goodness we’d never come.” + +“Why on earth?” + +“I can’t bear it,” said Scrubb. “Seeing the King Caspian - a doddering old +man like that. It’s - it’s frightful.” + +“Why, what harm does it do you?” + +“Oh, you don’t understand. Now that I come to think of it, you couldn’t. I +didn’t tell you that this world has a different time from ours.” + +“How do you mean?” + +“The time you spend here doesn’t take up any of our time. Do you see? I +mean, however long we spend here, we shall still get back to Experiment House +at the moment we left it -“ + +“That won’t be much fun.” + +“Oh, dry up! Don’t keep interrupting. And when you’re back in England - in +our world - you can’t tell how time is going here. It might be any number of +years in Narnia while we’re having one year at home. The Pevensies explained it +all to me, but, like a fool, I forgot about it. And now apparently it’s been about +seventy years Narnian years - since I was here last. Do you see now? And I +come back and find Caspian an old, old man.” + +“Then the King was an old friend of yours!” said Jill. A horrid thought had +struck her. + +“I should jolly well think he was,” said Scrubb miserably. “About as good a +friend as a chap could have. And last time he was only a few years older than +me. And to see that old man with a white beard, and to remember Caspian as he +was the morning we captured the Lone Islands, or in the fight with the Sea +Serpent - oh, it’s frightful. It’s worse than coming back and finding him dead.” + + + +“Oh, shut up,” said Jill impatiently. “It’s far worse than you think. We’ve +muffed the first Sign.” Of course Scrubb did not understand this. Then Jill told +him about her conversation with Aslan and the four signs and the task of finding +the lost prince which had been laid upon them. + +“So you see,” she wound up, “you did see an old friend, just as Aslan said, +and you ought to have gone and spoken to him at once. And now you haven’t, +and everything is going wrong from the very beginning.” + +“But how was I to know?” said Scrubb. + +“If you’d only listened to me when I tried to tell you, we’d be all right,” said +Jill. + +“Yes, and if you hadn’t played the fool on the edge of that cliff and jolly +nearly murdered me - all right, I said murder, and I’ll say it again as often as I +like, so keep your hair on - we’d have come together and both known what to +do.” + +“I suppose he was the first person you saw?” said Jill. “You must have been +here hours before me. Are you sure you didn’t see anyone else first?” + +“I was only here about a minute before you,” said Scrubb. “He must have +blown you quicker than me. Making up for lost time: the time you lost.” + +“Don’t be a perfect beast, Scrubb,” said Jill. “Hallo! What’s that?” + +It was the castle bell ringing for supper, and thus what looked like turning +into a first-rate quarrel was happily cut short. Both had a good appetite by this +time. + +Supper in the great hall of the castle was the most splendid thing either of +them had ever seen; for though Eustace had been in that world before, he had +spent his whole visit at sea and knew nothing of the glory and courtesy of the +Narnians at home in their own land. The banners hung from the roof, and each +course came in with trumpeters and kettledrums. There were soups that would +make your mouth water to think of, and the lovely fishes called pavenders, and +venison and peacock and pies, and ices and jellies and fruit and nuts, and all +manner of wines and fruit drinks. Even Eustace cheered up and admitted that it +was “something like”. And when all the serious eating and drinking was over, a +blind poet came forward and struck up the grand old tale of Prince Cor and +Aravis and the horse Bree, which is called The Horse and his Boy and tells of an +adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the +Golden Age when Peter was High King in Cair Paravel. (I haven’t time to tell it +now, though it is well worth hearing.) + +When they were dragging themselves upstairs to bed, yawning their heads +off, Jill said, “I bet we sleep well, tonight”; for it had been a full day. Which just +shows how little anyone knows what is going to happen to them next. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +A PARLIAMENT OF OWLS + +IT is a very funny thing that the sleepier you are, the longer you take about +getting to bed; especially if you are lucky enough to have a fire in your room. Jill +felt she couldn’t even start undressing unless she sat down in front of the fire for +a bit first. And once she had sat down, she didn’t want to get up again. She had +already said to herself about five times, “I must go to bed”, when she was +startled by a tap on the window. + +She got up, pulled the curtain, and at first saw nothing but darkness. Then +she jumped and started backwards, for something very large had dashed itself +against the window, giving a sharp tap on the glass as. it did so. A very +unpleasant idea came into her head - “Suppose they have giant moths in this +country! Ugh!” But then the thing came back, and this time she was almost sure +she saw a beak, and that the beak had made that tapping noise. “It’s some huge +bird,” thought Jill. “Could it be an eagle?” She didn’t very much want a visit +even from an eagle, but she opened the window and looked out. Instantly, with a +great whirring noise, the creature alighted on the window-sill and stood there +filling up the whole window, so that Jill had to step back to make room for it. It +was the Owl. + +“Hush, hush! Tu-whoo, tu-whoo,” said the Owl. “Don’t make a noise. Now, +are you two really in earnest about what you’ve got to do?” + +“About the lost Prince, you mean?” said Jill. “Yes, we’ve got to be.” For now +she remembered the Lion’s voice and face, which she had nearly forgotten +during the feasting and story-telling in the hall. + +“Good!” said the Owl. “Then there’s no time to waste. + +You must get away from here at once. I’ll go and wake the other human. +Then I’ll come back for you. You’d better change those court clothes and put on +something you can travel in. I’ll be back in two twos. Tu-whoo!” And without +waiting for an answer, he was gone. + +If Jill had been more used to adventures, she might have doubted the Owl’s +word, but this never occurred to her: and in the exciting idea of a midnight +escape she forgot her sleepiness. She changed back into sweater and shorts there +was a guide’s knife on the belt of the shorts which might come in useful - and +added a few of the things that had been left in the room for her by the girl with +the willowy hair. She chose a short cloak that came down to her knees and had a +hood (’’just the thing, if it rains,” she thought), a few handkerchiefs and a comb. + + + +Then she sat down and waited. + +She was getting sleepy again when the Owl returned. + +“Now we’re ready,” it said. + +“You’d better lead the way,” said Jill. “I don’t know all these passages yet.” + +“Tu-whoo!” said the Owl. “We’re not going through the castle. That would +never do. You must ride on me. We shall fly.” + +“Oh!” said Jill, and stood with her mouth open, not much liking the idea. +“Shan’t I be too heavy for you?” + +“Tu-whoo, tu-whoo! Don’t you be a fool. I’ve already carried the other one. +Now. But we’ll put out that lamp first.” + +As soon as the lamp was out, the bit of the night which you saw through the +window looked less dark - no longer black, but grey. The Owl stood on the +window-sill with his back to the room and raised his wings. Jill had to climb on +to his short fat body and get her knees under the wings and grip tight. The +feathers felt beautifully warm and soft but there was nothing to hold on by. “I +wonder how Scrubb liked his ride!” thought Jill. And just as she was thinking +this, with a horrid plunge they had left the window-sill, and the wings were +making a flurry round her ears, and the night air, rather cool and damp, was +flying in her face. + +It was much lighter than she expected, and though the sky was overcast, one +patch of watery silver showed where the moon was hiding above the clouds. The +fields beneath her looked grey, and the trees black. There was a certain amount +of wind - a hushing, ruffling sort of wind which meant that rain was coming +soon. + +The Owl wheeled round so that the castle was now ahead of them. Very few +of the windows showed lights. They flew right over it, northwards, crossing the +river: the air grew colder, and Jill thought she could see the white reflection of +the Owl in the water beneath her. But soon they were on the north bank of the +river, flying above wooded country. + +The Owl snapped at something which Jill couldn’t see. + +“Oh, don’t, please!” said Jill. “Don’t jerk like that. You nearly threw me off.” + +“I beg your pardon,” said the Owl. “I was just nabbing a bat. There’s nothing +so sustaining, in a small way, as a nice plump little bat. Shall I catch you one?” + +“No, thanks,” said Jill with a shudder. + +He was flying a little lower now and a large, black looking object was +looming up towards them. Jill had just time to see that it was a tower - a partly +ruinous tower, with a lot of ivy on it, she thought - when she found herself +ducking to avoid the archway of a window, as the Owl squeezed with her +through the ivied cobwebby opening, out of the fresh, grey night into a dark + + + +place inside the top of the tower. It was rather fusty inside and, the moment she +slipped off the Owl’s back, she knew (as one usually does somehow) that it was +quite crowded And when voices began saying out of the darkness from every +direction “Tuwhoo! Tu-whoo!” she knew it was crowded with owls. She was +rather relieved when a very different voice said: + +“Is that you, Pole?” + +“Is that you, Scrubb?” said Jill. + +“Now,” said Glimfeather, “I think we’re all here. Let us hold a parliament of +owls.” + +“Tu-whoo, tu-whoo. True for you. That’s the right thing to do,” said several +voices. + +“Half a moment,” said Scrubb’s voice. “There’s something I want to say +first.” + +“Do, do, do,” said the owls; and Jill said, “Fire ahead.” + +“I suppose all you chaps-owls, I mean,” said Scrubb, “I suppose you all +know that King Caspian the Tenth, in his young days, sailed to the eastern end of +the world. Well, I was with him on that journey: with him and Reepicheep the +Mouse, and the Lord Drinian and all of them. I know it sounds hard to believe, +but people don’t grow older in our world at the same speed as they do in yours. +And what I want to say is this, that I’m the King’s man; and if this parliament of +owls is any sort of plot against the King, I’m having nothing to do with it.” + +“Tu-whoo, tu-whoo, we’re all the King’s owls too,” said the owls. + +“What’s it all about then?” said Scrubb. + +“It’s only this,” said Glimfeather. “That if the Lord Regent, the Dwarf +Trumpkin, hears you are going to look for the lost Prince, he won’t let you start. +He’d keep you under lock and key sooner.” + +“Great Scott!” said Scrubb. “You don’t mean that Trumpkin is a traitor? I +used to hear a lot about him in the old days, at sea. Caspian - the King, I mean - +trusted him absolutely.” + +“Oh no,” said a voice. “Trumpkin’s no traitor. But more than thirty +champions (knights, centaurs, good giants, and all sorts) have at one time or +another set out to look for the lost Prince, and none of them have ever come +back. And at last the King said he was not going to have all the bravest Narnians +destroyed in the search for his son. And now nobody is allowed to go.” + +“But surely he’d let us go,” said Scrubb. “When he knew who I was and who +had sent me.” + +(’’Sent both of us,” put in Jill.) + +“Yes,” said Glimfeather, “I think, very likely, he would. But the King’s away. +And Trumpkin will stick to the rules. He’s as true as steel, but he’s deaf as a post + + + +and very peppery. You could never make him see that this might be the time for +making an exception to the rule.” + +“You might think he’d take some notice of us, because we’re owls and +everyone knows how wise owls are,” said someone else. “But he’s so old now +he’d only say, 'You’re a mere chick. I remember you when you were an egg. +Don’t come trying to teach me, Sir. Crabs and crumpets!”’ + +This owl imitated Trumpkin’s voice rather well, and there were sounds of +owlish laughter all round. The children began to see that the Narnians all felt +about Trumpkin as people feel at school about some crusty teacher, whom +everyone is a little afraid of and everyone makes fun of and nobody really +dislikes. + +“How long is the King going to be away?” asked Scrubb. + +“If only we knew!” said Glimfeather. “You see, there has been a rumour +lately that Aslan himself has been seen in the islands - in Terebinthia, I think it +was. And the King said he would make one more attempt before he died to see +Aslan face to face again, and ask his advice about who is to be King after him. +But we’re all afraid that, if he doesn’t meet Aslan in Terebinthia, he’ll go on east, +to Seven Isles and Lone Islands - and on and on. He never talks about it, but we +all know he has never forgotten that voyage to the world’s end. I’m sure in his +heart of hearts he wants to go there again.” + +“Then there’s no good waiting for him to come back?” said Jill. + +“No, no good,” said the Owl. “Oh, what a to-do! If only you two had known +and spoken to him at once! He’d have arranged everything - probably given you +an army to go with you in search of the Prince.” + +Jill kept quiet at this and hoped Scrubb would be sporting enough not to tell +all the owls why this hadn’t happened. He was, or very nearly. That is, he only +muttered under his breath, “Well, it wasn’t my fault,” before saying out loud: + +“Very well. We’ll have to manage without it. But there’s just one thing more +I want to know. If this owls’ parliament, as you call it, is all fair and above board +and means no mischief, why does it have to be so jolly secret- meeting in a ruin +in dead of night, and all that?” + +“Tu-whoo! Tu-whoo!” hooted several owls. “Where should we meet? When +would anyone meet except at night?” + +“You see,” explained Glimfeather, “most of the creatures in Narnia have such +unnatural habits. They do things by day, in broad blazing sunlight (ugh!) when +everyone ought to be asleep. And, as a result, at night they’re so blind and stupid +that you can’t get a word out of them. So we owls have got into the habit of +meeting at sensible hours, on our own, when we want to talk about things.” + +“I see,” said Scrubb. “Well now, let’s get on. Tell us all about the lost + + + +Prince.” Then an old owl, not Glimfeather, related the story. + +About ten years ago, it appeared, when Rilian, the son of Caspian, was a very +young knight, he rode with the Queen his mother on a May morning in the north +parts of Narnia. They had many squires and ladies with them and all wore +garlands of fresh leaves on their heads, and horns at their sides; but they had no +hounds with them, for they were maying, not hunting. In the warm part of the +day they came to a pleasant glade where a fountain flowed freshly out of the +earth, and there they dismounted and ate and drank and were merry. After a time +the Queen felt sleepy, and they spread cloaks for her on the grassy bank, and +Prince Rilian with the rest of the party went a little way from her, that their tales +and laughter might not wake her. And so, presently, a great serpent came out of +the thick wood and stung the Queen in her hand. All heard her cry out and +mshed towards her, and Rilian was first at her side. He saw the worm gliding +away from her and made after it with his sword drawn. It was great, shining, and +as green as poison, so that he could see it well: but it glided away into thick +bushes and he could not come at it. So he returned to his mother, and found them +all busy about her. + +But they were busy in vain, for at the first glance of her face Rilian knew that +no physic in the world would do her good. As long as the life was in her she +seemed to be trying hard to tell him something. But she could not speak clearly +and, whatever her message was, she died without delivering it. It was then hardly +ten minutes since they had first heard her cry. + +They carried the dead Queen back to Cair Paravel, and she was bitterly +mourned by Rilian and by the King, and by all Narnia. She had been a great lady, +wise and gracious and happy, King Caspian’s bride whom he had brought home +from the eastern end of the world. And men said that the blood of the stars +flowed in her veins. The Prince took his mother’s death very hardly, as well he +might. After that, he was always riding on the northern marches of Narnia, +hunting for that venomous worm, to kill it and be avenged. No one remarked +much on this, though the Prince came home from these wanderings looking tired +and distraught. But about a month after the Queen’s death, some said they could +see a change in him. There was a look in his eyes as of a man who has seen +visions, and though he would be out all day, his horse did not bear the signs of +hard riding. His chief friend among the older courtiers was the Lord Driman, he +who had been his father’s captain on that great voyage to the east parts of the +earth. + +One evening Drinian said to the Prince, “Your Highness must soon give over +seeking the worm. There is no true vengeance on a witless brute as there might +be on a man. You weary yourself in vain.” The Prince answered him, “My Lord, + + + +I have almost forgotten the worm this seven days.” Drinian asked him why, if +that were so, he rode so continually in the northern woods. “My lord,” said the +Prince, “I have seen there the most beautiful thing that was ever made.” “Fair +Prince,” said Drinian, “of your courtesy let me ride with you tomorrow, that I +also may see this fair thing.” “With a good will,” said Rilian. + +Then in good time on the next day they saddled their horses and rode a great +gallop into the northern woods and alighted at that same fountain where the +Queen got her death. Drinian thought it strange that the Prince should choose +that place of all places, to linger in. And there they rested till it came to high +noon: and at noon Drinian looked up and saw the most beautiful lady he had +ever seen; and she stood at the north side of the fountain and said no word but +beckoned to the Prince with her hand as if she bade him come to her. And she +was tall and great, shining, and wrapped in a thin garment as green as poison. +And the Prince stared at her like a man out of his wits. But suddenly the lady +was gone, Driman knew not where; and the two returned to Cair Paravel. It stuck +in Drinian’s mind that this shining green woman was evil. + +Drinian doubted very much whether he ought not to tell this adventure to the +King, but he had little wish to be a blab and a tale-bearer and so he held his +tongue. But afterwards he wished he had spoken. For next day Prince Rilian rode +out alone. That night he came not back, and from that hour no trace of him was +ever found in Narnia nor any neighbouring land, and neither his horse nor his hat +nor his cloak nor anything else was ever found. Then Drinian in the bitterness of +his heart went to Caspian and said, “Lord King, slay me speedily as a great +traitor: for by my silence I have destroyed your son.” And he told him the story. +Then Caspian caught up a battle-axe and rushed upon the Lord Drinian to kill +him, and Drinian stood still as a stock for the death blow. But when the axe was +raised, Caspian suddenly threw it away and cried out, “I have lost my queen and +my son: shall I lose my friend also?” And he fell upon the Lord Drinian’s neck +and embraced him and both wept, and their friendship was not broken. + +Such was the story of Rilian. And when it was over, Jill said, “I bet that +serpent and that woman were the same person.” + +“True, true, we think the same as you,” hooted the owls. + +“But we don’t think she killed the Prince,” said Glimfeather, “because no +bones -“ + +“We know she didn’t,” said Scrubb. “Aslan told Pole he was still alive +somewhere.” + +“That almost makes it worse,” said the oldest owl. “It means she has some +use for him, and some deep scheme against Narnia. Long, long ago, at the very +beginning, a White Witch came out of the North and bound our land in snow and + + + +ice for a hundred years. And we think this may be some of the same crew.” + +“Very well, then,” said Scrubb. “Pole and I have got to 'Find this Prince. Can +you help us?” + +“Have you any clue, you two?” asked Glimfeather. + +“Yes,” said Scrubb. “We know we’ve got to go north. And w e know we’ve +got to reach the ruins of a giant city.” + +At this there was a greater tu-whooing than ever, and noise of birds shifting +their feet and ruffling their feathers, and then all the owls started speaking at +once. They all explained how very sorry they were that they themselves could +not go with the children on their search for the lost Prince “You’d want to travel +by day, and we’d want to travel by night,” they said. “It wouldn’t do, wouldn’t +do.” One or two owls added that even here in the ruined tower it wasn’t nearly so +dark as it had been when they began, and that the parliament had been going on +quite long enough. In fact, the mere mention of a journey to the ruined city of +giants seemed to have damped the spirits of those birds. But Glimfeather said: + +“If they want to go that way - into Ettinsmoor - we must take them to one of +the Marsh-wiggles. They’re the Only people who can help them much.” + +“True, true. Do,” said the owls. + +“Come on, then,” said Glimfeather. “I’ll take one. Who’ll take the other? It +must be done tonight.” + +“I will: as far as the Marsh-wiggles,” said another owl. + +“Are you ready?” said Glimfeather to Jill. + +“I think Pole’s asleep,” said Scrubb. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +PUDDLEGLUM + +JILL, was asleep. Ever since the owls’ parliament began she had been +yawning terribly and now she had dropped off. She was not at all pleased at +being waked again, and at finding herself lying on bare boards in a dusty belfry +sort of place, completely dark, and almost completely full of owls. She was even +less pleased when she heard that they had to set off for somewhere else - and not, +apparently, for bed - on the Owl’s back. + +“Oh, come on, Pole, buck up,” said Scrubb’s voice. “After all, it is an +adventure.” + +“I’m sick of adventures,” said Jill crossly. + +She did, however, consent to climb on to Glimfeather’s back, and was +thoroughly waked up (for a while) by the unexpected coldness of the air when he +flew out with her into the night. The moon had disappeared and there were no +stars. Par behind her she could see a single lighted window well above the +ground; doubtless, in one of the towers of Cair Paravel. It made her long to be +back in that delightful bedroom, snug in bed, watching the firelight on the walls. +She put her hands under her cloak and wrapped it tightly round her. It was +uncanny to hear two voices in the dark air a little distance away; Scrubb and his +owl were talking to one another. “He doesn’t sound tired,” thought Jill. She did +not realize that he had been on great adventures in that world before and that the +Narnian air was bringing back to him a strength he had won when he sailed the +Eastern Seas with King Caspian. + +Jill had to pinch herself to keep awake, for she knew that if she dozed on +Glimfeather’s back she would probably fall off. When at last the two owls ended +their flight, she climbed stiffly off Glimfeather and found herself on flat ground. +A chilly wind was blowing and they appeared to be in a place without trees. “Tu- +whoo, tu-whoo!” Glimfeather was calling. “Wake up, Puddleglum. Wake up. It is +on the Lion’s business.” + +For a long time there was no reply. Then, a long way off, a dim light +appeared and began to come nearer. With it came a voice. + +“Owls ahoy!” it said. “What is it? Is the King dead? Has an enemy landed in +Narnia? Is it a flood? Or dragons?” + +When the light reached them, it turned out to be that of a large lantern. She +could see very little of the person who held it. He seemed to be all legs and arms. +The owls were talking to him, explaining everything, but she was too tired to + + + +listen. She tried to wake herself up a bit when she realized that they were saying +goodbye to her. But she could never afterwards remember much except that, +sooner or later, she and Scrubb were stooping to enter a low doorway and then +(oh, thank heavens) were lying down on something soft and warm, and a voice +was saying: + +“There you are. Best we can do. You’ll lie cold and hard. Damp too, I +shouldn’t wonder. Won’t sleep a wink, most likely; even if there isn’t a +thunderstorm or a flood or the wigwam doesn’t fall down on top of us all, as I’ve +known them do. Must make the best of it But she was fast asleep before the +voice had ended. + +When the children woke late next morning they found that they were lying, +very dry and warm, on beds of straw in a dark place. A triangular opening let in +the daylight. + +“Where on earth are we?” asked Jill. + +“In the wigwam of a Marsh-wiggle,” said Eustace. + +“A what?” + +“A Marsh-wiggle. Don’t ask me what it is. I couldn’t see it last night. I’m +getting up. Let’s go and look for it.” + +“How beastly one feels after sleeping in one’s clothes,” said Jill, sitting up. + +“I was just thinking how nice it was not to have to dress,” said Eustace. + +“Or wash either, I suppose,” said Jill scornfully. But Scrubb had already got +up, yawned, shaken himself, and crawled out of the wigwam. Jill did the same. + +What they found outside was quite unlike the bit of Narnia they had seen on +the day before. They were on a great flat plain which was cut into countless little +islands by countless channels of water. The islands were covered with coarse +grass and bordered with reeds and rushes. Sometimes there were beds of rushes +about an acre in extent. Clouds of birds were constantly alighting in them and +rising from them again-duck, snipe, bitterns, herons. Many wigwams like that in +which they had passed the night could be seen dotted about, but all at a good +distance from one another; for Marsh-wiggles are people who like privacy. +Except for the fringe of the forest several miles to the south and west of them, +there was not a tree in sight. Eastward the flat marsh stretched to low sand-hills +on the horizon, and you could tell by the salt tang in the wind which blew from +that direction that the sea lay over there. To the North there were low pale- +coloured hills, in places bastioned with rock. The rest was all flat marsh. It +would have been a depressing place on a w et evening. Seen under a morning +sun, with a fresh wind blowing, and the air filled with the crying of birds, there +was something fine and fresh and clean about its loneliness. The children felt +their spirits rise. + + + +“Where has the thingummy got to, I wonder?” said Jill. + +“The Marsh-wiggle,” said Scrubb, as if he were rather proud of knowing the +word. “I expect-hullo, that must be him.” And then they both saw him, sitting +with his back to them, fishing, about fifty yards away. He had been hard to see at +first because he was nearly the same colour as the marsh and because he sat so +still. + +“I suppose we’d better go and speak to him,” said Jill. Scrubb nodded. They +both felt a little nervous. + +As they drew nearer, the figure turned its head and showed them a long thin +face with rather sunken cheeks, a tightly shut mouth, a sharp nose, and no beard. +He was wearing a high, pointed hat like a steeple, with an enormously wide flat +brim. The hair, if it could be called hair, which hung over his large ears was +greeny-grey, and each lock was flat rather than round, so that they were like tiny +reeds. His expression was solemn, his complexion muddy, and you could see at +once that he took a serious view of life. + +“Good morning, Guests,” he said. “Though when I say good I don’t mean it +won’t probably turn to rain or it might he snow, or fog, or thunder. You didn’t get +any sleep, I dare say. + +“Yes we did, though,” said Jill. “We had a lovely night.” + +“Ah,” said the Marsh-wiggle, shaking his head. “I see you’re making the best +of a bad job. That’s right. You’ve been well brought up, you have. You’ve +learned to put a good face on things.” + +“Please, we don’t know your name,” said Scrubb. + +“Puddleglum’s my name. But it doesn’t matter if you forget it. I can always +tell you again.” + +The children sat down on each side of him. They now saw that he had very +long legs and arms, so that although his body was not much bigger than a +dwarf’s, he would be taller than most men when he stood up. The fingers of his +hands were webbed like a frog’s, and so were his bare feet which dangled in the +muddy water. He was dressed in earthcoloured clothes that hung loose about +him. + +“I’m trying to catch a few eels to make an eel stew for our dinner,” said +Puddle glum. “Though I shouldn’t wonder if I didn’t get any. And you won’t like +them much if I do.” + +“Why not?” asked Scrubb. + +“Why, it’s not in reason that you should like our sort of victuals, though I’ve +no doubt you’ll put a bold face on it. All the same, while I am a catching of +them, if you two could try to light the fire - no harm trying -! The wood’s behind +the wigwam. It may be wet. You could light it inside the wigwam, and then we’d + + + +get all the smoke in our eyes. Or you could light it outside, and then the rain +would come and put it out. Here’s my tinder-box. You won’t know how to use it, +I expect.” + +But Scrubb had learned that sort of thing on his last adventure. The children +ran back together to the wigwam, found the wood (which was perfectly dry) and +succeeded in lighting a fire with rather less than the usual difficulty. Then +Scrubb sat and took care of it while Jill went and had some sort of wash - not a +very nice one - in the nearest channel. After that she saw to the fire and he had a +wash. Both felt a good deal fresher, but very hungry. + +Presently the Marsh-wiggle joined them. In spite of his expectation of +catching no eels, he had a dozen or so, which he had already skinned and +cleaned. He put a big pot on, mended the fire, and lit his pipe. Marsh-wiggles +smoke a very strange, heavy sort of tobacco (some people say they mix it with +mud) and the children noticed the smoke from Puddleglum’s pipe hardly rose in +the air at all. It trickled out of the bowl and downwards and drifted along the +ground like a mist. It was very black and set Scrubb coughing. + +“Now,” said Puddleglum. “Those eels will take a mortal long time to cook, +and either of you might faint with hunger before they’re done. I knew a little girl +- but I’d better not tell you that story. It might lower your spirits, and that’s a +thing I never do. So, to keep your minds off your hunger, we may as well talk +about our plans.” + +“Yes, do let’s,” said Jill. “Can you help us to find Prince Rilian?” + +The Marsh-wiggle sucked in his cheeks till they were hollower than you +would have thought possible. “Well, I don’t know that you’d call it help,” he +said. “I don’t know that anyone can exactly help. It stands to reason we’re not +likely to get very far on a journey to the North, not at this time of the year, with +the winter coming on soon and all. And an early winter too, by the look of +things. But you mustn’t let that make you down-hearted. Very likely, what with +enemies, and mountains, and rivers to cross, and losing our way, and next to +nothing to eat, and sore feet, we’ll hardly notice the weather. And if we don’t get +far enough to do any good, we may get far enough not to get back in a hurry.” + +Both children noticed that he said “we”, not “you”, and both exclaimed at the +same moment. “Are you coming with us?” + +“Oh yes, I’m coming of course. Might as well, you see. I don’t suppose we +shall ever see the King back in Narnia, now that he’s once set off for foreign +parts; and he had a nasty cough when he left. Then there’s Trump kin. He’s +failing fast. And you’ll find there’ll have been a bad harvest after this terrible dry +summer. And I shouldn’t wonder if some enemy attacked us. Mark my words.” + +“And how shall we start?” said Scrubb. + + + +“Well,” said the Marsh-wiggle very slowly, “all the others who ever went +looking for Prince Rilian started from that same fountain where the Lord Drinian +saw the lady. They went north, mostly. And as none of them ever came back, we +can’t exactly say how they got on.” + +“We’ve got to start by finding a mined city of giants,” said Jill. “Aslan said + +so.” + +“Got to start by finding it, have we?” answered Puddleglum. “Not allowed to +start by looking for it, I suppose?” + +“That’s what I meant, of course,” said Jill. “And then, when we’ve found it-“ + +“Yes, when!” said Puddleglum very drily. + +“Doesn’t anyone know where it is?” asked Scrubb. + +“I don’t know about Anyone,” said Puddleglum. “And I won’t say I haven’t +heard of that Ruined City. You wouldn’t start from the fountain, though. You’d +have to go across Ettinsmoor. That’s where the Ruined City is, if it’s anywhere. +But I’ve been as far in that direction as most people and I never got to any ruins, +so I won’t deceive you.” + +“Where’s Ettinsmoor?” said Scrubb. + +“Look over there northward,” said Puddleglum, pointing with his pipe. “See +those hills and bits of cliff? That’s the beginning of Ettinsmoor. But there’s a +river between it and us; the river Shribble. No bridges, of course.” + +“I suppose we can ford it, though,” said Scrubb. + +“Well, it has been forded,” admitted the Marsh-wiggle. + +“Perhaps we shall meet people on Ettinsmoor who can tell us the way,” said +Jill. + +“You’re right about meeting people,” said Puddleglum. + +“What sort of people live there?” she asked. + +“It’s not for me to say they aren’t all right in their own way,” answered +Puddleglum. “If you like their way.” + +“Yes, but what are they?” pressed Jill. “There are so many queer creatures in +this country. I mean, are they animals, or birds, or dwarfs, or what?” + +The Marsh-wiggle gave a long whistle. “Phew!” he said. “Don’t you know? I +thought the owls had told you. They’re giants.” + +Jill winced. She had never liked giants even in books, and she had once met +one in a nightmare. Then she saw Scrubb’s face, which had turned rather green, +and thought to herself, “I bet he’s in a worse funk than I am.” That made her feel +braver. + +“The King told me long ago,” said Scmbb - “that time when I was with him +at sea-that he’d jolly well beaten those giants in war and made them pay him +tribute.” + + + +“That’s true enough,” said Puddleglum. “They’re at peace with us all right. +As long as we stay on our own side of the Shribble, they won’t do us any harm. +Over on their side, on the Moor - Still, there’s always a chance. If we don’t get +near any of them, and if none of them forget themselves, and if we’re not seen, +it’s just possible we might get a long way.” + +“Look here!” said Scrubb, suddenly losing his temper, as people so easily do +when they have been frightened. “I don’t believe the whole thing can be half as +bad as you’re making out; any more than the beds in the wigwam were hard or +the wood was wet. I don’t think Aslan would ever have sent us if there was so +little chance as all that.” + +He quite expected the Marsh-wiggle to give him an angry reply, but he only +said, “That’s the spirit, Scrubb. That’s the way to talk. Put a good face on it. But +we all need to be very careful about our tempers, seeing all the hard times we +shall have to go through together. Won’t do to quarrel, you know. At any rate, +don’t begin it too soon. I know these expeditions usually end that way: knifing +one another, I shouldn’t wonder, before all’s done. But the longer we can keep +off it-“ + +“Well, if you feel it’s so hopeless,” interrupted Scrubb, “I think you’d better +stay behind. Pole and I can go on alone, can’t we, Pole?” + +“Shut up and don’t be an ass, Scrubb,” said Jill hastily, terrified lest the +Marsh-wiggle should take him at his word. + +“Don’t you lose heart, Pole,” said Puddleglum. “I’m coming, sure and +certain. I’m not going to lose an opportunity like this. It will do me good. They +all say - I mean, the other wiggles all say-that I’m too flighty; don’t take life +seriously enough. If they’ve said it once, they’ve said it a thousand times. +'Puddleglum,’ they’ve said, 'you’re altogether too full of bobance and bounce +and high spirits. You’ve got to learn that life isn’t all fricasseed frogs and eel pie. +You want something to sober you down a bit. We’re only saying it for your own +good, Puddleglum.’ That’s what they say. Now a job like this - a journey up +north just as winter’s beginning, looking for a Prince that probably isn’t there, by +way of a ruined city that no one has ever seen - will be just the thing. If that +doesn’t steady a chap, I don’t know what will.” And he rubbed his big frog-like +hands together as if he were talking of going to a party or a pantomime. “And +now,” he added, “let’s see how those eels are getting on.” + +When the meal came it was delicious and the children had two large helpings +each. At first the Marsh-wiggle wouldn’t believe that they really liked it, and +when they had eaten so much that he had to believe them, he fell back on saying +that it would probably disagree with them horribly. “What’s food for wiggles +may be poison for humans, I shouldn’t wonder,” he said. After the meal they had + + + +tea, in tins (as you’ve seen men having it who are working on the road), and +Puddleglum had a good many sips out of a square black bottle. He offered the +children some of it, but they thought it very nasty. + +The rest of the day was spent in preparations for an early start tomorrow +morning. Puddleglum, being far the biggest, said he would carry three blankets, +with a large bit of bacon rolled up inside them. Jill was to carry the remains of +the eels, some biscuit, and the tinder-box. Scrubb was to carry both his own +cloak and Jill’s when they didn’t want to wear them. Scrubb (who had learned +some shooting when he sailed to the East under Caspian) had Puddleglum’s +secondbest bow, and Puddleglum had his best one; though he said that what with +winds, and damp bowstrings, and bad light, and cold fingers, it was a hundred to +one against either of them hitting anything. He and Scrubb both had swords +Scrubb had brought the one which had been left out for him in his room at Cair +Paravel, but Jill had to be content with her knife. There would have been a +quarrel about this, but as soon as they started sparring the wiggle rubbed his +hands and said, “Ah, there you are. I thought as much. That’s what usually +happens on adventures.” This made them both shut up. + +All three went to bed early in the wigwam. This time the children really had +a rather bad night. That was because Puddleglum, after saying, “You’d better try +for some sleep, you two; not that I suppose any of us will close an eye tonight,” +instantly went off into such a loud, continuous snore that, when Jill at last got to +sleep, she dreamed all night about road-drills and waterfalls and being in express +trains in tunnels. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +THE WILD WASTE LANDS OF THE NORTH + +AT about nine o’clock next morning three lonely figures might have been +seen picking their way across the Shribble by the shoals and stepping-stones. It +was a shallow, noisy stream, and even Jill was not wet above her knees when +they reached the northern bank. About fifty yards ahead, the land rose up to the +beginning of the moor, everywhere steeply, and often in cliffs. + +“I suppose that’s our way!” said Scrubb, pointing left and west to where a +stream flowed down from the moor through a shallow gorge. But the Marsh- +wiggle shook his head. + +“The giants mainly live along the side of that gorge,” he said. “You might +say the gorge was like a street to them. We’ll do better straight ahead, even +though it’s a bit steep.” + +They found a place where they could scramble up, and in about ten minutes +stood panting at the top. They cast a longing look back at the valley-land of +Narnia and then turned their faces to the North. The vast, lonely moor stretched +on and up as far as they could see. On their left was rockier ground. Jill thought +that must be the edge of the giants’ gorge and did not much care about looking in +that direction. They set out. + +It was good, springy ground for walking, and a day of pale winter sunlight. +As they got deeper into the moor, the loneliness increased: one could hear +peewits and see an occasional hawk. When they halted in the middle of the +morning for a rest and a drink in a little hollow by a stream, Jill was beginning to +feel that she might enjoy adventures after all, and said so. + +“We haven’t had any yet,” said the Marsh-wiggle. + +Walks after the first halt - like school mornings after break or railway +journeys after changing trains - never go on as they were before. When they set +out again, Jill noticed that the rocky edge of the gorge had drawn nearer. And the +rocks were less flat, more upright, than they had been. In fact they were like little +towers of rock. And what funny shapes they were! + +“I do believe,” thought Jill, “that all the stories about giants might have come +from those funny rocks. If you were coming along here when it was half dark, +you could easily think those piles of rock were giants. Look at that one, now! +You could almost imagine that the lump on top was a head. It would be rather +too big for the body, but it would do well enough for an ugly giant. And all that +bushy stuff -1 suppose it’s heather and birds’ nests, really - would do quite well + + + +for hair and beard. And the things sticking out on each side are quite like ears. +They’d be horribly big, but then I dare say giants would have big ears, like +elephants. And - o-o-o-h! + +Her blood froze. The thing moved. It was a real giant. There was no +mistaking it; she had seen it turn its head. She had caught a glimpse of the great, +stupid, puffcheeked face. All the things were giants, not rocks. There were forty +or fifty of them, all in a row; obviously standing with their feet on the bottom of +the gorge and their elbows resting on the edge of the gorge, just as men might +stand leaning on a wall - lazy men, on a fine morning after breakfast. + +“Keep straight on,” whispered Puddleglum, who had noticed them too. +“Don’t look at them. And whatever you do, don’t run. They’d be after us in a +moment.” + +So they kept on, pretending not to have seen the giants. It was like walking +past the gate of a house where there is a fierce dog, only far worse. There were +dozens and dozens of these giants. They didn’t look angry - or kind or interested +at all. There was no sign that they had seen the travellers. + +Then - whizz-whizz-whizz - some heavy object came hurtling through the +air, and with a crash a big boulder fell about twenty paces ahead of them. And +then - thud! - another fell twenty feet behind. + +“Are they aiming at us?” asked Scrubb. + +“No,” said Puddleglum. “We’d be a good deal safer if they were. They’re +trying to hit that - that cairn over there to the right. They won’t hit it, you know. +It’s safe enough; they’re such very bad shots. They play cock-shies most fine +mornings. About the only game they’re clever enough to understand.” + +It was a horrible time. There seemed no end to the line of giants, and they +never ceased hurling stones, some of which fell extremely close. Quite apart +from the real danger, the very sight and sound of their faces and voices were +enough to scare anyone. Jill tried not to look at them. + +After about twenty-five minutes the giants apparently had a quarrel. This put +an end to the cock-shies, but it is not pleasant to be within a mile of quarrelling +giants. They stormed and jeered at one another in long, meaningless words of +about twenty syllables each. They foamed and gibbered and jumped in their +rage, and each jump shook the earth like a bomb. They lammed each other on +the head with great, clumsy stone hammers; but their skulls were so hard that the +hammers bounced off again, and then the monster who had given the blow +would drop his hammer and howl with pain because it had stung his fingers. But +he was so stupid that he would do exactly the same thing a minute later. This +was a good thing in the long run, for by the end of an hour all the giants were so +hurt that they sat down and began to cry. When they sat down, their heads were + + + +below the edge of the gorge, so that you saw them no more; but Jill could hear +them howling and blubbering and boo-booing like great babies even after the +place was a mile behind. + +That night they bivouacked on the bare moor, and Puddleglum showed the +children how to make the best of their blankets by sleeping back to back. (The +backs keep each other warm and you can then have both blankets on top.) But it +was chilly even so, and the ground was hard and lumpy. The Marsh-wiggle told +them they would feel more comfortable if only they thought how very much +colder it would be later on and farther north; but this didn’t cheer them up at all. + +They travelled across Ettinsmoor for many days, saving the bacon and living +chiefly on the moor-fowl (they were not, of course, talking birds) which Eustace +and the wiggle shot. Jill rather envied Eustace for being able to shoot; he had +learned it on his voyage with King Caspian. As there were countless streams on +the moor, they were never short of water. Jill thought that when, in books, people +live on what they shoot, it never tells you what a long, smelly, messy job it is +plucking and cleaning dead birds, and how cold it makes your fingers. But the +great thing was that they met hardly any giants. One giant saw them, but he only +roared with laughter and stumped away about his own business. + +About the tenth day, they reached a place where the country changed. They +came to the northern edge of the moor and looked down a long, steep slope into +a different, and grimmer, land. At the bottom of the slope were cliffs: beyond +these, a country of high mountains, dark precipices, stony valleys, ravines so +deep and narrow that one could not see far into them, and rivers that poured out +of echoing gorges to plunge sullenly into black depths. Needless to say, it was +Puddleglum who pointed out a sprinkling of snow on the more distant slopes. + +“But there’ll be more on the north side of them, I shouldn’t wonder,” he +added. + +It took them some time to reach the foot of the slope and, when they did, +they looked down from the top of the cliffs at a river running below them from +west to east. It was walled in by precipices on the far side as well as on their +own, and it was green and sunless, full of rapids and waterfalls. The roar of it +shook the earth even where they stood. + +“The bright side of it is,” said Puddleglum, “that if we break our necks +getting down the cliff, then we’re safe from being drowned in the river.” + +“What about that?” said Scrubb suddenly, pointing upstream to their left. +Then they all looked and saw the last thing they were expecting - a bridge. And +what a bridge, too! It was a huge, single arch that spanned the gorge from cliff- +top to cliff-top; and the crown of that arch was as high above the cliff-tops as the +dome of St Paul’s is above the street. + + + +“Why, it must be a giants’ bridge!” said Jill. + +“Or a sorcerer’s, more likely,” said Puddleglum. “We’ve got to look out for +enchantments in a place like this. I think it’s a trap. I think it’ll turn into mist and +melt away just when we’re out on the middle of it.” + +“Oh, for goodness’ sake, don’t be such a wet blanket,” said Scrubb. “Why on +earth shouldn’t it be a proper bridge?” + +“Do you think any of the giants we’ve seen would have sense to build a thing +like that?” said Puddleglum. + +“But mightn’t it have been built by other giants?” said Jill. “I mean, by giants +who lived hundreds of years ago, and were far cleverer than the modern kind. It +might have been built by the same ones who built the giant city we’re looking +for. And that would mean we were on the right track - the old bridge leading to +the old city!” + +“That’s a real brain-wave, Pole,” said Scrubb. “It must be that. Come on.” + +So they turned and went to the bridge. And when they reached it, it certainly +seemed solid enough. The single stones were as big as those at Stonehenge and +must have been squared by good masons once, though now they were cracked +and crumbled. The balustrade had apparently been covered with rich carvings, of +which some traces remained; mouldering faces and forms of giants, minotaurs, +squids, centipedes, and dreadful gods. Puddleglum still didn’t trust it, but he +consented to cross it with the children. + +The climb up to the crown of the arch was long and heavy. In many places +the great stones had dropped out, leaving horrible gaps through which you +looked down on the river foaming thousands of feet below. They saw an eagle +fly through under their feet. And the higher they went, the colder it grew, and the +wind blew so that they could hardly keep their footing. It seemed to shake the +bridge. + +When they reached the top and could look down the farther slope of the +bridge, they saw what looked like the remains of an ancient giant road stretching +away before them into the heart of the mountains. Many stones of its pavement +were missing and there were wide patches of grass between those that remained. +And riding towards them on that ancient road were two people of normal grown¬ +up human size. + +“Keep on. Move towards them,” said Puddleglum. “Anyone you meet in a +place like this is as likely as not to be an enemy, but we mustn’t let them think +we’re afraid.” + +By the time they had stepped off the end of the bridge on to the grass, the +two strangers were quite close. One was a knight in complete armour with his +visor down. His armour and his horse were black; there was no device on his + + + +shield and no banneret on his spear. The other was a lady on a white horse, a +horse so lovely that you wanted to kiss its nose and give it a lump of sugar at +once. But the lady, who rode side-saddle and wore a long, fluttering dress of +dazzling green, was lovelier still. + +“Good day, t-r-r-avellers,” she cried out in a voice as sweet as the sweetest +bird’s song, trilling her R’s delightfully. “Some of you are young pilgrims to +walk this rough waste.” + +“That’s as may be, Ma’am,” said Puddleglum very stiffly and on his guard. + +“We’re looking for the ruined city of the giants,” said Jill. + +“The r-r-ruined city?” said the Lady. “That is a strange place to be seeking. +What will you do if you find it?” + +“We’ve got to began Jill, but Puddleglum interrupted. + +“Begging your pardon, Ma’am. But we don’t know you or your friend - a +silent chap, isn’t he? - and you don’t know us. And we’d as soon not talk to +strangers about our business, if you don’t mind. Shall we have a little rain soon, +do you think?” + +The Lady laughed: the richest, most musical laugh you can imagine. “Well, +children,” she said, “you have a wise, solemn old guide with you. I think none +the worse of him for keeping his own counsel, but I’ll be free with mine. I have +often heard the name of the giantish City Ruinous, but never met any who would +tell me the way thither. This road leads to the burgh and castle of Harfang, where +dwell the gentle giants. They are as mild, civil, prudent, and courteous as those +of Ettinsmoor are foolish, fierce, savage, and given to all beastliness. And in +Harfang you may or may not hear tidings of the City Ruinous, but certainly you +shall find good lodgings and merry hosts. You would be wise to winter there, or, +at the least, to tarry certain days for your ease and refreshment. There you shall +have steaming baths, soft beds, and bright hearths; and the roast and the baked +and the sweet and the strong will be on the table four times in a day.” + +“I say!” exclaimed Scrubb. “That’s something like! Think of sleeping in a +bed again.” + +“Yes, and having a hot bath,” said Jill. “Do you think they’ll ask us to stay? +We don’t know them, you see.” + +“Only tell them,” answered the Lady, “that She of the Green Kirtle salutes +them by you, and has sent them two fair Southern children for the Autumn +Feast.” + +“Oh, thank you, thank you ever so much,” said Jill and Scrubb. + +“But have a care,” said the Lady. “On whatever day you reach Harfang, that +you come not to the door too late. For they shut their gates a few hours after +noon, and it is the custom of the castle that they open to none when once they + + + +have drawn bolt, how hard so ever he knock.” + +The children thanked her again, with shining eyes, and the Lady waved to +them. The Marsh-wiggle took off his steeple-hat and bowed very stiffly. Then +the silent Knight and the Lady started walking their horses up the slope of the +bridge with a great clatter of hoofs. + +“Well!” said Puddleglum. “I’d give a good deal to know where she’s coming +from and where she’s going. Not the sort you expect to meet in the wilds of +Giantland, is she? Up to no good, I’ll be bound.” + +“Oh rot!” said Scrubb. “I thought she was simply super. And think of hot +meals and warm rooms. I do hope Harfang isn’t a long way off.” + +“Same here,” said Jill. “And hadn’t she a scrumptious dress. And the horse!” + +“All the same,” said Puddleglum, “I wish we knew a bit more about her.” + +“I was going to ask her all about herself,” said Jill. “But how could I when +you wouldn’t tell her anything about us?” + +“Yes,” said Scrubb. “And why were you so stiff and unpleasant. Didn’t you +like them?” + +“Them?” said the wiggle. “Who’s them? I only saw one.” + +“Didn’t you see the Knight?” asked Jill. + +“I saw a suit of armour,” said Puddleglum. “Why didn’t he speak?” + +“I expect he was shy,” said Jill. “Or perhaps he just wants to look at her and +listen to her lovely voice. I’m sure I would if I was him.” + +“I was wondering,” remarked Puddleglum, “what you’d really see if you +lifted up the visor of that helmet and looked inside.” + +“Hang it all,” said Scrubb. “Think of the shape of the armour! What could be +inside it except a man?” + +“How about a skeleton?” asked the Marsh-wiggle with ghastly cheerfulness. +“Or perhaps,” he added as an afterthought, “nothing at all. I mean, nothing you +could see. Someone invisible.” + +“Really, Puddleglum,” said Jill with a shudder, “you do have the most +horrible ideas. How do you think of them all?” + +“Oh, bother his ideas!” said Scrubb. “He’s always expecting the worst, and +he’s always wrong. Let’s think about those Gentle Giants and get on to Harfang +as quickly as we can. I wish I knew how far it is.” + +And now they nearly had the first of those quarrels which Puddleglum had +foretold: not that Jill and Scrubb hadn’t been sparring and snapping at each other +a good deal before, but this was the first really serious disagreement. +Puddleglum didn’t want them to go to Harfang at all. He said that he didn’t +know what a giant’s idea of being “gentle” might be, and that, anyway, Aslan’s +signs had said nothing about staying with giants, gentle or otherwise. The + + + +children, on the other hand, who were sick of wind and rain, and skinny fowl +roasted over campfires, and hard, cold earth to sleep on, were absolutely dead set +to visit the Gentle Giants. In the end, Puddleglum agreed to do so, but only on +one condition. The others must give an absolute promise that, unless he gave +them leave, they would not tell the Gentle Giants that they came from Narnia or +that they were looking for Prince Rilian. And they gave him this promise, and +went on. + +After that talk with the Lady things got worse in two different ways. In the +first place the country was much harder. The road led through endless, narrow +valleys down which a cruel north wind was always blowing in their faces. There +was nothing that could be used for firewood, and there were no nice little +hollows to camp in, as there had been on the moor. And the ground was all +stony, and made your feet sore by day and every bit of you sore by night. + +In the second place, whatever the Lady had intended by telling them about +Harfang, the actual effect on the children was a bad one. They could think about +nothing but beds and baths and hot meals and how lovely it would be to get +indoors. They never talked about Aslan, or even about the lost prince, now. And +Jill gave up her habit of repeating the signs over to herself every night and +morning. She said to herself, at first, that she was too tired, but she soon forgot +all about it. And though you might have expected that the idea of having a good +time at Harfang would have made them more cheerful, it really made them more +sorry for themselves and more grumpy and snappy with each other and with +Puddleglum. + +At last they came one afternoon to a place where the gorge in which they +were travelling widened out and dark fir woods rose on either side. They looked +ahead and saw that they had come through the mountains. Before them lay a +desolate, rocky plain: beyond it, further mountains capped with snow. But +between them and those further mountains rose a low hill with an irregular +flattish top. + +“Look! Look!” cried Jill, and pointed across the plain; and there, through the +gathering dusk, from beyond the flat hill, everyone saw lights. Lights! Not +moonlight, nor fires, but a homely cheering row of lighted windows. If you have +never been in the wild wilderness, day and night, for weeks, you will hardly +understand how they felt. + +“Harfang!” cried Scrubb and Jill in glad, excited voices; and “Harfang,” +repeated Puddleglum in a dull, gloomy voice. But he added, “Hullo! Wild +geese!” and had the bow off his shoulder in a second. He brought down a good +fat goose. It was far too late to think of reaching Harfang that day. But they had a +hot meal and a fire, and started the night warmer than they had been for over a + + + +week. After the fire had gone out, the night grew bitterly cold, and when they +woke next morning, their blankets were stiff with frost. + +“Never mind!” said Jill, stamping her feet. “Hot baths tonight!” + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +THE HILL OL THE STRANGE TRENCHES + +THERE Is no denying it was a beast of a day. Overhead was a sunless sky, +muffled in clouds that were heavy with snow; underfoot, a black frost; blowing +over it, a wind that felt as if it would take your skin off. When they got down +into the plain they found that this part of the ancient road was much more +ruinous than any they had yet seen. They had to pick their way over great broken +stones and between boulders and across rubble: hard going for sore feet. And, +however tired they got, it was far too cold for a halt. + +At about ten o’clock the first tiny snow flakes came loitering down and +settled on Jill’s arm. Ten minutes later they were falling quite thickly. In twenty +minutes the ground was noticeably white. And by the end of half an hour a good +steady snowstorm, which looked as if it meant to last all day, was driving in their +faces so that they could hardly see. + +In order to understand what followed, you must keep on remembering how +little they could see. As they drew near the low hill which separated them from +the place where the lighted windows had appeared, they had no general view of +it at all. It was a question of seeing the next few paces ahead, and, even for that, +you had to screw up your eyes. Needless to say, they were not talking. + +When they reached the foot of the hill they caught a glimpse of what might +be rocks on each side - squarish rocks, if you looked at them carefully, but no +one did. All were more concerned with the ledge right in front of them which +barred their way. It was about four feet high. The Marsh-wiggle, with his long +legs, had no difficulty in jumping onto the top of it, and he then helped the others +up. It was a nasty wet business for them, though not for him, because the snow +now lay quite deep on the ledge. They then had a stiff climb - Jill fell once - up +very rough ground for about a hundred yards, and came to a second ledge. There +were four of these ledges altogether, at quite irregular intervals. + +As they struggled on to the fourth ledge, there was no mistaking the fact that +they were now at the top of the flat hill. Up till now the slope had given them +some shelter; here, they got the full fury of the wind. For the hill, oddly enough, +was quite as flat on top as it had looked from a distance: a great level tableland +which the storm tore across without resistance. In most places the snow was still +hardly lying at all, for the wind kept catching it up off the ground in sheets and +clouds, and hurling it in their faces. And round their feet little eddies of snow ran +about as you sometimes see them doing over ice. And, indeed, in many places, + + + +the surface was almost as smooth as ice. But to make matters worse it was +crossed and crisscrossed with curious banks or dykes, which sometimes divided +it up into squares and oblongs. All these of course had to be climbed; they varied +from two to five feet in height and were about a couple of yards thick. On the +north side of each bank the snow already lay in deep drifts; and after each climb +you came down into a drift and got wet. + +Fighting her way forward with hood up and head down and numb hands +inside her cloak, Jill had glimpses of other odd things on that horrible tableland - +things on her right that looked vaguely like factory chimneys, and, on her left, a +huge cliff, straighter than any cliff ought to be. But she wasn’t at all interested +and didn’t give them a thought. The only things she thought about were her cold +hands (and nose and chin and ears) and hot baths and beds at Harfang. + +Suddenly she skidded, slid about five feet, and found herself to her horror +sliding down into a dark, narrow chasm which seemed that moment to have +appeared in front of her. Half a second later she had reached the bottom. She +appeared to be in a kind of trench or groove, only about three feet wide. And +though she was shaken by the fall, almost the first thing she noticed was the +relief of being out of the wind; for the walls of the trench rose high above her. +The next thing she noticed was, naturally, the anxious faces of Scrubb and +Puddleglum looking down at her from the edge. + +“Are you hurt, Pole?” shouted Scrubb. + +“Both legs broken, I shouldn’t wonder,” shouted Puddleglum. + +Jill stood up and explained that she was all right, but they’d have to help her + +out. + +“What is it you’ve fallen into?” asked Scrubb. + +“It’s a kind of trench, or it might be a kind of sunken lane or something,” +said Jill. “It runs quite straight.” + +“Yes, by Jove,” said Scrubb. “And it runs due north! I wonder is it a sort of +road? If it was, we’d be out of this infernal wind down there. Is there a lot of +snow at the bottom?” + +“Hardly any. It all blows over the top, I suppose.” + +“What happens farther on?” + +“Half a sec. I’ll go and see,” said Jill. She got up and walked along the +trench; but before she had gone far, it turned sharply to the right. She shouted +this information back to the others. + +“What’s round the corner?” asked Scrubb. + +Now it happened that Jill had the same feeling about twisty passages and +dark places underground, or even nearly underground, that Scrubb had about the +edges of cliffs. She had no intention of going round that corner alone; especially + + + +when she heard Puddleglum bawling out from behind her: + +“Be careful, Pole. It’s just the sort of place that might lead to a dragon’s cave. +And in a giant country, there might be giant earth-worms or giant beetles.” + +“I don’t think it goes anywhere much,” said Jill, coming hastily back. + +“I’m jolly well going to have a look,” said Scrubb. “What do you mean by +anywhere much, I should like to know?” So he sat down on the edge of the +trench (everyone was too wet by now to bother about being a bit wetter) and +then dropped in. He pushed past Jill and, though he didn’t say anything, she felt +sure that he knew she had funked it. So she followed him close, but took care not +to get in front of him. + +It proved, however, a disappointing exploration. They went round the right- +hand turn and straight on for a few paces. Here there was a choice of ways: +straight on again, or sharp to the right. “That’s no good,” said Scrubb, glancing +down the right-hand turn, “that would be taking us back - south.” He went +straight on, but once more, in a few steps, they found a second turn to the right. +But this time there was no choice of ways, for the trench they had been +following here came to a dead end. + +“No good,” grunted Scrubb. Jill lost no time in turning and leading the way +back. When they returned to the place where Jill had first fallen in, the Marsh- +wiggle with his long arms had no difficulty in pulling them out. + +But it was dreadful to be out on top again. Down in those narrow slits of +trenches, their ears had almost begun to thaw. They had been able to see clearly +and breathe easily and hear each other speak without shouting. It was absolute +misery to come back into the withering coldness. And it did seem hard when +Puddleglum chose that moment for saying: + +“Are you still sure of those signs, Pole? What’s the one we ought to be after, +now?” + +“Oh, come on! Bother the signs,” said Pole. “Something about someone +mentioning Aslan’s name, I think. But I’m jolly well not going to give a +recitation here.” + +As you see, she had got the order wrong. That was because she had given up +saying the signs over every night. She still really knew them, if she troubled to +think: but she was no longer so “pat” in her lesson as to be sure of reeling them +off in the right order at a moment’s notice and without thinking. Puddleglum’s +question annoyed her because, deep down inside her, she was already annoyed +with herself for not knowing the Lion’s lesson quite so well as she felt she ought +to have known it. This annoyance, added to the misery of being very cold and +tired, made her say, “Bother the signs.” She didn’t perhaps quite mean it. + +“Oh, that was next, was it?” said Puddleglum. “Now I wonder, are you right? + + + +Got ‘em mixed, I shouldn’t wonder. It seems to me, this hill, this flat place we’re +on, is worth stopping to have a look at. Have you noticed + +“Oh Lor!” said Scrubb, “is this a time for stopping to admire the view? For +goodness’ sake let’s get on.” + +“Oh, look, look, look,” cried Jill and pointed. Everyone turned, and everyone +saw. Some way off to the north, and a good deal higher up than the tableland on +which they stood, a line of lights had appeared. This time, even more obviously +than when the travellers had seen them the night before, they were windows: +smaller windows that made one think deliciously of bedrooms, and larger +windows that made one think of great halls with fires roaring on the hearth and +hot soup or juicy sirloins smoking on the table. + +“Harfang!” exclaimed Scrubb. + +“That’s all very well,” said Puddleglum. “But what I was saying was -“ + +“Oh, shut up,” said Jill crossly. “We haven’t a moment to lose. Don’t you +remember what the Lady said about their locking up so early? We must get there +in time, we must, we must. We’ll die if we’re shut out on a night like this.” + +“Well, it isn’t exactly a night, not yet,” began Puddleglum; but the two +children both said, “Come on,” and began stumbling forward on the slippery +tableland as quickly as their legs would carry them. The Marsh-wiggle followed +them: still talking, but now that they were forcing their way into the wind again, +they could not have heard him even if they had wanted to. And they didn’t want. +They were thinking of baths and beds and hot drinks; and the idea of coming to +Harfang too late and being shut out was almost unbearable. + +In spite of their haste, it took them a long time to cross the flat top of that +hill. And even when they had crossed it, there were still several ledges to climb +down on the far side. But at last they reached the bottom and could see what +Harfang was like. + +It stood on a high crag, and in spite of its many towers was more a huge +house than a castle. Obviously, the Gentle Giants feared no attack. There were +windows in the outside wall quite close to the ground - a thing no one would +have in a serious fortress. There were even odd little doors here and there, so that +it would be quite easy to get in and out of the castle without going through the +courtyard. This raised the spirits of Jill and Scrubb. It made the whole place look +more friendly and less forbidding. + +At first the height and steepness of the crag frightened them, but presently +they noticed that there was an easier way up on the left and that the road wound +up towards it. It was a terrible climb, after the journey they had already had, and +Jill nearly gave up. Scrubb and Puddleglum had to help her for the last hundred +yards. + + + +But in the end they stood before the castle gate. The portcullis was up and +the gate open. + +However tired you are, it takes some nerve to walk up to a giant’s front door. +In spite of all his previous warnings against Harfang, it was Puddleglum who +showed most courage. + +“Steady pace, now,” he said. “Don’t look frightened, whatever you do. +We’ve done the silliest thing in the world by coming at all: but now that we are +here, we’d best put a bold face on it.” + +With these words he strode forward into the gateway, stood still under the +arch where the echo would help his voice, and called out as loud as he could. + +“Ho! Porter! Guests who seek lodging.” + +And while he was waiting for something to happen, he took off his hat and +knocked off the heavy mass of snow which had gathered on its wide brim. + +“I say,” whispered Scrubb to Jill. “He may be a wet blanket, but he has +plenty of pluck - and cheek.” + +A door opened, letting out a delicious glow of firelight, and the Porter +appeared. Jill bit her lips for fear she should scream. He was not a perfectly +enormous giant; that is to say, he was rather taller than an apple tree but nothing +like so tall as a telegraph pole. He had bristly red hair, a leather jerkin with metal +plates fastened all over it so as to make a kind of mail shirt, bare knees (very +hairy indeed) and things like puttees on his legs. He stooped down and goggled +at Puddleglum. + +“And what sort of creature do you call yourself,” he said. + +Jill took her courage in both hands. “Please,” she said, shouting up at the +giant. “The Lady of the Green Kirtle salutes the King of the Gentle Giants, and +has sent us two Southern children and this Marsh-wiggle (his name’s +Puddleglum) to your Autumn Feast. - If it’s quite convenient, of course,” she +added. + +“Oho!” said the Porter. “That’s quite a different story. Come in, little people, +come in. You’d best come into the lodge while I’m sending word to his +Majesty.” He looked at the children with curiosity. “Blue faces,” he said. “I +didn’t know they, were that colour. Don’t care about it myself. But I dare say you +look quite nice to one another. Beetles fancy other beetles, they do say.” + +“Our faces are only blue with cold,” said Jill. “We’re not this colour really.” + +“Then come in and get warm. Come in, little shrimps,” said the Porter. They +followed him into the lodge. And though it was rather terrible to hear such a big +door clang shut behind them, they forgot about it as soon as they saw the thing +they had been longing for ever since supper time last night - afire. And such a +fire! It looked as if four or five whole trees were blazing on it, and it was so hot + + + +they couldn’t go within yards of it. But they all flopped down on the brick floor, +as near as they could bear the heat, and heaved great sighs of relief. + +“Now, youngster,” said the Porter to another giant who had been sitting in +the back of the room, staring at the visitors till it looked as if his eyes would start +out of his head, “run across with this message to the House.” And he repeated +what Jill had said to him. The younger giant, after a final stare, and a great +guffaw, left the room. + +“Now, Froggy,” said the Porter to Puddleglum, “you look as if you wanted +some cheering up.” He produced a black bottle very like Puddleglum’s own, but +about twenty times larger. “Let me see, let me see,” said the Porter. “I can’t give +you a cup or you’ll drown yourself. Let me see. This salt-cellar will be just the +thing. You + +needn’t mention it over at the House. The silver will keep on getting over +here, and it’s not my fault.” + +The salt-cellar was not very like one of ours, being narrower and more +upright, and made quite a good cup for Puddleglum, when the giant set it down +on the floor beside him. The children expected Puddleglum to refuse it, +distrusting the Gentle Giants as he did. But he muttered, “It’s rather late to be +thinking of precautions now that we’re inside and the door shut behind us.” Then +he sniffed at the liquor. “Smells all right,” he said. “But that’s nothing to go by. +Better make sure,” and took a sip. “Tastes all right, too,” he said. “But it might +do that at the first sip. How does it go on?” He took a larger sip. “Ah!” he said. +“But is it the same all the way down?” and took another. “There’ll be something +nasty at the bottom, I shouldn’t wonder,” he said, and finished the drink. He +licked his lips and remarked to the children, “This’ll be a test, you see. If I curl +up, or burst, or turn into a lizard, or something, then you’ll know not to take +anything they offer you.” But the giant, who was too far up to hear the things +Puddleglum had been saying under his breath, roared with laughter and said, +“Why, Froggy, you’re a man. See him put it away!” + +“Not a man . . . Marsh-wiggle,” replied Puddleglum in a somewhat indistinct +voice. “Not frog either: Marshwiggle.” + +At that moment the door opened behind them and the younger giant came in +saying, “They’re to go to the throne-room at once.” + +The children stood up but Puddleglum remained sitting and said, “Marsh- +wiggle. Marsh-wiggle. Very respectable Marsh-wiggle. Respectowiggle.” + +“Show them the way, young ‘un,” said the giant Porter. “You’d better carry +Froggy. He’s had a drop more than’s good for him.” + +“Nothing wrong with me,” said Puddleglum. “Not a frog. Nothing frog with +me. I’m a respectabiggle.” + + + +But the young giant caught him up by the waist and signed to the children to +follow. In this undignified way they crossed the courtyard. Puddleglum, held in +the giant’s fist, and vaguely kicking the air, did certainly look very like a frog. +But they had little time to notice this, for they soon entered the great doorway of +the main castle - both their hearts beating faster than usual - and, after pattering +along several corridors at a trot to keep up with the giant’s paces, found +themselves blinking in the light of an enormous room, where lamps glowed and +a fire roared on the hearth and both were reflected from the gilding of roof and +cornice. More giants than they could count stood on their left and right, all in +magnificent robes; and on two thrones at the far end, sat two huge shapes that +appeared to be the King and Queen. + +About twenty feet from the thrones, they stopped. Scrubb and Jill made an +awkward attempt at a bow (girls are not taught how to curtsey at Experiment +House) and the young giant carefully put Puddleglum down on the floor, where +he collapsed into a sort of sitting position. With his long limbs he looked, to tell +the truth, uncommonly like a large spider. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +THE HOUSE OF HARFANG + +“Go on, Pole, do your stuff,” whispered Scrubb. + +Jill found that her mouth was so dry that she couldn’t speak a word. She +nodded savagely at Scrubb. + +Thinking to himself that he would never forgive her (or Puddleglum either), +Scrubb licked his lips and shouted up to the King giant. + +“If you please, Sire, the Lady of the Green Kirtle salutes you by us and said +you’d like to have us for your Autumn Feast.” + +The giant King and Queen looked at each other, nodded to each other, and +smiled in a way that Jill didn’t exactly like. She liked the King better than the +Queen. He had a fine, curled beard and a straight eagle-like nose, and was really +rather good-looking as giants go. The Queen was dreadfully fat and had a double +chin and a fat, powdered face - which isn’t a very nice thing at the best of times, +and of course looks much worse when it is ten times too big. Then the King put +out his tongue and licked his lips. Anyone might do that: but his tongue was so +very large and red, and came out so unexpectedly, that it gave Jill quite a shock. + +“Oh, what good children!” said the Queen. (’’Perhaps she’s the nice one after +all,” thought Jill.) + +“Yes indeed,” said the King. “Quite excellent children. We welcome you to +our court. Give me your hands.” + +He stretched down his great right hand - very clean and with any number of +rings on the fingers, but also with terrible pointed nails. He was much too big to +shake the hands which the children, in turn, held up to him; but he shook the +arms. + +“And what’s that?” asked the King, pointing to Puddleglum. + +“Reshpeckobiggle,” said Puddleglum. + +“Oh!” screamed the Queen, gathering her skirts close about her ankles. “The +horrid thing! It’s alive.” + +“He’s quite all right, your Majesty, really, he is,” said Scrubb hastily. “You’ll +like him much better when you get to know him. I’m sure you will.” + +I hope you won’t lose all interest in Jill for the rest of the book if I tell you +that at this moment she began to cry. There was a good deal of excuse for her. +Her feet and hands and ears and nose were still only just beginning to thaw; +melted snow was trickling off her clothes; she had had hardly anything to eat or +drink that day; and her legs were aching so that she felt she could not go on + + + +standing much longer. Anyway, it did more good at the moment than anything +else would have done, for the Queen said: + +“Ah, the poor child! My lord, we do wrong to keep our guests standing. +Quick, some of you! Take them away. Give them food and wine and baths. +Comfort the little girl. Give her lollipops, give her dolls, give her physics, give +her all you can think of - possets and comfits and caraways and lullabies and +toys. Don’t cry, little girl, or you won’t be good for anything when the feast +comes.” + +Jill was just as indignant as you and I would have been at the mention of toys +and dolls; and, though lollipops and comfits might be all very well in their way, +she very much hoped that something more solid would be provided. The +Queen’s foolish speech, however, produced excellent results, for Puddleglum +and Scrubb were at once picked up by gigantic gentlemen-in-waiting, and Jill by +a gigantic maid of honour, and carried off to their rooms. + +Jill’s room was about the size of a church, and would have been rather grim +if it had not had a roaring fire on the hearth and a very thick crimson carpet on +the floor. And here delightful things began to happen to her. She was handed +over to the Queen’s old Nurse, who was, from the giants’ point of view, a little +old woman almost bent double with age, and, from the human point of view, a +giantess small enough to go about an ordinary room without knocking her head +on the ceiling. She was very capable, though Jill did wish she wouldn’t keep on +clicking her tongue and saying things like “Oh la, la! Ups-adaisy” and “There’s a +duck” and “Now we’ll be all right, my poppet”. She filled a giant foot-bath with +hot water and helped Jill into it. If you can swim (as Jill could) a giant bath is a +lovely thing. And giant towels, though a bit rough and coarse, are lovely too, +because there are acres of them. In fact you don’t need to dry at all, you just roll +about on them in front of the fire and enjoy yourself. And when that was over, +clean, fresh, warmed clothes were put on Jill: very splendid clothes and a little +too big for her, but clearly made for humans not giantesses. “I suppose if that +woman in the green kirtle comes here, they must be used to guests of our size,” +thought Jill. + +She soon saw that she was right about this, for a table and chair of the right +height for an ordinary grown-up human were placed for her, and the knives and +forks and spoons were the proper size too. It was delightful to sit down, feeling +warm and clean at last. Her feet were still bare and it was lovely to tread on the +giant carpet. She sank in it well over her ankles and it was just the thing for sore +feet. The meal - which I suppose we must call dinner, though it was nearer tea +time - was cock-a-leekie soup, and hot roast turkey, and a steamed pudding, and +roast chestnuts, and as much fruit as you could eat. + + + +The only annoying thing was that the Nurse kept coming in and out, and +every time she came in, she brought a gigantic toy with her - a huge doll, bigger +than Jill herself, a wooden horse on wheels, about the size of an elephant, a drum +that looked like a young gasometer, and a woolly lamb. They were crude, badly +made things, painted in very bright colours, and Jill hated the sight of them. She +kept on telling the Nurse she didn’t want them, but the Nurse said: + +“Tut-tut-tut-tut. You’ll want 'em all right when you’ve had a bit of a rest, I +know! Te-he-he! Beddy bye, now. A precious poppet!” + +The bed was not a giant bed but only a big four-poster, like what you might +see in an old-fashioned hotel; and very small it looked in that enormous room. +She was very glad to tumble into it. + +“Is it still snowing, Nurse?” she asked sleepily. + +“No. Raining now, ducky!” said the giantess. “Rain’ll wash away all the +nasty snow. Precious poppet will be able to go out and play tomorrow!” And she +tucked Jill up and said good night. + +I know nothing so disagreeable as being kissed by a giantess. Jill thought the +same, but was asleep in five minutes. + +The rain fell steadily all the evening and all the night, dashing against the +windows of the castle, and Jill never heard it but slept deeply, past supper time +and past midnight. And then came the deadest hour of the night and nothing +stirred but mice in the house of the giants. At that hour there came to Jill a +dream. It seemed to her that she awoke in the same room and saw the fire, sunk +low and red, and in the firelight the great wooden horse. And the horse came of +its own will, rolling on its wheels across the carpet, and stood at her head. And +now it was no longer a horse, but a lion as big as the horse. And then it was not a +toy lion, but a real lion, The Real Lion, just as she had seen him on the mountain +beyond the world’s end. And a smell of all sweet-smelling things there are filled +the room. But there was some trouble in Jill’s mind, though she could not think +what it was, and the tears streamed down her face and wet the pillow. The Lion +told her to repeat the signs, and she found that she had forgotten them all. At +that, a great horror came over her. And Aslan took her up in his jaws (she could +feel his lips and his breath but not his teeth) and carried her to the window and +made her look out. The moon shone bright; and written in great letters across the +world or the sky (she did not know which) were the words UNDER ME. After +that, the dream faded away, and when she woke, very late next morning, she did +not remember that she had dreamed at all. + +She was up and dressed and had finished breakfast in front of the fire when +the Nurse opened the door and said: “Here’s pretty poppet’s little friends come to +play with her.” + + + +In came Scrubb and the Marsh-wiggle. + +“Hullo! Good morning,” said Jill. “Isn’t this fun? I’ve slept about fifteen +hours, I believe. I do feel better, don’t you?” + +“1 do,” said Scrubb, “but Puddleglum says he has a headache. Hullo! - your +window has a window seat. If we got up on that, we could see out.” And at once +they all did so: and at the first glance Jill said, “Oh, how perfectly dreadful!” + +The sun was shining and, except for a few drifts, the snow had been almost +completely washed away by the rain. Down below them, spread out like a map, +lay the flat hill-top which they had struggled over yesterday afternoon; seen from +the castle, it could not be mistaken for anything but the ruins of a gigantic city. It +had been flat, as Jill now saw, because it was still, on the whole, paved, though +in places the pavement was broken. The criss-cross banks were what was left of +the walls of huge buildings which might once have been giants’ palaces and +temples. One bit of wall, about five hundred feet high, was still standing; it was +that which she had thought was a cliff. The things that had looked like factory +chimneys were enormous pillars, broken off at unequal heights; their fragments +lay at their bases like felled trees of monstrous stone. The ledges which they had +climbed down on the north side of the hill - and also, no doubt the other ledges +which they had climbed up on the south side - were the remaining steps of giant +stairs. To crown all, in large, dark lettering across the centre of the pavement, ran +the words UNDER ME. + +The three travellers looked at each other in dismay, and, after a short whistle, +Scrubb said what they were all thinking, “The second and third signs muffed.” +And at that moment Jill’s dream rushed back into her mind. + +“It’s my fault,” she said in despairing tones. “I - I’d given up repeating the +signs every night. If I’d been thinking about them I could have seen it was the +city, even in all that snow.” + +“I’m worse,” said Puddleglum. “I did see, or nearly. I thought it looked +uncommonly like a ruined city.” + +“You’re the only one who isn’t to blame,” said Scrubb. “You did try to make +us stop.” + +“Didn’t try hard enough, though,” said the Marshwiggle. “And I’d no call to +be trying. I ought to have done it. As if I couldn’t have stopped you two with one +hand each!” + +“The truth is,” said Scrubb, “we were so jolly keen on getting to this place +that we weren’t bothering about anything else. At least I know I was. Ever since +we met that woman with the knight who didn’t talk, we’ve been thinking of +nothing else. We’d nearly forgotten about Prince Rilian.” + +“I shouldn’t wonder,” said Puddleglum, “if that wasn’t exactly what she + + + +intended.” + +“What I don’t quite understand,” said Jill, “is how we didn’t see the +lettering? Or could it have come there since last night. Could he - Aslan - have +put it there in the night? I had such a queer dream.” And she told them all about +it. + +“Why, you chump!” said Scrubb. “We did see it. We got into the lettering. +Don’t you see? We got into the letter E in ME. That was your sunk lane. We +walked along the bottom stroke of the E, due north - turned to our right along the +upright - came to another turn to the right - that’s the middle stroke - and then +went on to the top left-hand corner, or (if you like) the north-eastern corner of +the letter, and came back. Like the bally idiots we are.” He kicked the window +seat savagely, and went on, “So it’s no good, Pole. I know what you were +thinking because I was thinking the same. You were thinking how nice it would +have been if Aslan hadn’t put the instructions on the stones of the ruined city till +after we’d passed it. And then it would have been his fault, not ours. So likely, +isn’t it? No. We must just own up. We’ve only four signs to go by, and we’ve +muffed the first three.” + +“You mean I have,” said Jill. “It’s quite true. I’ve spoiled everything ever +since you brought me here. All the same - I’m frightfully sorry and all that - all +the same, what are the instructions? UNDER ME doesn’t seem to make much +sense.” + +“Yes it does, though,” said Puddleglum. “It means we’ve got to look for the +Prince under that city.” + +“But how can we?” asked Jill. + +“That’s the question,” said Puddleglum, rubbing his big, frog-like hands +together. “How can we now? No doubt, if we’d had our minds on our job when +we were at the Ruinous City, we’d have been shown how - found a little door, or +a cave, or a tunnel, met someone to help us. Might have been (you never know) +Aslan himself. We’d have got down under those paving-stones somehow or +other. Aslan’s instructions always work: there are no exceptions. But how to do +it now - that’s another matter.” + +“Well, we shall just have to go back, I suppose,” said Jill. + +“Easy, isn’t it?” said Puddleglum. “We might try opening that door to begin +with.” And they all looked at the door and saw that none of them could reach the +handle, and that almost certainly no one could turn it if they did. + +“Do you think they won’t let us out if we ask?” said Jill. And nobody said, +but everyone thought, “Supposing they don’t.” + +It was not a pleasant idea. Puddleglum was dead against any idea of telling +the giants their real business and simply asking to be let out; and of course the + + + +children couldn’t tell without his permission, because they had promised. And all +three felt pretty sure that there would be no chance of escaping from the castle +by night. Once they were in their rooms with the doors shut, they would be +prisoners till morning. They might, of course, ask to have their doors left open, +but that would rouse suspicions. + +“Our only chance,” said Scrubb, “is to try to sneak away by daylight. +Mightn’t there be an hour in the afternoon when most of the giants are asleep? - +and if we could steal down into the kitchen, mightn’t there be a back door +open?” + +“It’s hardly what I call a Chance,” said the Marshwiggle. “But it’s all the +chance we’re likely to get.” As a matter of fact, Scrubb’s plan was not quite so +hopeless as you might think. If you want to get out of a house without being +seen, the middle of the afternoon is in some ways a better time to try it than the +middle of the night. Doors and windows are more likely to be open; and if you +are caught, you can always pretend you weren’t meaning to go far and had no +particular plans. (It is very hard to make either giants or grown-ups believe this +if you’re found climbing out of a bedroom window at one o’clock in the +morning.) + +“We must put them off their guard, though,” said Scrubb. “We must pretend +we love being here and are longing for this Autumn Feast.” + +“That’s tomorrow night,” said Puddleglum. “I heard one of them say so.” + +“I see,” said Jill. “We must pretend to be awfully excited about it, and keep +on asking questions. They think we’re absolute infants anyway, which will make +it easier.” + +“Gay,” said Puddleglum with a deep sigh. “That’s what we’ve got to be. Gay. +As if we hadn’t a care in the world. Frolicsome. You two youngsters haven’t +always got very high spirits, I’ve noticed. You must watch me, and do as I do. +I’ll be gay. Like this” - and he assumed a ghastly grin. “And frolicsome” - here +he cut a most mournful caper. “You’ll soon get into it, if you keep your eyes on +me. They think I’m a funny fellow already, you see. I dare say you two thought I +was a trifle tipsy last night, but I do assure you it was - well, most of it was - put +on. I had an idea it would come in useful, somehow.” + +The children, when they talked over their adventures afterwards, could never +feel sure whether this last statement was quite strictly true; but they were sure +that Puddleglum thought it was true when he made it. + +“All right. Gay’s the word,” said Scrubb. “Now, if we could only get +someone to open this door. While we’re fooling about and being gay, we’ve got +to find out all we can about this castle.” + +Luckily, at that very moment the door opened, and the giant Nurse bustled in + + + +saying, “Now, my poppets. Like to come and see the King and all the court +setting out on the hunting? Such a pretty sight!” + +They lost no time in rushing out past her and climbing down the first +staircase they came to. The noise of hounds and horns and giant voices guided +them, so that in a few minutes they reached the courtyard. The giants were all on +foot, for there are no giant horses in that part of the world, and the giants’ +hunting is done on foot; like beagling in England. The hounds were also of +normal size. When Jill saw that there were no horses she was at first dreadfully +disappointed, for she felt sure that the great fat Queen would never go after +hounds on foot; and it would never do to have her about the house all day. But +then she saw the Queen in a kind of litter supported on the shoulders of six +young giants. The silly old creature was all got up in green and had a horn at her +side. + +Twenty or thirty giants, including the King, were assembled, ready for the +sport, all talking and laughing fit to deafen you: and down below, nearer Jill’s +level, there were wagging tails, and barking, and loose, slobbery mouths and +noses of dogs thmst into your hand. Puddleglum was just beginning to strike +what he thought a gay and gamesome attitude (which might have spoiled +everything if it had been noticed) when Jill put on her most attractively childish +smile, rushed across to the Queen’s litter and shouted up to the Queen. + +“Oh, please! You’re not going away, are you? You will come back?” + +“Yes, my dear,” said the Queen. “I’ll be back tonight.” + +“Oh, good. How lovely!” said Jill. “And we may come to the feast tomorrow +night, mayn’t we? We’re so longing for tomorrow night! And we do love being +here. And while you’re out, we may run over the whole castle and see +everything, mayn’t we? Do say yes.” + +The Queen did say yes, but the laughter of all the courtiers nearly drowned +her voice. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +HOW THEY DISCOVERED SOMETHING WORTH KNOWING + +THE others admitted afterwards that Jill had been wonderful that day. As +soon as the King and the rest of the hunting party had set off, she began making +a tour of the whole castle and asking questions, but all in such an innocent, +babyish way that no one could suspect her of any secret design. Though her +tongue was never still, you could hardly say she talked: she prattled and giggled. +She made love to everyone - the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, the ladies- +in-waiting, and the elderly giant lords whose hunting days were past. She +submitted to being kissed and pawed about by any number of giantesses, many +of whom seemed sorry for her and called her “a poor little thing” though none of +them explained why. She made especial friends with the cook and discovered the +all-important fact there was a scullery door which let you out through the outer +wall, so that you did not have to cross the courtyard or pass the great gatehouse. +In the kitchen she pretended to be greedy, and ate all sorts of scraps which the +cook and scullions delighted to give her. But upstairs among the ladies she asked +questions about how she would be dressed for the great feast, and how long she +would be allowed to sit up, and whether she would dance with some very, very +small giant. And then (it made her hot all over when she remembered it +afterwards) she would put her head on one side in an idiotic fashion which +grown-ups, giant and otherwise, thought very fetching, and shake her curls, and +fidget, and say, “Oh, I do wish it was tomorrow night, don’t you? Do you think +the time will go quickly till then?” And all the giantesses said she was a perfect +little darling; and some of them dabbed their eyes with enormous handkerchiefs +as if they were going to cry. + +“They’re dear little things at that age,” said one giantess to another. “It seems +almost a pity...” + +Scrubb and Puddleglum both did their best, but girls do that kind of thing +better than boys. Even boys do it better than Marsh-wiggles. + +At lunchtime something happened which made all three of them more +anxious than ever to leave the castle of the Gentle Giants. They had lunch in the +great hall at a little table of their own, near the fireplace. At a bigger table, about +twenty yards away, half a dozen old giants were lunching. Their conversation +was so noisy, and so high up in the air, that the children soon took no more +notice of it than you would of hooters outside the window or traffic noises in the +street. They were eating cold venison, a kind of food which Jill had never tasted + + + +before, and she was liking it. + +Suddenly Puddleglum turned to them, and his face had gone so pale that you +could see the paleness under the natural muddiness of his complexion. He said: + +“Don’t eat another bite.” + +“What’s wrong?” asked the other two in a whisper. + +“Didn’t you hear what those giants were saying? 'That’s a nice tender +haunch of venison,’ said one of them. 'Then that stag was a liar,’ said another. +'Why?’ said the first one. 'Oh,’ said the other. 'They say that when he was +caught he said, Don’t kill me, I’m tough. You won’t like me.’” For a moment Jill +did not realize the full meaning of this. But she did when Scrubb’s eyes opened +wide with horror and he said: + +“So we’ve been eating a Talking stag.” + +This discovery didn’t have exactly the same effect on all of them. Jill, who +was new to that world, was sorry for the poor stag and thought it rotten of the +giants to have killed him. Scrubb, who had been in that world before and had at +least one Talking beast as his dear friend, felt horrified; as you might feel about a +murder. But Puddleglum, who was Narnian born, was sick and faint, and felt as +you would feel if you found you had eaten a baby. + +“We’ve brought the anger of Aslan on us,” he said. “That’s what comes of +not attending to the signs. We’re under a curse, I expect. If it was allowed, it +would be the best thing we could do, to take these knives and drive them into our +own hearts.” + +And gradually even Jill came to see it from his point of view. At any rate, +none of them wanted any more lunch. And as soon as they thought it safe they +crept quietly out of the hall. + +It was now drawing near to that time of the day on which their hopes of +escape depended, and all became nervous. They hung about in passages and +waited for things to become quiet. The giants in the hall sat on a dreadfully long +time after the meal was over. The bald one was telling a story. When that was +over, the three travellers dawdled down to the kitchen. But there were still plenty +of giants there, or at least in the scullery, washing up and putting things away. It +was agonizing, waiting till these finished their jobs and, one by one, wiped their +hands and went away. At last only one old giantess was left in the room. She +pottered about, and pottered about, and at last the three travellers realized with +horror that she did not intend to go away at all. + +“Well, dearies,” she said to them. “That job’s about through. Let’s put the +kettle there. That’ll make a nice cup of tea presently. Now I can have a little bit +of a rest. Just look into the scullery, like good poppets, and tell me if the back +door is open.” + + + +“Yes, it is,” said Scrubb. + +“That’s right. I always leave it open so as Puss can get in and out, the poor +thing.” + +Then she sat down on one chair and put her feet up on another. + +“I don’t know as I mightn’t have forty winks,” said the giantess. “If only that +blarney hunting party doesn’t come back too soon.” + +All their spirits leaped up when she mentioned forty winks, and flopped +down again when she mentioned the return of the hunting party. + +“When do they usually comeback?” asked Jill. + +“You never can tell,” said the giantess. “But there; go and be quiet for a bit, +my dearies.” + +They retreated to the far end of the kitchen, and would have slipped out into +the scullery there and then if the giantess had not sat up, opened her eyes, and +bmshed away a fly. “Don’t try it till we’re sure she’s really asleep,” whispered +Scrubb. “Or it’ll spoil everything.” So they all huddled at the kitchen end, +waiting and watching. The thought that the hunters might come back at any +moment was terrible. And the giantess was fidgety. Whenever they thought she +had really gone to sleep, she moved. + +“I can’t bear this,” thought Jill. To distract her mind, she began looking about +her. Just in front of her was a clean wide table with two clean pie-dishes on it, +and an open book. They were giant pie-dishes of course. Jill thought that she +could lie down just comfortably in one of them. Then she climbed up on the +bench beside the table to look at the book. She read: + +MALLARD. This delicious bird can be cooked in a variety of ways. + +“It’s a cookery book,” thought Jill without much interest, and glanced over +her shoulder. The giantess’s eyes were shut but she didn’t look as if she were +properly asleep. Jill glanced back at the book. It was arranged alphabetically: +and at the very next entry her heart seemed to stop beating; It ran + +MAN. This elegant little biped has long been valued as a delicacy. It forms a +traditional part of the Autumn Feast, and is served between the fish and the joint. +Each Man... + +but she could not bear to read any more. She turned round. The giantess had +wakened up and was having a fit of coughing. Jill nudged the other two and +pointed to the book. They also mounted the bench and bent over the huge pages. +Scrubb was still reading about how to cook Men when Puddleglum pointed to +the next entry below it. It was like this: + +MARSH-WIGGLE. Some authorities reject this animal altogether as unfit +for giants’ consumption because of its stringy consistency and muddy flavour. +The flavour can, however, be greatly reduced if- + + + +Jill touched his feet, and Scrubb’s, gently. All three looked back at the +giantess. Her mouth was slightly open and from her nose there came a sound +which at that moment was more welcome to them than any music; she snored. +And now it was a question of tiptoe work, not daring to go too fast, hardly daring +to breathe, out through the scullery (giant sculleries smell horrid), out at last into +the pale sunlight of a winter afternoon. + +They were at the top of a rough little path which ran steeply down. And, +thank heavens, on the right side of the castle; the City Ruinous was in sight. In a +few minutes they were back on the broad, steep road which led down from the +main gate of the castle. They were also in full view from every single window on +that side. If it had been one, or two, or five windows there’d be a reasonable +chance that no one might be looking out. But there were nearer fifty than five. +They now realized, too, that the road on which they were, and indeed all the +ground between them and the City Ruinous, didn’t offer as much cover as would +hide a fox; it was all coarse grass and pebbles and flat stones. To make matters +worse, they were now in the clothes that the giants had provided for them last +night: except Puddleglum, whom nothing would fit. Jill wore a vivid green robe, +rather too long for her, and over that a scarlet mantle fringed with white fur. +Scrubb had scarlet stockings, blue tunic and cloak, a gold-hilted sword, and a +feathered bonnet. + +“Nice bits of colour, you two are,” muttered Puddleglum. “Show up very +prettily on a winter day. The worst archer in the world couldn’t miss either of +you if you were in range. And talking of archers, we’ll be sorry not to have our +own bows before long, I shouldn’t wonder. Bit thin, too, those clothes of yours, +are they?” + +“Yes, I’m freezing already,” said Jill. + +A few minutes ago when they had been in the kitchen, she had thought that if +only they could once get out of the castle, their escape would be almost +complete. She now realized that the most dangerous part of it was still to come. + +“Steady, steady,” said Puddleglum. “Don’t look back. Don’t walk too +quickly. Whatever you do, don’t run. Look as if we were just taking a stroll, and +then, if anyone sees us, he might, just possibly, not bother. The moment we look +like people running away, we’re done.” + +The distance to the City Ruinous seemed longer than Jill would have +believed possible. But bit by bit they were covering it. Then came a noise. The +other two gasped. Jill, who didn’t know what it was, said, “What’s that?” + +“Hunting horn,” whispered Scrubb. + +“But don’t run even now,” said Puddleglum. “Not until I give the word.” + +This time Jill couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder. There, about half a + + + +mile away, was the hunt returning from behind them on the left. + +They walked on. Suddenly a great clamour of giant voices arose: then shouts +and hollas. + +“They’ve seen us. Run,” said Puddleglum. + +Jill gathered up her long skirts - horrible things for running in - and ran. +There was no mistaking the danger now. She could hear the music of the hounds. +She could hear the King’s voice roaring out, “After them, after them, or we’ll +have no man-pies tomorrow.” + +She was last of the three now, cumbered with her dress, slipping on loose +stones, her hair getting in her mouth, running-pains across her chest. The hounds +were much nearer. Now she had to run uphill, up the stony slope which led to the +lowest step of the giant stairway. She had no idea what they would do when they +got there, or how they would be any better off even if they reached the top. + +But she didn’t think about that. She was like a hunted animal now; as long as +the pack was after her, she must run till she dropped. + +The Marsh-wiggle was ahead. As he came to the lowest step he stopped, +looked a little to his right, and all of a sudden darted into a little hole or crevice +at the bottom of it. His long legs, disappearing into it, looked very like those of a +spider. Scrubb hesitated and then vanished after him. Jill, breathless and reeling, +came to the place about a minute later. It was an unattractive hole - a crack +between the earth and the stone about three feet long and hardly more than a foot +high. You had to fling yourself flat on your face and crawl in. You couldn’t do it +so very quickly either. She felt sure that a dog’s teeth would close on her heel +before she had got inside. + +“Quick, quick. Stones. Fill up the opening,” came Puddleglum’s voice in the +darkness beside her. It was pitch black in there, except for the grey light in the +opening by which they had crawled in. The other two were working hard. She +could see Scrubb’s small hands and the Marshwiggle’s big, frog-like hands black +against the light, working desperately to pile up stones. Then she realized how +important this was and began groping for large stones herself, and handing them +to the others. Before the dogs were baying and yelping at the cave mouth, they +had it pretty well filled; and now, of course, there was no light at all. + +“Farther in, quick,” said Puddleglum’s voice. + +“Let’s all hold hands,” said Jill. + +“Good idea,” said Scrubb. But it took them quite a long time to find one +another’s hands in the darkness. The dogs were sniffing at the other side of the +barrier now. + +“Try if we can stand up,” suggested Scrubb. They did and found that they +could. Then, Puddleglum holding out a hand behind him to Scrubb, and Scrubb + + + +holding a hand out behind him to Jill (who wished very much that she was the +middle one of the party and not the last), they began groping with their feet and +stumbling forwards into the blackness. It was all loose stones underfoot. Then +Puddleglum came up to a wall of rock. They turned a little to their right and +went on. There were a good many more twists and turns. Jill had now no sense +of direction at all, and no idea where the mouth of the cave lay. + +“The question is,” came PuddleglunTs voice out of the darkness ahead, +“whether, taking one thing with another, it wouldn’t be better to go back (if we +can) and give the giants a treat at that feast of theirs, instead of losing our way in +the guts of a hill where, ten to one, there’s dragons and deep holes and gases and +water and - Ow! Let go! Save yourselves. I’m -“ + +After that all happened quickly. There was a wild cry, a swishing, dusty, +gravelly noise, a rattle of stones, and Jill found herself sliding, sliding, +hopelessly sliding, and sliding quicker every moment down a slope that grew +steeper every moment. It was not a smooth, firm slope, but a slope of small +stones and rubbish. Even if you could have stood up, it would have been no use. +Any bit of that slope you had put your foot on would have slid away from under +you and carried you down with it. But Jill was more lying than standing. And the +farther they all slid, the more they disturbed all the stones and earth, so that the +general downward rush of everything (including themselves) got faster and +louder and dustier and dirtier. From the sharp cries and swearing of the other +two, Jill got the idea that many of the stones which she was dislodging were +hitting Scrubb and Puddleglum pretty hard. And now she was going at a furious +rate and felt sure she would be broken to bits at the bottom. + +Yet somehow they weren’t. They were a mass of bruises, and the wet sticky +stuff on her face appeared to be blood. And such a mass of loose earth, shingle, +and larger stones was piled up round her (and partly over her) that she couldn’t +get up. The darkness was so complete that it made no difference at all whether +you had your eyes open or shut. There was no noise. And that was the very worst +moment Jill had ever known in her life. Supposing she was alone: supposing the +others . . . Then she heard movements around her. And presently all three, in +shaken voices, were explaining that none of them seemed to have any broken +bones. + +“We can never get up that again,” said Scrubb’s voice. + +“And have you noticed how warm it is?” said the voice of Puddleglum. +“That means we’re a long way down. Might be nearly a mile.” + +No one said anything. Some time later Puddleglum added: + +“My tinder-box has gone.” + +After another long pause Jill said, “I’m terribly thirsty.” + + + +No one suggested doing anything. There was so obviously nothing to be +done. For the moment, they did not feel it quite so badly as one might have +expected; that was because they were so tired. + +Long, long afterwards, without the slightest warning, an utterly strange voice +spoke. They knew at once that it was not the one voice in the whole world for +which each had secretly been hoping; the voice of Aslan. It was a dark, flat voice +- almost, if you know what that means, a pitch-black voice. It said: + +“What make you here, creatures of the Overworld?” + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +TRAVELS WITHOUT THE SUN + +“WHO’s there?” shouted the three travellers. + +“I am the Warden of the Marches of Underland, and with me stand a hundred +Earthmen in arms,” came the reply. “Tell me quickly who you are and what is +your errand in the Deep Realm?” + +“We fell down by accident,” said Puddleglum, truthfully enough. + +“Many fall down, and few return to the sunlit lands,” said the voice. “Make +ready now to come with me to the Queen of the Deep Realm.” + +“What does she want with us?” asked Scrubb cautiously. + +“I do not know,” said the voice. “Her will is not to be questioned but +obeyed.” + +While he said these words there was a noise like a soft explosion and +immediately a cold light, grey with a little blue in it, flooded the cavern. All +hope that the speaker had been idly boasting when he spoke of his hundred +armed followers died at once. Jill found herself blinking and staring at a dense +crowd. They were of all sizes, from little gnomes barely a foot high to stately +figures taller than men. All carried three-pronged spears in their hands, and all +were dreadfully pale, and all stood as still as statues. Apart from that, they were +very different; some had tails and others not, some wore great beards and others +had very round, smooth faces, big as pumpkins. There were long, pointed noses, +and long, soft noses like small trunks, and great blobby noses. Several had single +horns in the middle of their foreheads. But in one respect they were all alike: +every face in the whole hundred was as sad as a face could be. They were so sad +that, after the first glance, Jill almost forgot to be afraid of them. She felt she +would like to cheer them up. + +“Well!” said Puddleglum, rubbing his hands. “This is just what I needed. If +these chaps don’t teach me to take a serious view of life, I don’t know what will. +Look at that fellow with the walrus moustache - or that one with the -“ + +“Get up,” said the leader of the Earthmen. + +There was nothing else to be done. The three travellers scrambled to their +feet and joined hands. One wanted the touch of a friend’s hand at a moment like +that. And the Earthmen came all round them, padding on large, soft feet, on +which some had ten toes, some twelve, and others none. + +“March,” said the Warden: and march they did. + +The cold light came from a large ball on the top of a long pole, and the tallest + + + +of the gnomes carried this at the head of the procession. By its cheerless rays +they could see that they were in a natural cavern; the walls and roof were +knobbed, twisted, and gashed into a thousand fantastic shapes, and the stony +floor sloped downward as they proceeded. It was worse for Jill than for the +others, because she hated dark, underground places. And when, as they went on, +the cave got lower and narrower, and when, at last, the light-bearer stood aside, +and the gnomes, one by one, stooped down (all except the very smallest ones) +and stepped into a little dark crack and disappeared, she felt she could bear it no +longer. + +“I can’t go in there, I can’t! I can’t! I won’t,” she panted. The Earthmen said +nothing but they all lowered their spears and pointed them at her. + +“Steady, Pole,” said Puddleglum. “Those big fellows wouldn’t be crawling in +there if it didn’t get wider later on. And there’s one thing about this underground +work, we shan’t get any rain.” + +“Oh, you don’t understand. I can’t,” wailed Jill. + +“Think how 1 felt on that cliff, Pole,” said Scmbb. “You go first, +Puddleglum, and I’ll come after her.” + +“That’s right,” said the Marsh-wiggle, getting down on his hands and knees. +“You keep a grip of my heels, Pole, and Scrubb will hold on to yours. Then we’ll +all be comfortable.” + +“Comfortable!” said Jill. But she got down and they crawled in on their +elbows. It was a nasty place. You had to go flat on your face for what seemed +like half an hour, though it may really have been only five minutes. It was hot. +Jill felt she was being smothered. But at last a dim light showed ahead, the +tunnel grew wider and higher, and they came out, hot, dirty, and shaken, into a +cave so large that it scarcely seemed like a cave at all. + +It was full of a dim, drowsy radiance, so that here they had no need of the +Earthmen’s strange lantern. The floor was soft with some kind of moss and out +of this grew many strange shapes, branched and tall like trees, but flabby like +mushrooms. They stood too far apart to make a forest; it was more like a park. +The light (a greenish grey) seemed to come both from them and from the moss, +and it was not strong enough to reach the roof of the cave, which must have been +a long way overhead. Across the mild, soft, sleepy place they were now made to +march. It was very sad, but with a quiet sort of sadness like soft music. + +Here they passed dozens of strange animals lying on the turf, either dead or +asleep, Jill could not tell which. These were mostly of a dragonish or bat-like +sort; Puddleglum did not know what any of them were. + +“Do they grow here?” Scrubb asked the Warden. He seemed very surprised +at being spoken to, but replied, “No. They are all beasts that have found their + + + +way down by chasms and caves, out of Overland into the Deep Realm. Many +come down, and few return to the sunlit lands. It is said that they will all wake at +the end of the world.” + +His mouth shut like a box when he had said this, and in the great silence of +that cave the children felt that they would not dare to speak again. The bare feet +of the gnomes, padding on the deep moss, made no sound. There was no wind, +there were no birds, there was no sound of water. There was no sound of +breathing from the strange beasts. + +When they had walked for several miles, they came to a wall of rock, and in +it a low archway leading into another cavern. It was not, however, so bad as the +last entrance and Jill could go through it without bending her head. It brought +them into a smaller cave, long and narrow, about the shape and size of a +cathedral. And here, filling almost the whole length of it, lay an enormous man +fast asleep. He was far bigger than any of the giants, and his face was not like a +giant’s, but noble and beautiful. His breast rose and fell gently under the snowy +beard which covered him to the waist. A pure, silver light (no one saw where it +came from) rested upon him. + +“Who’s that?” asked Puddleglum. And it was so long since anyone had +spoken, that Jill wondered how he had the nerve. + +“That is old Father Time, who once was a King in Overland,” said the +Warden. “And now he has sunk down into the Deep Realm and lies dreaming of +all the things that are done in the upper world. Many sink down, and few return +to the sunlit lands. They say he will wake at the end of the world.” + +And out of that cave they passed into another, and then into another and +another, and so on till Jill lost count, but always they were going downhill and +each cave was lower than the last, till the very thought of the weight and depth +of earth above you was suffocating. At last they came to a place where the +Warden commanded his cheerless lantern to be lit again. Then they passed into a +cave so wide and dark that they could see nothing of it except that right in front +of them a strip of pale sand ran down into still water. And there, beside a little +jetty, lay a ship without mast or sail but with many oars. They were made to go +on board her and led forward to the bows where there was a clear space in front +of the rowers’ benches and a seat running round inside the bulwarks. + +“One thing I’d like to know,” said Puddleglum, “is whether anyone from our +world - from up-a-top, I mean has ever done this trip before?” + +“Many have taken ship at the pale beaches,” replied the Warden, “and-“ + +“Yes, I know,” interrupted Puddleglum. “And few return to the sunlit lands. +You needn’t say it again. You are a chap of one idea, aren’t you?” + +The children huddled close together on each side of Puddleglum. They had + + + +thought him a wet blanket while they were still above ground, but down here he +seemed the only comforting thing they had. Then the pale lantern was hung up +amidships, the Earthmen sat to the oars, and the ship began to move. The lantern +cast its light only a very short way. Looking ahead, they could see nothing but +smooth, dark water, fading into absolute blackness. + +“Oh, whatever will become of us?” said Jill despairingly. + +“Now don’t you let your spirits down, Pole,” said the Marsh-wiggle. +“There’s one thing you’ve got to remember. We’re back on the right lines. We +were to go under the Ruined City, and we are under it. We’re following the +instructions again.” + +Presently they were given food - flat, flabby cakes of some sort which had +hardly any taste. And after that, they gradually fell asleep. But when they woke, +everything was just the same; the gnomes still rowing, the ship still gliding on, +still dead blackness ahead. How often they woke and slept and ate and slept +again, none of them could ever remember. And the worst thing about it was that +you began to feel as if you had always lived on that ship, in that darkness, and to +wonder whether sun and blue skies and wind and birds had not been only a +dream. + +They had almost given up hoping or being afraid about anything when at last +they saw lights ahead: dreary lights, like that of their own lantern. Then, quite +suddenly, one of these lights came close and they saw that they were passing +another ship. After that they met several ships. Then, staring till their eyes hurt, +they saw that some of the lights ahead were shining on what looked like wharfs, +walls, towers, and moving crowds. But still there was hardly any noise. + +“By Jove,” said Scrubb. “A city!” and soon they all saw that he was right. + +But it was a queer city. The lights were so few and far apart that they would +hardly have done for scattered cottages in our world. But the little bits of the +place which you could see by the lights were like glimpses of a great seaport. +You could make out in one place a whole crowd of ships loading or unloading; +in another, bales of stuff and warehouses; in a third, walls and pillars that +suggested great palaces or temples; and always, wherever the light fell, endless +crowds - hundreds of Earthmen, jostling one another as they padded softly about +their business in narrow streets, broad squares, or up great flights of steps. Their +continued movement made a sort of soft, murmuring noise as the ship drew +nearer and nearer; but there was not a song or a shout or a bell or the rattle of a +wheel anywhere. The City was as quiet, and nearly as dark, as the inside of an +ant-hill. + +At last their ship was brought alongside a quay and made fast. The three +travellers were taken ashore and marched up into the City. Crowds of Earthmen, + + + +no two alike, rubbed shoulders with them in the crowded streets, and the sad +light fell on many sad and grotesque faces. But no one showed any interest in the +strangers. Every gnome seemed to be as busy as it was sad, though Jill never +found what they were so busy about. But the endless moving, shoving, hurrying, +and the soft pad-pad-pad went on. + +At last they came to what appeared to be a great castle, though few of the +windows in it were lighted. Here they were taken in and made to cross a +courtyard, and to climb many staircases. This brought them in the end to a great +murkily lit room. But in one corner of it - oh joy! - there was an archway filled +with a quite different sort of light; the honest, yellowish, warm light of such a +lamp as humans use. What showed by this light inside the archway was the foot +of a staircase which wound upward between walls of stone. The light seemed to +come from the top. Two Earthmen stood one on each side of the arch like +sentries, or footmen. + +The Warden went up to these two, and said, as if it were a password: + +“Many sink down to the Underworld.” + +“And few return to the sunlit lands,” they answered, as if it were the +countersign. Then all three put their heads together and talked. At last one of the +two gnomes-in-waiting said, “I tell you the Queen’s grace is gone from hence on +her great affair. We had best keep these top dwellers in strait prison till her +homecoming. Few return to the sunlit lands.” + +At that moment the conversation was interrupted by what seemed to Jill the +most delightful noise in the world. It came from above, from the top of the +staircase; and it was a clear, ringing, perfectly human voice, the voice of a young +man. + +“What coil are you keeping down there, Mullugutherum?” it shouted. +“Overworlders, ha! Bring them up to me, and that presently.” + +“Please it your Highness to remember,” began Mullugutherum, but the voice +cut him short. + +“It pleases my Highness principally to be obeyed, old mutterer. Bring them +up,” it called. + +Mullugutherum shook his head, motioned to the travellers to follow and +began going up the staircase. At every step the light increased. There were rich +tapestries hanging on the walls. The lamplight shone golden through thin +curtains at the staircase-head. The Earthmen parted the curtains and stood aside. +The three passed in. They were in a beautiful room, richly tapestried, with a +bright fire on a clean hearth, and red wine and cut glass sparkling on the table. A +young man with fair hair rose to greet them. He was handsome and looked both +bold and kind, though there was something about his face that didn’t seem quite + + + +right. He was dressed in black and altogether looked a little bit like Hamlet. + +“Welcome, Overworlders,” he cried. “But stay a moment! I cry you mercy! I +have seen you two fair children, and this, your strange governor, before. Was it +not you three that met me by the bridge on the borders of Ettinsmoor when I +rode there by my Lady’s side?” + +“Oh . . . you were the black knight who never spoke?” exclaimed Jill. + +“And was that lady the Queen of Underland?” asked Puddleglum, in no very +friendly voice. And Scrubb, who was thinking the same, burst out, “Because if it +was, I think she was jolly mean to send us off to a castle of giants who intended +to eat us. What harm had we ever done her, I should like to know?” + +“How?” said the Black Knight with a frown. “If you were not so young a +warrior, Boy, you and I must have fought to the death on this quarrel. I can hear +no words against my Lady’s honour. But of this you may be assured, that +whatever she said to you, she said of a good intent. You do not know her. She is +a nosegay of all virtues, as truth, mercy, constancy, gentleness, courage, and the +rest. I say what I know. Her kindness to me alone, who can in no way reward +her, would make an admirable history. But you shall know and love her +hereafter. Meanwhile, what is your errand in the Deep Lands?” + +And before Puddleglum could stop her, Jill blurted out, “Please we are trying +to find Prince Rilian of Narnia.” And then she realized what a frightful risk she +had taken; these people might be enemies. But the Knight showed no interest. + +“Rilian? Narnia?” he said carelessly. “Narnia? What land is that? I have +never heard the name. It must be a thousand leagues from those parts of the +Overworld that I know. But it was a strange fantasy that brought you seeking this +- how do you call him? - Billian? Trillian? in my Lady’s realm. Indeed, to my +certain knowledge, there is no such man here.” He laughed very loudly at this, +and Jill thought to herself, “I wonder is that what’s wrong with his face? Is he a +bit silly?” + +“We had been told to look for a message on the stones of the City Ruinous,” +said Scrubb. “And we saw the words UNDER ME.” + +The Knight laughed even more heartily than before. “You were the more +deceived,” he said. “Those words meant nothing to your purpose. Had you but +asked my Lady, she could have given you better counsel. Lor those words are all +that is left of a longer script, which in ancient times, as she well remembers, +expressed this verse: + +Though under Earth and throneless now I be, Yet, while I lived, all Earth was +under me. + +Prom which it is plain that some great king of the ancient giants, who lies +buried there, caused this boast to be cut in the stone over his sepulchre; though + + + +the breaking up of some stones, and the carrying away of others for new +buildings, and the filling up of the cuts with rubble, has left only two words that +can still be read. Is it not the merriest jest in the world that you should have +thought they were written to you?” + +This was like cold water down the back to Scrubb and + +Jill; for it seemed to them very likely that the words had nothing to do with +their quest at all, and that they had been taken in by a mere accident. + +“Don’t you mind him,” said Puddleglum. “There are no accidents. Our guide +is Aslan; and he was there when the giant King caused the letters to be cut, and +he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.” + +“This guide of yours must be a long liver, friend,” said the Knight with +another of his laughs. + +Jill began to find them a little irritating. + +“And it seems to me, Sir,” answered Puddleglum, “that this Lady of yours +must be a long liver too, if she remembers the verse as it was when they first cut +it.” + +“Very shrewd, Frog-face,” said the Knight, clapping Puddleglum on the +shoulder and laughing again. “And you have hit the truth. She is of divine race, +and knows neither age nor death. I am the more thankful to her for all her +infinite bounty to such a poor mortal wretch as I. For you must know, Sirs, I am +a man under most strange afflictions, and none but the Queen’s grace would +have had patience with me. Patience, said I? But it goes far beyond that. She has +promised me a great kingdom in Overland, and, when I am king, her own most +gracious hand in marriage. But the tale is too long for you to hear fasting and +standing. Hi there, some of you! Bring wine and Updwellers’ food for my guests. +Please you, be seated, gentlemen. Little maiden, sit in this chair. You shall hear it +all.” + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +IN THE DARK CASTLE + +WHEN the meal (which was pigeon pie, cold ham, salad, and cakes) had +been brought, and all had drawn their chairs up to the table and begun, the +Knight continued: + +“You must understand, friends, that I know nothing of who I was and whence +I came into this Dark World. I remember no time when I was not dwelling, as +now, at the court of this all but heavenly Queen; but my thought is that she saved +me from some evil enchantment and brought me hither of her exceeding bounty. +(Honest Frogfoot, your cup is empty. Suffer me to refill it.) And this seems to me +the likelier because even now I am bound by a spell, from which my Lady alone +can free me. Every night there comes an hour when my mind is most horribly +changed, and, after my mind, my body. For first I become furious and wild and +would rush upon my dearest friends to kill them, if I were not bound. And soon +after that, I turn into the likeness of a great serpent, hungry, fierce, and deadly. +(Sir, be pleased to take another breast of pigeon, I entreat you.) So they tell me, +and they certainly speak truth, for my Lady says the same. I myself know +nothing of it, for when my hour is past I awake forgetful of all that vile fit and in +my proper shape and sound mind - saving that I am somewhat wearied. (Little +lady, eat one of these honey cakes, which are brought for me from some +barbarous land in the far south of the world.) Now the Queen’s majesty knows +by her art that I shall be freed from this enchantment when once she has made +me king of a land in the Overworld and set its crown upon my head. The land is +already chosen and the very place of our breaking out. Her Earthmen have +worked day and night digging a way beneath it, and have now gone so far and so +high that they tunnel not a score of feet beneath the very grass on which the +Updwellers of that country walk. It will be very soon now that those Laplanders’ +fate will come upon them. She herself is at the diggings tonight, and I expect a +message to go to her. Then the thin roof of earth which still keeps me from my +kingdom will be broken through, and with her to guide me and a thousand +Earthmen at my back, I shall ride forth in arms, fall suddenly on our enemies, +slay their chief men, cast down their strong places, and doubtless be their +crowned king within four and twenty hours.” + +“It’s a bit rough luck on them, isn’t it?” said Scrubb. + +“Thou art a lad of a wondrous, quick-working wit!” exclaimed the Knight. +“For, on my honour, I had never thought of it so before. I see your meaning.” He + + + +looked slightly, very slightly troubled for a moment or two; but his face soon +cleared and he broke out, with another of his loud laughs, “But fie on gravity! Is +it not the most comical and ridiculous thing in the world to think of them ah +going about their business and never dreaming that under their peaceful fields +and floors, only a fathom down, there is a great army ready to break out upon +them like a fountain! And they never to have suspected! Why, they themselves, +when once the first smart of their defeat is over, can hardly choose but laugh at +the thought!” + +“I don’t think it’s funny at ah,” said Jill. “I think you’ll be a wicked tyrant.” + +“What?” said the Knight, still laughing and patting her head in a quite +infuriating fashion. “Is our little maid a deep politician? But never fear, +sweetheart. In ruling that land, I shall do all by the counsel of my Lady, who will +then be my Queen too. Her word shah be my law, even as my word will be law +to the people we have conquered.” + +“Where I come from,” said Jill, who was disliking him more every minute, +“they don’t think much of men who are bossed about by their wives.” + +“Shalt think otherwise when thou hast a man of thine own, I warrant you,” +said the Knight, apparently thinking this very funny. “But with my Lady, it is +another matter. I am well content to live by her word, who has already saved me +from a thousand dangers. No mother has taken pains more tenderly for her child, +than the Queen’s grace has for me. Why, look you, amid ah her cares and +business, she rideth out with me in the Overworld many a time and oft to +accustom my eyes to the sunlight. And then I must go fully armed and with visor +down, so that no man may see my face, and I must speak to no one. For she has +found out by art magical that this would hinder my deliverance from the +grievous enchantment I he under. Is not that a lady worthy of a man’s whole +worship?” + +“Sounds a very nice lady indeed,” said Puddleglum in a voice which meant +exactly the opposite. + +They were thoroughly tired of the Knight’s talk before they had finished +supper. Puddleglum was thinking, “I wonder what game that witch is really +playing with this young fool.” Scrubb was thinking, “He’s a great baby, really: +tied to that woman’s apron strings; he’s a sap.” And Jill was thinking, “He’s the +silliest, most conceited, selfish pig I’ve met for a long time.” But when the meal +was over, the Knight’s mood had changed. There was no more laughter about +him. + +“Friends,” he said, “my hour is now very near. I am ashamed that you should +see me yet I dread being left alone. They will come in presently and bind me +hand and foot to yonder chair. Alas, so it must be: for in my fury, they tell me, I + + + +would destroy all that I could reach.” + +“I say,” said Scrubb, “I’m awfully sorry about your enchantment of course, +but what will those fellows do to us when they come to bind you? They talked of +putting us in prison. And we don’t like all those dark places very much. We’d +much rather stay here till you’re . . . better ... if we may.” + +“It is well thought of,” said the Knight. “By custom none but the Queen +herself remains with me in my evil hour. Such is her tender care for my honour +that she would not willingly suffer any ears but her own to hear the words I utter +in that frenzy. But I could not easily persuade my attendant gnomes that you +should be left with me. And I think I hear their soft feet even now upon the +stairs. Go through yonder door: it leads into my other apartments. And there, +either await my coming when they have unbound me; or, if you will, return and +sit with me in my ravings.” + +They followed his directions and passed out of the room by a door which +they had not yet seen opened. It brought them, they were pleased to see, not into +darkness but into a lighted corridor. They tried various doors and found (what +they very badly needed) water for washing and even a looking glass. “He never +offered us a wash before supper,” said Jill, drying her face. “Selfish, selfcentred +Pig-” + +“Are we going back to watch the enchantment, or shall we stay here?” said +Scrubb. + +“Stay here, I vote,” said Jill. “I’d much rather not see it.” But she felt a little +inquisitive all the same. + +“No, go back,” said Puddleglum. “We may pick up some information, and +we need all we can get. I am sure that Queen is a witch and an enemy. And those +Earthmen would knock us on the head as soon as look at us. There’s a stronger +smell of danger and lies and magic and treason about this land than I’ve ever +smelled before. We need to keep our eyes and ears open.” + +They went back down the corridor and gently pushed the door open. “It’s all +right,” said Scrubb, meaning that there were no Earthmen about. Then they all +came back into the room where they had supped. + +The main door was now shut, concealing the curtain between which they had +first entered. The Knight was seated in a curious silver chair, to which he was +bound by his ankles, his knees, his elbows, his wrists, and his waist. There was +sweat on his forehead and his face was filled with anguish. + +“Come in, friends,” he said, glancing quickly up. “The fit is not yet upon me. +Make no noise, for I told that prying chamberlain that you were in bed. Now . . . +I can feel it coming. Quick! Listen while I am master of myself. When the fit is +upon me, it well may be that I shall beg and implore you, with entreaties and + + + +threatenings, to loosen my bonds. They say I do. I shall call upon you by all that +is most dear and most dreadful. But do not listen to me. Harden your hearts and +stop your ears. For while I am bound you are safe. But if once I were up and out +of this chair, then first would come my fury, and after that” - he shuddered - “the +change into a loathsome serpent.” + +“There’s no fear of our loosing you,” said Puddleglum. “We’ve no wish to +meet wild men; or serpents either.” + +“I should think not,” said Scrubb and Jill together. + +“All the same,” added Puddleglum in a whisper. “Don’t let’s be too sure. +Let’s be on our guard. We’ve muffed everything else, you know. He’ll be +cunning, I shouldn’t wonder, once he gets started. Can we trust one another? Do +we all promise that whatever he says we don’t touch those cords? Whatever he +says, mind you?” + +“Rather!” said Scrubb. + +“There’s nothing in the world he can say or do that’ll make me change my +mind,” said Jill. + +“Hush! Something’s happening,” said Puddleglum. + +The Knight was moaning. His face was as pale as putty, and he writhed in his +bonds. And whether because she was sorry for him, or for some other reason, Jill +thought that he looked a nicer sort of man than he had looked before. + +“Ah,” he groaned. “Enchantments, enchantments ... the heavy, tangled, +cold, clammy web of evil magic. Buried alive. Dragged down under the earth, +down into the sooty blackness . . . how many years is it? . . . Have I lived ten +years, or a thousand years, in the pit? Maggotmen all around me. Oh, have +mercy. Let me out, let me go back. Let me feel the wind and see the sky . . . +There used to be a little pool. When you looked down into it you could see all +the trees growing upside-down in the water, all green, and below them, deep, +very deep, the blue sky.” + +He had been speaking in a low voice; now he looked up, fixed his eyes upon +them, and said loud and clear: + +“Quick! I am sane now. Every night I am sane. If only I could get out of this +enchanted chair, it would last. I should be a man again. But every night they bind +me, and so every night my chance is gone. But you are not enemies. I am not +your prisoner. Quick! Cut these cords.” + +“Stand fast! Steady,” said Puddleglum to the two children. + +“I beseech you to hear me,” said the Knight, forcing himself to speak calmly. +“Have they told you that if I am released from this chair I shall kill you and +become a serpent? I see by your faces that they have. It is a lie. It is at this hour +that I am in my right mind: it is all the rest of the day that I am enchanted. You + + + +are not Earthmen nor witches. Why should you be on their side? Of your +courtesy, cut my bonds.” + +“Steady! Steady! Steady!” said the three travellers to one another. + +“Oh, you have hearts of stone,” said the Knight. “Believe me, you look upon +a wretch who has suffered almost more than any mortal can bear. What wrong +have I ever done you, that you should side with my enemies to keep me in such +miseries? And the minutes are slipping past. Now you can save me; when this +hour has passed, I shall be witless again - the toy and lap-dog, nay, more likely +the pawn and tool, of the most devilish sorceress that ever planned the woe of +men. And this night, of all nights, when she is away! You take from me a chance +that may never come again.” + +“This is dreadful. I do wish we’d stayed away till it was over,” said Jill. + +“Steady!” said Puddleglum. + +The prisoner’s voice was now rising into a shriek. “Let me go, I say. Give me +my sword. My sword! Once I am free I shall take such revenge on Earthmen that +Underland will talk of it for a thousand years!” + +“Now the frenzy is beginning,” said Scrubb. “I hope those knots are all +right.” + +“Yes,” said Puddleglum. “He’d have twice his natural strength if he got free +now. And I’m not clever with my sword. He’d get us both, I shouldn’t wonder; +and then Pole on her own would be left to tackle the snake.” + +The prisoner was now so straining at his bonds that they cut into his wrists +and ankles. “Beware,” he said. “Beware. One night I did break them. But the +witch was there that time. You will not have her to help you tonight. Free me +now, and I am your friend. I’m your mortal enemy else.” + +“Cunning, isn’t he?” said Puddleglum. + +“Once and for all,” said the prisoner, “I adjure you to set me free. By all fears +and all loves, by the bright skies of Overland, by the great Lion, by Aslan +himself, I charge you -“ + +“Oh!” cried the three travellers as though they had been hurt. “It’s the sign,” +said Puddleglum. “It was the words of the sign,” said Scrubb more cautiously. +“Oh, what are we to do?” said Jill. + +It was a dreadful question. What had been the use of promising one another +that they would not on any account set the Knight free, if they were now to do so +the first time he happened to call upon a name they really cared about? On the +other hand, what had been the use of learning the signs if they weren’t going to +obey them? Yet could Aslan have really meant them to unbind anyone even a +lunatic - who asked it in his name? Could it be a mere accident? Or how if the +Queen of the Underworld knew all about the signs and had made the Knight + + + +learn this name simply in order to entrap them? But then, supposing this was the +real sign? . . . They had muffed three already; they daren’t muff the fourth. + +“Oh, if only we knew!” said Jill. + +“I think we do know,” said Puddleglum. + +“Do you mean you think everything will come right if we do untie him?” +said Scrubb. + +“I don’t know about that,” said Puddleglum. “You see, Aslan didn’t tell Pole +what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of +us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the +sign.” + +They all stood looking at one another with bright eyes. It was a sickening +moment. “All right!” said Jill suddenly. “Let’s get it over. Good-bye, everyone +...!” They all shook hands. The Knight was screaming by now; there was foam +on his cheeks. + +“Come on, Scrubb,” said Puddleglum. He and Scrubb drew their swords and +went over to the captive. + +“In the name of Aslan,” they said and began methodically cutting the cords. +The instant the prisoner was free, he crossed the room in a single bound, seized +his own sword (which had been taken from him and laid on the table), and drew +it. + +“You first!” he cried and fell upon the silver chair. That must have been a +good sword. The silver gave way before its edge like string, and in a moment a +few twisted fragments, shining on the floor, were all that was left. But as the +chair broke, there came from it a bright flash, a sound like small thunder, and +(for one moment) a loathsome smell. + +“Lie there, vile engine of sorcery,” he said, “lest your mistress should ever +use you for another victim.” Then he turned and surveyed his rescuers; and the +something wrong, whatever it was, had vanished from his face. + +“What?” he cried, turning to Puddleglum. “Do I see before me a Marsh- +wiggle - a real, live, honest, Narnian Marsh-wiggle?” + +“Oh, so you have heard of Narnia after all?” said Jill. + +“Had I forgotten it when I was under the spell?” asked the Knight. “Well, +that and all other bedevilments are now over. You may well believe that I know +Narnia, for I am Rilian, Prince of Narnia, and Caspian the great King is my +father.” + +“Your Royal Highness,” said Puddleglum, sinking on one knee (and the +children did the same), “we have come hither for no other end than to seek you.” + +“And who are you, my other deliverers?” said the Prince to Scrubb and Jill. + +“We were sent by Aslan himself from beyond the world’s end to seek your + + + +Highness,” said Scrubb. “I am Eustace who sailed with him to the island of +Ramandu.” + +“I owe all three of you a greater debt than I can ever pay,” said Prince Rilian. +“But my father? Is he yet alive?” + +“He sailed east again before we left Narnia, my lord,” said Puddleglum. “But +your Highness must consider that the King is very old. It is ten to one his +Majesty must die on the voyage.” + +“He is old, you say. How long then have I been in the power of the witch?’ + +“It is more than ten years since your Highness was lost in the woods at the +north side of Narnia.” + +“Ten years!” said the Prince, drawing his hand across his face as if to mb +away the past. “Yes, I believe you. For now that I am myself I can remember that +enchanted life, though while I was enchanted I could not remember my true self. +And now, fair friends - but wait! I hear their feet (does it not sicken a man, that +padding woolly tread! faugh!) on the stairs. Lock the door, boy. Or stay. I have a +better thought than that. I will fool these Earthmen, if Aslan gives me the wit. +Take your cue from me.” + +He walked resolutely to the door and flung it wide open. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +THE QUEEN OF UNDERLAND + +TWO Earthmen entered, but instead of advancing into the room, they placed +themselves one on each side of the door, and bowed deeply. They were followed +immediately by the last person whom anyone had expected or wished to see: the +Lady of the Green Kirtle, the Queen of Underland. She stood dead still in the +doorway, and they could see her eyes moving as she took in the whole situation - +the three strangers, the silver chair destroyed, and the Prince free, with his sword +in his hand. + +She turned very white; but Jill thought it was the sort of whiteness that +comes over some people’s faces not when they are frightened but when they are +angry. For a moment the Witch fixed her eyes on the Prince, and there was +murder in them. Then she seemed to change her mind. + +“Leave us,” she said to the two Earthmen. “And let none disturb us till I call, +on pain of death.” The gnomes padded away obediently, and the Witch-queen +shut and locked the door. + +“How now, my lord Prince,” she said. “Has your nightly fit not yet come +upon you, or is it over so soon? Why stand you here unbound? Who are these +aliens? And is it they who have destroyed the chair which was your only +safety?” + +Prince Rilian shivered as she spoke to him. And no wonder: it is not easy to +throw off in half an hour an enchantment which has made one a slave for ten +years. Then, speaking with a great effort, he said: + +“Madam, there will be no more need of that chair. And you, who have told +me a hundred times how deeply you pitied me for the sorceries by which I was +bound, will doubtless hear with joy that they are now ended for ever. There was, +it seems, some small error in your Ladyship’s way of treating them. These, my +true friends, have delivered me. I am now in my right mind, and there are two +things I will say to you. First - as for your Ladyship’s design of putting me at the +head of an army of Earthmen so that I may break out into the Overworld and +there, by main force, make myself king over some nation that never did me +wrong - murdering their natural lords and holding their throne as a bloody and +foreign tyrant - now that I know myself, I do utterly abhor and renounce it as +plain villainy. And second: I am the King’s son of Narnia, Rilian, the only child +of Caspian, Tenth of that name, whom some call Caspian the Seafarer. +Therefore, Madam, it is my purpose, as it is also my duty, to depart suddenly + + + +from your Highness’s court into my own country. Please it you to grant me and +my friends safe conduct and a guide through your dark realm.” + +Now the Witch said nothing at all, but moved gently across the room, always +keeping her face and eyes very steadily towards the Prince. When she had come +to a little ark set in the wall not far from the fireplace, she opened it, and took out +first a handful of a green powder. This she threw on the fire. It did not blaze +much, but a very sweet and drowsy smell came from it. And all through the +conversation which followed, that smell grew stronger, and filled the room, and +made it harder to think. Secondly, she took out a musical instrument rather like a +mandolin. She began to play it with her fingers - a steady, monotonous +thrumming that you didn’t notice after a few minutes. But the less you noticed it, +the more it got into your brain and your blood. This also made it hard to think. +After she had thrummed for a time (and the sweet smell was now strong) she +began speaking in a sweet, quiet voice. + +“Narnia?” she said. “Narnia? I have often heard your Lordship utter that +name in your ravings. Dear Prince, you are very sick. There is no land called +Narnia.” + +“Yes there is, though, Ma’am,” said Puddleglum. “You see, I happen to have +lived there all my life.” + +“Indeed,” said the Witch. “Tell me, I pray you, where that country is?” + +“Up there,” said Puddleglum, stoutly, pointing overhead. “I - I don’t know +exactly where.” + +“How?” said the Queen, with a kind, soft, musical laugh. “Is there a country +up among the stones and mortar of the roof?” + +“No,” said Puddleglum, struggling a little to get his breath. “It’s in +Overworld.” + +“And what, or where, pray is this . . . how do you call it. . . Overworld?” + +“Oh, don’t be so silly,” said Scmbb, who was fighting hard against the +enchantment of the sweet smell and the thrumming. “As if you didn’t know! It’s +up above, up where you can see the sky and the sun and the stars. Why, you’ve +been there yourself. We met you there.” + +“I cry you mercy, little brother,” laughed the Witch (you couldn’t have heard +a lovelier laugh). “I have no memory of that meeting. But we often meet our +friends in strange places when we dream. And unless all dreamed alike, you +must not ask them to remember it.” + +“Madam,” said the Prince sternly, “I have already told your Grace that I am +the King’s son of Narnia.” + +“And shalt be, dear friend,” said the Witch in a soothing voice, as if she was +humouring a child, “shalt be king of many imagined lands in thy fancies.” + + + +“We’ve been there, too,” snapped Jill. She was very angry because she could +feel enchantment getting hold of her every moment. But of course the very fact +that she could still feel it, showed that it had not yet fully worked. + +“And thou art Queen of Narnia too, I doubt not, pretty one,” said the Witch +in the same coaxing, half-mocking tone. + +“I’m nothing of the sort,” said Jill, stamping her foot. “We come from +another world.” + +“Why, this is a prettier game than the other,” said the Witch. “Tell us, little +maid, where is this other world? What ships and chariots go between it and +ours?” + +Of course a lot of things darted into Jill’s head at once: Experiment House, +Adela Pennyfather, her own home, radio-sets, cinemas, cars, aeroplanes, ration- +books, queues. But they seemed dim and far away. (Thrum thrum - thrum - went +the strings of the Witch’s instrument.) Jill couldn’t remember the names of the +things in our world. And this time it didn’t come into her head that she was being +enchanted, for now the magic was in its full strength; and of course, the more +enchanted you get, the more certain you feel that you are not enchanted at all. +She found herself saying (and at the moment it was a relief to say): + +“No. I suppose that other world must be all a dream.” + +“Yes. It is all a dream,” said the Witch, always thrumming. + +“Yes, all a dream,” said Jill. + +“There never was such a world,” said the Witch. + +“No,” said Jill and Scrubb, “never was such a world.” + +“There never was any world but mine,” said the Witch. + +“There never was any world but yours,” said they. + +Puddleglum was still fighting hard. “I don’t know rightly what you all mean +by a world,” he said, talking like a man who hasn’t enough air. “But you can +play that fiddle till your fingers drop off, and still you won’t make me forget +Narnia; and the whole Overworld too. We’ll never see it again, I shouldn’t +wonder. You may have blotted it out and turned it dark like this, for all I know. +Nothing more likely. But I know I was there once. I’ve seen the sky full of stars. +I’ve seen the sun coming up out of the sea of a morning and sinking behind the +mountains at night. And I’ve seen him up in the midday sky when I couldn’t +look at him for brightness.” + +Puddleglum’s words had a very rousing effect. The other three all breathed +again and looked at one another like people newly awaked. + +“Why, there it is!” cried the Prince. “Of course! The blessing of Aslan upon +this honest Marsh-wiggle. We have all been dreaming, these last few minutes. +How could we have forgotten it? Of course we’ve all seen the sun.” + + + +“By Jove, so we have!” said Scrubb. “Good for you, Puddleglum! You’re the +only one of us with any sense, I do believe.” + +Then came the Witch’s voice, cooing softly like the voice of a wood-pigeon +from the high elms in an old garden at three o’clock in the middle of a sleepy, +summer afternoon; and it said: + +“What is this sun that you all speak of? Do you mean anything by the word?” + +“Yes, we jolly well do,” said Scrubb. + +“Can you tell me what it’s like?” asked the Witch (thrum, thrum, thrum, went +the strings). + +“Please it your Grace,” said the Prince, very coldly and politely. “You see +that lamp. It is round and yellow and gives light to the whole room; and hangeth +moreover from the roof. Now that thing which we call the sun is like the lamp, +only far greater and brighter. It giveth light to the whole Overworld and hangeth +in the sky.” + +“Hangeth from what, my lord?” asked the Witch; and then, while they were +all still thinking how to answer her, she added, with another of her soft, silver +laughs: “You see? When you try to think out clearly what this sun must be, you +cannot tell me. You can only tell me it is like the lamp. Your sun is a dream; and +there is nothing in that dream that was not copied from the lamp. The lamp is the +real thing; the sun is but a tale, a children’s story.” + +“Yes, I see now,” said Jill in a heavy, hopeless tone. “It must be so.” And +while she said this, it seemed to her to be very good sense. + +Slowly and gravely the Witch repeated, “There is no sun.” And they all said +nothing. She repeated, in a softer and deeper voice. “There is no sun.” After a +pause, and after a struggle in their minds, all four of them said together. “You are +right. There is no sun.” It was such a relief to give in and say it. + +“There never was a sun,” said the Witch. + +“No. There never was a sun,” said the Prince, and the Marsh-wiggle, and the +children. + +For the last few minutes Jill had been feeling that there was something she +must remember at all costs. And now she did. But it was dreadfully hard to say +it. She felt as if huge weights were laid on her lips. At last, with an effort that +seemed to take all the good out of her, she said: + +“There’s Aslan.” + +“Aslan?” said the Witch, quickening ever so slightly the pace of her +thrumming. “What a pretty name! What does it mean?” + +“He is the great Lion who called us out of our own world,” said Scrubb, “and +sent us into this to find Prince Rilian.” + +“What is a lion?” asked the Witch. + + + +“Oh, hang it all!” said Scrubb. “Don’t you know? How can we describe it to +her? Have you ever seen a cat?” + +“Surely,” said the Queen. “I love cats.” + +“Well, a lion is a little bit - only a little bit, mind you like a huge cat - with a +mane. At least, it’s not like a horse’s mane, you know, it’s more like a judge’s +wig. And it’s yellow. And terrifically strong.” + +The Witch shook her head. “I see,” she said, “that we should do no better +with your lion, as you call it, than we did with your sun. You have seen lamps, +and so you imagined a bigger and better lamp and called it the sun. You’ve seen +cats, and now you want a bigger and better cat, and it’s to be called a lion. Well, +’tis a pretty makebelieve, though, to say truth, it would suit you all better if you +were younger. And look how you can put nothing into your make-believe +without copying it from the real world, this world of mine, which is the only +world. But even you children are too old for such play. As for you, my lord +Prince, that art a man full grown, fie upon you! Are you not ashamed of such +toys? Come, all of you. Put away these childish tricks. I have work for you all in +the real world. There is no Narnia, no Overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan. And +now, to bed all. And let us begin a wiser life tomorrow. But, first, to bed; to +sleep; deep sleep, soft pillows, sleep without foolish dreams.” + +The Prince and the two children were standing with their heads hung down, +their cheeks flushed, their eyes half closed; the strength all gone from them; the +enchantment almost complete. But Puddleglum, desperately gathering all his +strength, walked over to the fire. Then he did a very brave thing. He knew it +wouldn’t hurt him quite as much as it would hurt a human; for his feet (which +were bare) were webbed and hard and coldblooded like a duck’s. But he knew it +would hurt him badly enough; and so it did. With his bare foot he stamped on the +fire, grinding a large part of it into ashes on the flat hearth. And three things +happened at once. + +First, the sweet heavy smell grew very much less. For though the whole fire +had not been put out, a good bit of it had, and what remained smelled very +largely of burnt Marsh-wiggle, which is not at all an enchanting smell. This +instantly made everyone’s brain far clearer. The Prince and the children held up +their heads again and opened their eyes. + +Secondly, the Witch, in a loud, terrible voice, utterly different from all the +sweet tones she had been using up till now, called out, “What are you doing? +Dare to touch my fire again, mud-filth, and I’ll turn the blood to fire inside your +veins.” + +Thirdly, the pain itself made Puddleglum’s head for a moment perfectly clear +and he knew exactly what he really thought. There is nothing like a good shock + + + +of pain for dissolving certain kinds of magic. + +“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of +the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. +I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can +on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be +said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - +trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. +Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more +important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the +only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, +when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re +right. But four babies playing a game can make a playworld which licks your +real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on +Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a +Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our +supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your +court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. +Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the +world’s as dull a place as you say.” + +“Oh, hurrah! Good old Puddleglum!” cried Scrubb and Jill. But the Prince +shouted suddenly, “Ware! Look to the Witch.” + +When they did look their hair nearly stood on end. + +The instrument dropped from her hands. Her arms appeared to be fastened to +her sides. Her legs were intertwined with each other, and her feet had +disappeared. The long green train of her skirt thickened and grew solid, and +seemed to be all one piece with the writhing green pillar of her interlocked legs. +And that writhing green pillar was curving and swaying as if it had no joints, or +else were all joints. Her head was thrown far back and while her nose grew +longer and longer, every other part of her face seemed to disappear, except her +eyes. Huge flaming eyes they were now, without brows or lashes. All this takes +time to write down; it happened so quickly that there was only just time to see it. +Long before there was time to do anything, the change was complete, and the +great serpent which the Witch had become, green as poison, thick as Jill’s waist, +had flung two or three coils of its loathsome body round the Prince’s legs. Quick +as lightning another great loop darted round, intending to pinion his sword-arm +to his side. But the Prince was just in time. He raised his arms and got them +clear: the living knot closed only round his chest - ready to crack his ribs like +firewood when it drew tight. + +The Prince caught the creature’s neck in his left hand, trying to squeeze it till + + + +it choked. This held its face (if you could call it a face) about five inches from +his own. The forked tongue flickered horribly in and out, but could not reach +him. With his right hand he drew back his sword for the strongest blow he could +give. Meanwhile Scrubb and Puddleglum had drawn their weapons and rushed to +his aid. All three blows fell at once: Scrubb’s (which did not even pierce the +scales and did no good) on the body of the snake below the Prince’s hand, but +the Prince’s own blow and Puddleglum’s both on its neck. Even that did not +quite kill it, though it began to loosen its hold on Rilian’s legs and chest. With +repeated blows they hacked off its head. The horrible thing went on coiling and +moving like a bit of wire long after it had died; and the floor, as you may +imagine, was a nasty mess. + +The Prince, when he had breath, said, “Gentlemen, I thank you.” Then the +three conquerors stood staring at one another and panting, without another word, +for a long time. Jill had very wisely sat down and was keeping quiet; she was +saying to herself, “I do hope I don’t faint or blub - or do anything idiotic.” + +“My royal mother is avenged,” said Rilian presently. “This is undoubtedly +the same worm that I pursued in vain by the fountain in the forest of Narnia, so +many years ago. All these years I have been the slave of my mother’s slayer. Yet +I am glad, gentlemen, that the foul Witch took to her serpent form at the last. It +would not have suited well either with my heart or with my honour to have slain +a woman. But look to the lady.” He meant Jill. + +“I’m all right, thanks,” said she. + +“Damsel,” said the Prince, bowing to her. “You are of a high courage, and +therefore, I doubt not, you come of a noble blood in your own world. But come, +friends. Here is some wine left. Let us refresh ourselves and each pledge his +fellows. After that, to our plans.” + +“A jolly good idea, Sir,” said Scrubb. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +UNDERLAND WITHOUT THE QUEEN + +ALL felt that they had earned what Scrubb called a “breather”. The Witch +had locked the door and told the Earthmen not to disturb her, so there was no +danger of interruption for the present. Their first business was, of course, +Puddleglum’s burnt foot. A couple of clean shirts from the Prince’s bedroom, +torn into strips, and well greased on the inside with butter and salad oil off the +supper table, made a fairly good dressing. When this had been applied, they all +sat down and had a little refreshment, and discussed plans for escaping from the +Underworld. + +Rilian explained that there were quite a lot of outlets by which one could get +to the surface; he had been taken out through most of them at one time or +another. But he had never gone out alone, only with the Witch; and he had +always reached these outlets by going in a ship across the Sunless Sea. What the +Earthmen would say if he went down to the harbour without the Witch, and with +four strangers, and simply ordered a ship, no one could guess. But most likely +they would ask awkward questions. On the other hand the new outlet, the one for +the invasion of Overworld, was on this side of the sea, and only a few miles +away. The Prince knew that it was nearly finished; only a few feet of earth +divided the diggings from the outer air. It was even possible that it had now been +quite finished. Perhaps the Witch had come back to tell him this and to start the +attack. Even if it was not, they could probably dig themselves out by that route +in a few hours - if they could only get there without being stopped, and if only +they found the diggings unguarded. But those were the difficulties. + +“If you ask me began Puddleglum, when Scrubb interrupted. + +“I say,” he asked, “what’s that noise?” + +“I’ve been wondering that for some time!” said Jill. + +They had all, in fact, been hearing the noise but it had begun and increased +so gradually that they did not know when they had first noticed it. For a time it +had been only a vague disquiet like gentle winds, or traffic very far away. Then it +swelled to a murmur like the sea. Then came rumblings and rushings. Now there +seemed to be voices as well and also a steady roaring that was not voices. + +“By the Lion,” said Prince Rilian, “it seems this silent land has found a +tongue at last.” He rose, walked to the window, and drew aside the curtains. The +others crowded round him to look out. + +The very first thing they noticed was a great red glow. Its reflection made a + + + +red patch on the roof of the Underworld thousands of feet above them, so that +they could see a rocky ceiling which had perhaps been hidden in darkness ever +since the world was made. The glow itself came from the far side of the city so +that many buildings, grim and great, stood up blackly against it. But it also cast +its light down many streets that ran from it towards the castle. And in those +streets something very strange was going on. The closely-packed, silent crowds +of Earthmen had vanished. Instead, there were figures darting about by ones, or +twos, or threes. They behaved like people who do not want to be seen: lurking in +shadow behind buttresses or in doorways, and then moving quickly across the +open into fresh places of hiding. But the strangest thing of all, to anyone who +knew the gnomes, was the noise. Shouts and cries came from all directions. But +from the harbour there came a low, rumbling roar which grew steadily louder +and was already shaking the whole city. + +“What’s happened to the Earthmen?” said Scrubb. “Is it them shouting?” + +“‘Tis hardly possible,” said the Prince. “I never heard one of the rascals so +much as speak with a loud voice in all the weary years of my bondage. Some +new devilry, I don’t doubt.” + +“And what is that red light over there?” asked Jill. “Is something on fire?” + +“If you ask me,” said Puddleglum, “I should say that was the central fires of +the Earth breaking out to make a new volcano. We’ll be in the middle of it, I +shouldn’t wonder.” + +“Look at that ship!” said Scrubb. “Why’s it coming on so quickly? No one’s +rowing it.” + +“Look, look!” said the Prince. “The ship is already far this side of the +harbour - it is in the street. Look! All the ships are driving into the city! By my +head, the sea’s rising. The flood is upon us. Aslan be praised, this castle stands +on high ground. But the water comes on grimly fast.” + +“Oh, what can be happening?” cried Jill. “Fire and water and all those people +dodging about the streets.” + +“I’ll tell you what it is,” said Puddleglum. “That Witch has laid a train of +magic spells so that whenever she was killed, at that same moment her whole +kingdom would fall to pieces. She’s the sort that wouldn’t so much mind dying +herself if she knew that the chap who killed her was going to be burned, or +buried, or drowned five minutes later.” + +“Hast hit it, friend wiggle,” said the Prince. “When our swords hacked off +the Witch’s head, that stroke ended all her magic works, and now the Deep +Lands are falling to pieces. We are looking on the end of Underworld.” + +“That’s it, Sir,” said Puddleglum. “Unless it should happen to be the end of +the whole world.” + + + +“But are we just going to stay here and - wait?” gasped Jill. + +“Not by my counsel,” said the Prince. “I would save my horse, Coalblack, +and the Witch’s Snowflake (a noble beast and worthy of a better mistress) which +are both stabled in the courtyard. After that, let us make shift to get out to high +ground and pray that we shall find an outlet. The horses can carry two each at +need, and if we put them to it they may outstrip the flood.” + +“Will your Highness not put on armour?” asked Puddleglum. “I don’t like +the look of those” - and he pointed down to the street. Everyone looked down. +Dozens of creatures (and now that they were close, they obviously were +Earthmen) were coming up from the direction of the harbour. But they were not +moving like an aimless crowd. They behaved like modern soldiers in an attack, +making rushes and taking cover, anxious not to be seen from the castle windows. + +“I dare not see the inside of that armour again,” said the Prince. “I rode in it +as in a movable dungeon, and it stinks of magic and slavery. But I will take the +shield.” + +He left the room and returned with a strange light in his eyes a moment later. + +“Look, friends,” he said, holding out the shield towards them. “An hour ago +it was black and without device; and now, this.” The shield had turned bright as +silver, and on it, redder than blood or cherries, was the figure of the Lion. + +“Doubtless,” said the Prince, “this signifies that Aslan will be our good lord, +whether he means us to live or die. And all’s one, for that. Now, by my counsel, +we shall all kneel and kiss his likeness, and then all shake hands one with +another, as true friends that may shortly be parted. And then, let us descend into +the city and take the adventure that is sent us.” + +And they all did as the Prince had said. But when Scrubb shook hands with +Jill, he said, “So long, Jill. Sorry I’ve been a funk and so ratty. I hope you get +safe home,” and Jill said, “So long, Eustace. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a +pig.” And this was the first time they had ever used Christian names, because +one didn’t do it at school. + +The Prince unlocked the door and they all went down the stairs: three of +them with drawn swords, and Jill with drawn knife. The attendants had vanished +and the great room at the foot of the Prince’s stairs was empty. The grey, doleful +lamps were still burning and by their light they had no difficulty in passing +gallery after gallery and descending stairway after stairway. The noises from +outside the castle were not so easily heard here as they had been in the room +above. Inside the house all was still as death, and deserted. It was as they turned +a corner into the great hall on the ground floor that they met their first Earthman +- a fat, whitish creature with a very piglike face who was gobbling up all the +remains of food on the tables. It squealed (the squeal also was very like a pig’s) + + + +and darted under a bench, whisking its long tail out of Puddleglum’s reach in the +nick of time. Then it rushed away through the far door too quickly to be +followed. + +From the hall they came out into the courtyard. Jill, who went to a riding +school in the holidays, had just noticed the smell of a stable (a very nice, honest, +homely smell it is to meet in a place like Underland) when Eustace said, “Great +Scott! Look at that!” A magnificent rocket had risen from somewhere beyond the +castle walls and broken into green stars. + +“Fireworks!” said Jill in a puzzled voice. + +“Yes,” said Eustace, “but you can’t imagine those Earth people letting them +off for fun! It must be a signal.” + +“And means no good to us, I’ll be bound,” said Puddleglum. + +“Friends,” said the Prince, “when once a man is launched on such an +adventure as this, he must bid farewell to hopes and fears, otherwise death or +deliverance will both come too late to save his honour and his reason. Ho, my +beauties” (he was now opening the stable door). “Hey cousins! Steady, +Coalblack! Softly now, Snowflake! You are not forgotten.” + +The horses were both frightened by the strange lights and the noises. Jill, +who had been so cowardly about going through a black hole betweeen one cave +and another, went in without fear between the stamping and snorting beasts, and +she and the Prince had them saddled and bridled in a few minutes. Very fine they +looked as they came out into the courtyard, tossing their heads. Jill mounted +Snowflake, and Puddleglum got up behind her. Eustace got up behind the Prince +on Coalblack. Then with a great echo of hoofs, they rode out of the main +gateway into the street. + +“Not much danger of being burnt. That’s the bright side of it,” observed +Puddleglum, pointing to their right. There, hardly a hundred yards away, lapping +against the walls of the houses, was water. + +“Courage!” said the Prince. “The road there goes down steeply. That water +has climbed only half up the greatest hill in the city. It might come so near in the +first half-hour and come no nearer in the next two. My fear is more of that and +he pointed with his sword to a great tall Earthman with boar’s tusks, followed by +six others of assorted shapes and sizes who had just dashed out of a side street +and stepped into the shadow of the houses where no one could see them. + +The Prince led them, aiming always in the direction of the glowing red light +but a little to the left of it. His plan was to get round the fire (if it was a fire) on +to high ground, in hope that they might find their way to the new diggings. +Unlike the other three, he seemed to be almost enjoying himself. He whistled as +he rode, and sang snatches of an old song about Corin Thunder-fist of + + + +Archenland. The truth is, he was so glad at being free from his long enchantment +that all dangers seemed a game in comparison. But the rest found it an eerie +journey. + +Behind them was the sound of clashing and entangled ships, and the rumble +of collapsing buildings. Overhead was the great patch of lurid light on the roof +of the Underworld. Ahead was the mysterious glow, which did not seem to grow +any bigger. From the same direction came a continual hubbub of shouts, +screams, cat-calls, laughter, squeals, and bellowings; and fireworks of all sorts +rose in the dark air. No one could guess what they meant. Nearer to them, the +city was partly lit up by the red glow, and partly by the very different light of the +dreary Gnome lamps. But there were many places where neither of these lights +fell, and those places were jet-black. And in and out of those places the shapes of +Earthmen were darting and slipping all the time, always with their eyes fixed on +the travellers, always trying to keep out of sight themselves. There were big +faces and little faces, huge eyes like fishes’ eyes and little eyes like bears’. There +were feathers and bristles, horns and tusks, noses like whipcord, and chins so +long that they looked like beards. Every now and then a group of them would get +too big or come too near. Then the Prince would brandish his sword and make a +show of charging them. And the creatures, with all manner of hootings, +squeakings, and duckings, would dive away into the darkness. + +But when they had climbed many steep streets and were far away from the +flood, and almost out of the town on the inland side, it began to be more serious. +They were now close to the red glow and nearly on a level with it, though they +still could not see what it really was. But by its light they could see their enemies +more clearly. Hundreds - perhaps a few thousands - of gnomes were all moving +towards it. But they were doing so in short rushes, and whenever they stopped, +they turned and faced the travellers. + +“If your Highness asked me,” said Puddleglum, “I’d say those fellows were +meaning to cut us off in front.” + +“That was my thought too, Puddleglum,” said the Prince. “And we can never +fight our way through so many. Hark you! Let us ride forth close by the edge of +yonder house. And even as we reach it, do you slip off into its shadow. The Lady +and I will go forward a few paces. Some of these devils will follow us, I doubt +not; they are thick behind us. Do you, who have long arms, take one alive if you +may, as it passes your ambush. We may get a true tale of it or learn what is their +quarrel against us.” + +“But won’t the others all come rushing at us to rescue the one we catch,” said +Jill in a voice not so steady as she tried to make it. + +“Then, Madam,” said the Prince, “you shall see us die fighting around you, + + + +and you must commend yourself to the Lion. Now, good Puddleglum.” + +The Marsh-wiggle slipped off into the shadow as quickly as a cat. The +others, for a sickening minute or so, went forward at a walk. Then suddenly from +behind them there broke out a series of blood-curdling screams, mixed with the +familiar voice of Puddleglum, saying, “Now then! Don’t cry out before you’re +hurt, or you will be hurt, see? Anyone would think it was a pig being killed.” + +“That was good hunting,” exclaimed the Prince, immediately turning +Coalblack and coming back to the corner of the house. “Eustace,” he said, “of +your courtesy, take Coalblack’s head.” Then he dismounted, and all three gazed +in silence while Puddleglum pulled his catch out into the light. It was a most +miserable little gnome, only about three feet long. It had a sort of ridge, like a +cock’s comb (only hard), on the top of its head, little pink eyes, and a mouth and +chin so large and round that its face looked like that of a pigmy hippopotamus. If +they had not been in such a tight place, they would have burst into laughter at the +sight of it. + +“Now, Earthman,” said the Prince, standing over it and holding his sword +point very near the prisoner’s neck, “speak, up, like an honest gnome, and you +shall go free. Play the knave with us, and you are but a dead Earthman. Good +Puddleglum, how can it speak while you hold its mouth tight shut?” + +“No, and it can’t bite either,” said Puddleglum. “If I had the silly soft hands +that you humans have (saving your Highness’s reverence) I’d have been all over +blood by now. Yet even a Marsh-wiggle gets tired of being chewed.’ + +“Sirrah,” said the Prince to the gnome, “one bite and you die. Let its mouth +open, Puddleglum.” + +“Oo-ee-ee,” squealed the Earthman, “let me go, let me go. It isn’t me. I +didn’t do it.” + +“Didn’t do what?” asked Puddleglum. + +“Whatever your Honours say I did do,” answered the creature. + +“Tell me your name,” said the Prince, “and what you Earthmen are all about +today.” + +“Oh please, your Honours, please, kind gentlemen,” whimpered the gnome. +“Promise you will not tell the Queen’s grace anything I say.” + +“The Queen’s grace, as you call her,” said the Prince sternly, “is dead. I +killed her myself.” + +“What!” cried the gnome, opening its ridiculous mouth wider and wider in +astonishment. “Dead? The Witch dead? And by your Honour’s hand?” It gave a +huge sigh of relief and added, “Why then your Honour is a friend!” + +The Prince withdrew his sword an inch or so. Puddleglum let the creature sit +up. It looked round on the four travellers with its twinkling, red eyes, chuckled + + + +once or twice, and began. + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD + +“MY name is Golg,” said the gnome. “And I’ll tell your Honours all I know. +About an hour ago we were all going about our work - her work, I should say - +sad and silent, same as we’ve done any other day for years and years. Then there +came a great crash and bang. As soon as they heard it, everyone says to himself, +I haven’t had a song or a dance or let off a squib for a long time; why’s that? +And everyone thinks to himself, Why, I must have been enchanted. And then +everyone says to himself, I’m blessed if I know why I’m carrying this load, and +I’m not going to carry it any farther: that’s that. And down we all throw our +sacks and bundles and tools. Then everyone turns and sees the great red glow +over yonder. And everyone says to himself, What’s that? and everyone answers +himself and says, There’s a crack or chasm split open and a nice warm glow +coming up through it from the Really Deep Land, a thousand fathom under us.” + +“Great Scott,” exclaimed Eustace, “are there other lands still lower down?” + +“Oh yes, your Honour,” said Golg. “Lovely places; what we call the Land of +Bism. This country where we are now, the Witch’s country, is what we call the +Shallow Lands. It’s a good deal too near the surface to suit us. Ugh! You might +almost as well be living outside, on the surface itself. You see, we’re all poor +gnomes from Bism whom the Witch has called up here by magic to work for her. +But we’d forgotten all about it till that crash came and the spell broke. We didn’t +know who we were or where we belonged. We couldn’t do anything, or think +anything, except what she put into our heads. And it was glum and gloomy +things she put there all those years. I’ve nearly forgotten how to make a joke or +dance a jig. But the moment the bang came and the chasm opened and the sea +began rising, it all came back. And of course we all set off as quick as we could +to get down the crack and home to our own place. And you can see them over +there all letting off rockets and standing on their heads for joy. And I’ll be very +obliged to your Honours if you’ll soon let me go and join in.” + +“I think this is simply splendid,” said Jill. “I’m so glad we freed the gnomes +as well as ourselves when we cut off the Witch’s head! And I’m so glad they +aren’t really horrid and gloomy any more than the Prince really was well, what +he seemed like.” + +“That’s all very well, Pole,” said Puddleglum cautiously. “But those gnomes +didn’t look to me like chaps who were just running away. It looked more like +military formations, if you ask me. Do you look me in the face, Mr Golg, and tell + + + +me you weren’t preparing for battle?” + +“Of course we were, your Honour,” said Golg. “You see, we didn’t know the +Witch was dead. We thought she’d be watching from the castle. We were trying +to slip away without being seen. And then when you three came out with swords +and horses, of course everyone says to himself, Here it comes: not knowing that +his Honour wasn’t on the Witch’s side. And we were determined to fight like +anything rather than give up the hope of going back to Bism.” + +“I’ll be sworn ’tis an honest gnome,” said the Prince. “Let go of it, friend +Puddleglum. As for me, good Golg, I have been enchanted like you and your +fellows, and have but newly remembered myself. And now, one question more. +Do you know the way to those new diggings, by which the sorceress meant to +lead out an army against Overland?” + +“Ee-ee-ee!” squeaked Golg. “Yes, I know that terrible road. I will show you +where it begins. But it is no manner of use your Honour asking me to go with +you on it. I’ll die rather.” + +“Why?” asked Eustace anxiously. “What’s so dreadful about it?” + +“Too near the top, the outside,” said Golg, shuddering. “That was the worst +thing the Witch did to us. We were going to be led out into the open - on to the +outside of the world. They say there’s no roof at all there; only a horrible great +emptiness called the sky. And the diggings have gone so far that a few strokes of +the pick would bring you out to it. I wouldn’t dare go near them.” + +“Hurrah! Now you’re talking!” cried Eustace, and Jill said, “But it’s not +horrid at all up there. We like it. We live there.” + +“I know you Overlanders live there,” said Golg. “But I thought it was +because you couldn’t find your way down inside. You can’t really like it - +crawling about like flies on the top of the world!” + +“What about showing us the road at once?” said Puddleglum. + +“In a good hour,” cried the Prince. The whole party set out. The Prince +remounted his charger, Puddleglum climbed up behind Jill, and Golg led the +way. As he went, he kept shouting out the good news that the Witch was dead +and that the four Overlanders were not dangerous. And those who heard him +shouted it on to others, so that in a few minutes the whole of Underland was +ringing with shouts and cheers, and gnomes by hundreds and thousands, leaping, +turning cart-wheels, standing on their heads, playing leap-frog, and letting off +huge crackers, came pressing round Coalblack and Snowflake. And the Prince +had to tell the story of his own enchantment and deliverance at least ten times. + +In this way they came to the edge of the chasm. It was about a thousand feet +long and perhaps two hundred wide. They dismounted from their horses and +came to the edge, and looked down into it. A strong heat smote up into their + + + +faces, mixed with a smell which was quite unlike any they had ever smelled. It +was rich, sharp, exciting, and made you sneeze. The depth of the chasm was so +bright that at first it dazzled their eyes and they could see nothing. When they +got used to it they thought they could make out a river of fire, and, on the banks +of that river, what seemed to be fields and groves of an unbearable, hot brilliance +- though they were dim compared with the river. There were blues, reds, greens, +and whites all jumbled together: a very good stained-glass window with the +tropical sun staring straight through it at midday might have something the same +effect. Down the rugged sides of the chasm, looking black like flies against all +that fiery light, hundreds of Earthmen were climbing. + +“Your honours,” said Golg (and when they turned to look at him they could +see nothing but blackness for a few minutes, their eyes were so dazzled). “Your +honours, why don’t you come down to Bism? You’d be happier there than in that +cold, unprotected, naked country out on top. Or at least come down for a short +visit.” + +Jill took it for granted that none of the others would listen to such an idea for +a moment. To her horror she heard the Prince saying: + +“Truly, friend Golg, I have half a mind to come down with you. For this is a +marvellous adventure, and it may be no mortal man has ever looked into Bism +before or will ever have the chance again. And I know not how, as the years +pass, I shall bear to remember that it was once in my power to have probed the +uttermost pit of Earth and that I forbore. But could a man live there? You do not +swim in the fire-river itself?” + +“Oh no, your Honour. Not we. It’s only salamanders live in the fire itself.” + +“What kind of beast is your salamander?” asked the Prince. + +“It is hard to tell their kind, your Honour,” said Golg. “For they are too +white-hot to look at. But they are most like small dragons. They speak to us out +of the fire. They are wonderfully clever with their tongues: very witty and +eloquent.” + +Jill glanced hastily at Eustace. She had felt sure that he would like the idea of +sliding down that chasm even less than she did. Her heart sank as she saw that +his face was quite changed. He looked much more like the Prince than like the +old Scrubb at Experiment House. For all his adventures, and the days when he +had sailed with King Caspian, were coming back to him. + +“Your Highness,” he said. “If my old friend Reepicheep the Mouse were +here, he would say we could not now refuse the adventures of Bism without a +great impeachment to our honour.” + +“Down there,” said Golg, “I could show you real gold, real silver, real +diamonds.” + + + +“Bosh!” said Jill rudely. “As if we didn’t know that we’re below the deepest +mines even here.” + +“Yes,” said Golg. “I have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you +Topdwellers call mines. But that’s where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead +gems. Down in Bism we have them alive and growing. There I’ll pick you +bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze you a cup full of diamond-juice. +You won’t care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow +mines after you have tasted the live ones of Bism.” + +“My father went to the world’s end,” said Rilian thoughtfully. “It would be a +marvellous thing if his son went to the bottom of the world.” + +“If your Highness wants to see your father while he’s still alive, which I +think he’d prefer,” said Puddleglum, “it’s about time we were getting on to that +road to the diggings.” + +“And I won’t go down that hole, whatever anyone says,” added Jill. + +“Why, if your Honours are really set to go back to Overworld,” said Golg, +“there is one bit of the road that’s rather lower than this. And perhaps, if that +flood’s still rising -“ + +“Oh, do, do, do come on!” begged Jill. + +“I fear it must be so,” said the Prince with a deep sigh. “But I have left half +of my heart in the land of Bism.” + +“Please!” begged Jill. + +“Where is the road?” asked Puddleglum. + +“There are lamps all the way,” said Golg. “Your Honour can see the +beginning of the road on the far side of the chasm.” + +“How long will the lamps burn for?” asked Puddleglum. + +At that moment a hissing, scorching voice like the voice of Fire itself (they +wondered afterwards if it could have been a salamander’s) came whistling up out +of the very depths of Bism. + +“Quick! Quick! Quick! To the cliffs, to the cliffs, to the cliffs!” it said. “The +rift closes. It closes. It closes. Quick! Quick!” And at the same time, with ear- +shattering cracks and creaks, the rocks moved. Already, while they looked, the +chasm was narrower. From every side belated gnomes were rushing into it. They +would not wait to climb down the rocks. They flung themselves headlong and, +either because so strong a blast of hot air was beating up from the bottom, or for +some other reason, they could be seen floating downwards like leaves. Thicker +and thicker they floated, till their blackness almost blotted out the fiery river and +the groves of live gems. “Good-bye to your Honours. I’m off,” shouted Golg, +and dived. Only a few were left to follow him. The chasm was now no broader +than a stream. Now it was narrow as the slit in a pillarbox. Now it was only an + + + +intensely bright thread. Then, with a shock like a thousand goods trains crashing +into a thousand pairs of buffers, the lips of rock closed. The hot, maddening +smell vanished. The travellers were alone in an Underworld which now looked +far blacker than before. Pale, dim, and dreary, the lamps marked the direction of +the road. + +“Now,” said Puddleglum, “it’s ten to one we’ve already stayed too long, but +we may as well make a try. Those lamps will give out in five minutes, I +shouldn’t wonder.” + +They urged the horses to a canter and thundered along the dusky road in fine +style. But almost at once it began going downhill. They would have thought +Golg had sent them the wrong way if they had not seen, on the other side of the +valley, the lamps going on and upwards as far as the eye could reach. But at the +bottom of the valley the lamps shone on moving water. + +“Haste,” cried the Prince. They galloped down the slope. It would have been +nasty enough at the bottom even five minutes later for the tide was running up +the valley like a mill-race, and if it had come to swimming, the horses could +hardly have won over. But it was still only a foot or two deep, and though it +swished terribly round the horses’ legs, they reached the far side in safety. + +Then began the slow, weary march uphill with nothing ahead to look at but +the pale lamps which went up and up as far as the eye could reach. When they +looked back they could see the water spreading. All the hills of Underland were +now islands, and it was only on those islands that the lamps remained. Every +moment some distant light vanished. Soon there would be total darkness +everywhere except on the road they were following; and even on the lower part +of it behind them, though no lamps had yet gone out, the lamplight shone on +water. + +Although they had good reason for hurrying, the horses could not go on for +ever without a rest. They halted: and in silence they could hear the lapping of +water. + +“I wonder is what’s his name - Father Time - flooded out now,” said Jill. +“And all those queer sleeping animals.” + +“I don’t think we’re as high as that,” said Eustace. “Don’t you remember +how we had to go downhill to reach the sunless sea? I shouldn’t think the water +has reached Father Time’s cave yet.” + +“That’s as may be,” said Puddleglum. “I’m more interested in the lamps on +this road. Look a bit sickly, don’t they?” + +“They always did,” said Jill. + +“Aye,” said Puddleglum. “But they’re greener now.” + +“You don’t mean to say you think they’re going out?” cried Eustace. + + + +“Well, however they work, you can’t expect them to last for ever, you know,” +replied the Marsh-wiggle. “But don’t let your spirits down, Scrubb. I’ve got my +eye on the water too, and I don’t think it’s rising so fast as it did.” + +“Small comfort, friend,” said the Prince. “If we cannot find our way out. I +cry you mercy, all. I am to blame for my pride and fantasy which delayed us by +the mouth of the land of Bism. Now, let us ride on.” + +During the hour or so that followed Jill sometimes thought that Puddleglum +was right about the lamps, and sometimes thought it was only her imagination. +Meanwhile the land was changing. The roof of Underland was so near that even +by that dull light they could now see it quite distinctly. And the great, rugged +walls of Underland could be seen drawing closer on each side. The road, in fact, +was leading them up into a steep tunnel. They began to pass picks and shovels +and barrows and other signs that the diggers had recently been at work. If only +one could be sure of getting out, all this was very cheering. But the thought of +going on into a hole that would get narrower and narrower, and harder to turn +back in, was very unpleasant. + +At last the roof was so low that Puddleglum and the Prince knocked their +heads against it. The party dismounted and led the horses. The road was uneven +here and one had to pick one’s steps with some care. That was how Jill noticed +the growing darkness. There was no doubt about it now. The faces of the others +looked strange and ghastly in the green glow. Then all at once (she couldn’t help +it) Jill gave a little scream. One light, the next one ahead, went out altogether. +The one behind them did the same. Then they were in absolute darkness. + +“Courage, friends,” came Prince Rilian’s voice. “Whether we live or die +Aslan will be our good lord.” + +“That’s right, Sir,” said Puddleglum’s voice. “And you must always +remember there’s one good thing about being trapped down here: it’ll save +funeral expenses.” + +Jill held her tongue. (If you don’t want other people to know how frightened +you are, this is always a wise thing to do; it’s your voice that gives you away.) + +“We might as well go on as stand here,” said Eustace; and when she heard +the tremble in his voice, Jill knew how wise she’d been not to trust her own. + +Puddleglum and Eustace went first with their arms stretched out in front of +them, for fear of blundering into anything; Jill and the Prince followed, leading +the horses. + +“I say,” came Eustace’s voice much later, “are my eyes going queer or is +there a patch of light up there?” + +Before anyone could answer him, Puddleglum called out: “Stop. I’m up +against a dead end. And it’s earth, not rock. What were you saying, Scrubb?” + + + +“By the Lion,” said the Prince, “Eustace is right. There is a sort of -“ + +“But it’s not daylight,” said Jill. “It’s only a cold blue sort of light.” + +“Better than nothing, though,” said Eustace. “Can we get up to it?” + +“It’s not right overhead,” said Puddleglum. “It’s above us, but it’s in this wall +that I’ve run into. How would it be, Pole, if you got on my shoulders and saw +whether you could get up to it?” + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JILL + +THE patch of light did not show up anything down in the darkness where +they were standing. The others could only hear, not see, Jill’s efforts to get on to +the Marsh-wiggle’s back. That is, they heard him saying, “You needn’t put your +finger in my eye,” and, “Nor your foot in my mouth either,” and, “That’s more +like it,” and, “Now, I’ll hold on to your legs. That’ll leave your arms free to +steady yourself against the earth.” + +Then they looked up and soon they saw the black shape of Jill’s head against +the patch of light. + +“Well?” they all shouted up anxiously. + +“It’s a hole,” called Jill’s voice. “I could get through it if I was a little bit +higher.” + +“What do you see through it?” asked Eustace. + +“Nothing much yet,” said Jill. “I say, Puddleglum, let go my legs so that I +can stand on your shoulders instead of sitting on them. I can steady myself all +right against the edge.” + +They could hear her moving and then much more of her came into sight +against the greyness of the opening; in fact all of her down to the waist. + +“I say began Jill, but suddenly broke off with a cry: not a sharp cry. It +sounded more as if her mouth had been muffled up or had something pushed into +it. After that she found her voice and seemed to be shouting out as loud as she +could, but they couldn’t hear the words. Two things then happened at the same +moment. The patch of light was completely blocked up for a second or so; and +they heard both a scuffling, struggling sound and the voice of the Marsh-wiggle +gasping: “Quick! Help! Hold on to her legs. + +Someone’s pulling her. There! No, here. Too late!” + +The opening, and the cold light which filled it, were now perfectly clear +again. Jill had vanished. + +“Jill! Jill!” they shouted frantically, but there was no answer. + +“Why the dickens couldn’t you have held her feet?” said Eustace. + +“I don’t know, Scrubb,” groaned Puddleglum. “Born to be a misfit, I +shouldn’t wonder. Fated. Fated to be Pole’s death, just as I was fated to eat +Talking Stag at Harfang. Not that it isn’t my own fault as well, of course.” + +“This is the greatest shame and sorrow that could have fallen on us,” said the +Prince. “We have sent a brave lady into the hands of enemies and stayed behind + + + +in safety.” + +“Don’t paint it too black, Sir,” said Puddleglum. “We’re not very safe except +for death by starvation in this hole.” + +“I wonder am I small enough to get through where Jill did?” said Eustace. + +What had really happened to Jill was this. As soon as she got her head out of +the hole she found that she was looking down as if from an upstairs window, not +up as if through a trap-door. She had been so long in the dark that her eyes +couldn’t at first take in what they were seeing: except that she was not looking at +the daylit, sunny world which she so wanted to see. The air seemed to be deadly +cold, and the light was pale and blue. There was also a good deal of noise going +on and a lot of white objects flying about in the air. It was at that moment that +she had shouted down to Puddleglum to let her stand up on his shoulders. + +When she had done this, she could see and hear a good deal better. The +noises she had been hearing turned out to be of two kinds: the rhythmical thump +of several feet, and the music of four fiddles, three flutes, and a drum. She also +got her own position clear. She was looking out of a hole in a steep bank which +sloped down and reached the level about fourteen feet below her. Everything +was very white. A lot of people were moving about. Then she gasped! The +people were trim little Fauns, and Dryads with leafcrowned hair floating behind +them. For a second they looked as if they were moving anyhow; then she saw +that they were really doing a dance - a dance with so many complicated steps +and figures that it took you some time to understand it. Then it came over her +like a thunderclap that the pale, blue light was really moonlight, and the white +stuff on the ground was really snow. And of course! There were the stars staring +in a black frosty sky overhead. And the tall black things behind the dancers were +trees. They had not only got out into the upper world at last, but had come out in +the heart of Narnia. Jill felt she could have fainted with delight; and the music - +the wild music, intensely sweet and yet just the least bit eerie too, and full of +good magic as the Witch’s thrumming had been full of bad magic - made her feel +it all the more. + +All this takes a long time to tell, but of course it took a very short time to see. +Jill turned almost at once to shout down to the others, “I say! It’s all right. We’re +out, and we’re home.” But the reason she never got further than “I say” was this. +Circling round and round the dancers was a ring of Dwarfs, all dressed in their +finest clothes; mostly scarlet with fur-lined hoods and golden tassels and big +furry top-boots. As they circled round they were all diligently throwing +snowballs. (Those were the white things that Jill had seen flying through the air.) +They weren’t throwing them at the dancers as silly boys might have been doing +in England. They were throwing them through the dance in such perfect time + + + +with the music and with such perfect aim that if all the dancers were in exactly +the right places at exactly the right moments, no one would be hit. This is called +the Great Snow Dance and it is done every year in Narnia on the first moonlit +night when there is snow on the ground. Of course it is a kind of game as well as +a dance, because every now and then some dancer will be the least little bit +wrong and get a snowball in the face, and then everyone laughs. But a good team +of dancers, Dwarfs, and musicians will keep it up for hours without a single hit. +On fine nights when the cold and the drum-taps, and the hooting of the owls, and +the moonlight, have got into their wild, woodland blood and made it even wilder, +they will dance till daybreak. I wish you could see it for yourselves. + +What had stopped Jill when she got as far as the say of “I say” was of course +simply a fine big snowball that came sailing through the dance from a Dwarf on +the far side and got her fair and square in the mouth. She didn’t in the least mind; +twenty snowballs would not have damped her spirits at that moment. But +however happy you are feeling, you can’t talk with your mouth full of snow. +And when, after considerable spluttering, she could speak again, she quite forgot +in her excitement that the others, down in the dark, behind her, still didn’t know +the good news. She simply leaned as far out of the hole as she could, and yelled +to the dancers. + +“Help! Help! We’re buried in the hill. Come and dig us out.” + +The Narnians, who had not even noticed the little hole in the hillside, were of +course very surprised, and looked about in several wrong directions before they +found out where the voice was coming from. But when they caught sight of Jill +they all came running towards her, and as many as could scrambled up the bank, +and a dozen or more hands were stretched up to help her. And Jill caught hold of +them and thus got out of the hole and came slithering down the bank head first, +and then picked herself up and said: + +“Oh, do go and dig the others out. There are three others, besides the horses. +And one of them is Prince Rilian.” + +She was already in the middle of a crowd when she said this, for besides the +dancers all sorts of people who had been watching the dance, and whom she had +not seen at first, came running up. Squirrels came out of the trees in showers, +and so did Owls. Hedgehogs came waddling as fast as their short legs would +carry them. Bears and Badgers followed at a slower pace. A great Panther, +twitching its tail in excitement, was the last to join the party. + +But as soon as they understood what Jill was saying, they all became active. +“Pick and shovel, boys, pick and shovel. Off for our tools!” said the Dwarfs, and +dashed away into the woods at top speed. “Wake up some Moles, they’re the +chaps for digging. They’re quite as good as Dwarfs,” said a voice. “What was + + + +that she said about Prince Rilian?” said another. “Hush!” said the Panther. “The +poor child’s crazed, and no wonder after being lost inside the hill. She doesn’t +know what she’s saying.” “That’s right,” said an old Bear. “Why, she said Prince +Rilian was a horse!” “No, she didn’t,” said a Squirrel, very pert. “Yes, she did,” +said another Squirrel, even perter. + +“It’s quite t-t-t-true. D-d-don’t be so silly,” said Jill. She spoke like that +because her teeth were now chattering with the cold. + +Immediately one of the Dryads flung round her a furry cloak which some +Dwarf had dropped when he rushed to fetch his mining tools, and an obliging +Faun trotted off among the trees to a place where Jill could see firelight in the +mouth of a cave, to get her a hot drink. But before it came, all the Dwarfs +reappeared with spades and pick-axes and charged at the hillside. Then Jill heard +cries of “Hi! What are you doing? Put that sword down,” and “Now, young ‘un: +none of that,” and, “He’s a vicious one, now, isn’t he?” Jill hurried to the spot +and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she saw Eustace’s face, very pale +and dirty, projecting from the blackness of the hole, and Eustace’s right hand +brandishing a sword with which he made lunges at anyone who came near him. + +For of course Eustace had been having a very different time from Jill during +the last few minutes. He had heard Jill cry out and seen her disappear into the +unknown. Like the Prince and Puddleglum, he thought that some enemies had +caught her. And from down below he didn’t see that the pale, blueish light was +moonlight. He thought the hole would lead only into some other cave, lit by +some ghostly phosphorescence and filled with goodness-knows-what evil +creatures of the Underworld. So that when he had persuaded Puddleglum to give +him a back, and drawn his sword, and poked out his head, he had really been +doing a very brave thing. The others would have done it first if they could, but +the hole was too small for them to climb through. Eustace was a little bigger, and +a lot clumsier, than Jill, so that when he looked out he bumped his head against +the top of the hole and brought a small avalanche of snow down on his face. And +so, when he could see again, and saw dozens of figures coming at him as hard as +they could run, it is not surprising that he tried to ward them off. + +“Stop, Eustace, stop,” cried Jill. “They’re all friends. Can’t you see? We’ve +come up in Narnia. Everything’s all right.” + +Then Eustace did see, and apologized to the Dwarfs (and the Dwarfs said not +to mention it), and dozens of thick, hairy, dwarfish hands helped him out just as +they had helped Jill out a few minutes before. Then Jill scrambled up the bank +and put her head in at the dark opening and shouted the good news in to the +prisoners. As she turned away she heard Puddleglum mutter. “Ah, poor Pole. It’s +been too much for her, this last bit. Turned her head, I shouldn’t wonder. She’s + + + +beginning to see things.” + +Jill rejoined Eustace and they shook one another by both hands and took in +great deep breaths of the free midnight air. And a warm cloak was brought for +Eustace and hot drinks, for both. While they were sipping it, the Dwarfs had +already got all the snow and all the sods off a large strip of the hillside round the +original hole, and the pickaxes and spades were now going as merrily as the feet +of Fauns and Dryads had been going in the dance ten minutes before. Only ten +minutes! Yet already it felt to Jill and Eustace as if all their dangers in the dark +and heat and general smotheriness of the earth must have been only a dream. Out +here, in the cold, with the moon and the huge stars overhead (Narnian stars are +nearer than stars in our world) and with kind, merry faces all round them, one +couldn’t quite believe in Underland. + +Before they had finished their hot drinks, a dozen or so Moles, newly waked +and still very sleepy, and not well pleased, had arrived. But as soon as they +understood what it was all about, they joined in with a will. Even the Fauns +made themselves useful by carting away the earth in little barrows, and the +Squirrels danced and leaped to and fro in great excitement, though Jill never +found out exactly what they thought they were doing. The Bears and Owls +contented themselves with giving advice, and kept on asking the children if they +wouldn’t like to come into the cave (that was where Jill had seen the firelight) +and get warm and have supper. But the children couldn’t bear to go without +seeing their friends set free. + +No one in our world can work at a job of that sort as Dwarfs and Talking +Moles work in Narnia; but then, of course, Moles and Dwarfs don’t look on it as +work. They like digging. It was therefore not really long before they had opened +a great black chasm in the hillside. And out from the blackness into the +moonlight - this would have been rather dreadful if one hadn’t known who they +were came, first, the long, leggy, steeple-hatted figure of the Marsh-wiggle, and +then, leading two great horses, Rilian the Prince himself. + +As Puddleglum appeared shouts broke out on every side: “Why, it’s a Wiggle +- why, it’s old Puddleglum - old Puddleglum from the Eastern Marshes - what +ever have you been doing, Puddleglum? - there’ve been search-parties out for +you - the Lord Trumpkin has been putting up notices there’s a reward offered!” +But all this died away, all in one moment, into dead silence, as quickly as the +noise dies away in a rowdy dormitory if the Headmaster opens the door. For now +they saw the Prince. + +No one doubted for a moment who he was. There were plenty of Beasts and +Dryads and Dwarfs and Fauns who remembered him from the days before his +enchanting. There were some old ones who could just remember how his father, + + + +King Caspian, had looked when he was a young man, and saw the likeness. But I +think they would have known him anyway. Pale though he was from long +imprisonment in the Deep Lands, dressed in black, dusty, dishevelled, and +weary, there was something in his face and air which no one could mistake. That +look is in the face of all true kings of Narnia, who rule by the will of Aslan and +sit at Cair Paravel on the throne of Peter the High King. + +Instantly every head was bared and every knee was bent; a moment later +such cheering and shouting, such jumps and reels of joy, such hand-shakings and +kissings and embracings of everybody by everybody else broke out that the tears +came into Jill’s eyes. Their quest had been worth all the pains it cost. + +“Please it your Highness,” said the oldest of the Dwarfs, “there is some +attempt at a supper in the cave yonder, prepared against the ending of the snow- +dance -“ + +“With a good will, Father,” said the Prince. “For never had any Prince, +Knight, Gentleman, or Bear so good a stomach to his victuals as we four +wanderers have tonight.” + +The whole crowd began to move away through the trees towards the cave. +Jill heard Puddleglum saying to those who pressed round him. “No, no, my story +can wait. + +Nothing worth talking about has happened to me. I want to hear the news. +Don’t try breaking it to me gently, for I’d rather have it all at once. Has the King +been shipwrecked? Any forest fires? No wars on the Calormen border? Or a few +dragons, I shouldn’t wonder?” And all the creatures laughed aloud and said, +“Isn’t that just like a Marshwiggle?” + +The two children were nearly dropping with tiredness and hunger, but the +warmth of the cave, and the very sight of it, with the firelight dancing on the +walls and dressers and cups and saucers and plates and on the smooth stone +floor, just as it does in a farmhouse kitchen, revived them a little. All the same +they went fast asleep while supper was being got ready. And while they slept +Prince Rilian was talking over the whole adventure with the older and wiser +Beasts and Dwarfs. And now they all saw what it meant; how a wicked Witch +(doubtless the same kind as that White Witch who had brought the Great Winter +on Narnia long ago) had contrived the whole thing, first killing Rilian’s mother +and enchanting Rilian himself. And they saw how she had dug right under +Narnia and was going to break out and rule it through Rilian: and how he had +never dreamed that the country of which she would make him king (king in +name, but really her slave) was his own country. And from the children’s part of +the story they saw how she was in league and friendship with the dangerous +giants of Harfang. “And the lesson of it all is, your Highness,” said the oldest + + + +Dwarf, “that those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every +age they have a different plan for getting it.” + + + +Narnia 4 - The Silver Chair + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +THE HEALING OF HARMS + +WHEN Jill woke next morning and found herself in a cave, she thought for +one horrid moment that she was back in the Underworld. But when she noticed +that she was lying on a bed of heather with a furry mantle over her, and saw a +cheery fire crackling (as if newly lit) on a stone hearth and, farther off, morning +sunlight coming in through the cave’s mouth, she remembered all the happy +truth. They had had a delightful supper, all crowded into that cave, in spite of +being so sleepy before it was properly over. She had a vague impression of +Dwarfs crowding round the fire with frying-pans rather bigger than themselves, +and the hissing, and delicious smell of sausages, and more, and more, and more +sausages. And not wretched sausages half full of bread and soya bean either, but +real meaty, spicy ones, fat and piping hot and burst and just the tiniest bit burnt. +And great mugs of frothy chocolate, and roast potatoes and roast chestnuts, and +baked apples with raisins stuck in where the cores had been, and then ices just to +freshen you up after all the hot things. + +Jill sat up and looked around. Puddleglum and Eustace were lying not far +away, both fast asleep. + +“Hi, you two!” shouted Jill in a loud voice. “Aren’t you ever going to get +up?” + +“Shoo, shoo!” said a sleepy voice somewhere above her. “Time to be settling +down. Have a good snooze, do, do. Don’t make a to-do. Tu-whoo!” + +“Why, I do believe,” said Jill, glancing up at a white bundle of fluffy feathers +which was perched on top of a grandfather clock in one corner of the cave, “I do +believe it’s Glimfeather!” + +“True, true,” whirred the Owl, lifting its head out from under its wing and +opening one eye. “I came up with a message for the Prince at about two. The +squirrels brought us the good news. Message for the Prince. He’s gone. You’re to +follow too. Good-day -” and the head disappeared again. + +As there seemed no further hope of getting any information from the Owl, +Jill got up and began looking round for any chance of a wash and some +breakfast. But almost at once a little Faun came trotting into the cave with a +sharp click-clack of his goaty hoofs on the stone floor. + +“Ah! You’ve woken up at last, Daughter of Eve,” he said. “Perhaps you’d +better wake the Son of Adam. You’ve got to be off in a few minutes and two +Centaurs have very kindly offered to let you ride on their backs down to Cair + + + +Paravel.” He added in a lower voice. “Of course, you realize it is a most special +and unheard-of honour to be allowed to ride a Centaur. I don’t know that I ever +heard of anyone doing it before. It wouldn’t do to keep them waiting.” + +“Where’s the Prince?” was the first question of Eustace and Puddleglum as +soon as they had been wakened. + +“He’s gone down to meet the King, his father, at Cair Paravel,” answered the +Faun, whose name was Orruns. “His Majesty’s ship is expected in harbour any +moment. It seems that the King met Aslan - I don’t know whether it was in a +vision or face to face - before he had sailed far, and Aslan turned him back and +told him he would find his long-lost son awaiting him when he reached Narnia.” + +Eustace was now up and he and Jill set about helping Orruns to get the +breakfast. Puddleglum was told to stay in bed. A Centaur called Cloudbirth, a +famous healer, or (as Orruns called it) a ‘leech’, was coming to see to his burnt +foot. + +“Ah!” said Puddleglum in a tone almost of contentment, “he’ll want to have +the leg off at the knee, I shouldn’t wonder. You see if he doesn’t.” But he was +quite glad to stay in bed. + +Breakfast was scrambled eggs and toast and Eustace tackled it just as if he +had not had a very large supper in the middle of the night. + +“I say, Son of Adam,” said the Faun, looking with a certain awe at Eustace’s +mouthfuls. “There’s no need to hurry quite so dreadfully as that. I don’t think the +Centaurs have quite finished their breakfasts yet.” + +“Then they must have got up very late,” said Eustace. “I bet it’s after ten +o’clock.” + +“Oh no,” said Orruns. “They got up before it was light.” + +“Then they must have waited the dickens of a time for breakfast,” said +Eustace. + +“No, they didn’t,” said Orruns. “They began eating the minute they awoke.” + +“Golly!” said Eustace. “Do they eat a very big breakfast?” + +“Why, Son of Adam, don’t you understand? A Centaur has a man-stomach +and a horse-stomach. And of course both want breakfast. So first of all he has +porridge and pavenders and kidneys and bacon and omelette and cold ham and +toast and marmalade and coffee and beer. And after that he attends to the horse +part of himself by grazing for an hour or so and finishing up with a hot mash, +some oats, and a bag of sugar. That’s why it’s such a serious thing to ask a +Centaur to stay for the week-end. Avery serious thing indeed.” + +At that moment there was a sound of horse-hoofs tapping on rock from the +mouth of the cave, and the children looked up. The two Centaurs, one with a +black and one with a golden beard flowing over their magnificent bare chests, + + + +stood waiting for them, bending their heads a little so as to look into the cave. +Then the children became very polite and finished their breakfast very quickly. +No one thinks a Centaur funny when he sees it. They are solemn, majestic +people, full of ancient wisdom which they learn from the stars, not easily made +either merry or angry; but their anger is terrible as a tidal wave when it comes. + +“Good-bye, dear Puddleglum,” said Jill, going over to the Marsh-wiggle’s +bed. “I’m sorry we called you a wet blanket.” + +“So’m I,” said Eustace. “You’ve been the best friend in the world.” + +“And I do hope we’ll meet again,” added Jill. + +“Not much chance of that, I should say,” replied Puddleglum. “1 don’t +reckon I’m very likely to see my old wigwam again either. And that Prince - he’s +a nice chap - but do you think he’s very strong? Constitution ruined with living +underground, I shouldn’t wonder. Looks the sort that might go off any day.” + +“Puddleglum!” said Jill. “You’re a regular old humbug. You sound as doleful +as a funeral and I believe you’re perfectly happy. And you talk as if you were +afraid of everything, when you’re really as brave as-as a lion.” + +“Now, speaking of funerals,” began Puddleglum, but Jill, who heard the +Centaurs tapping with their hoofs behind her, surprised him very much by +flinging her arms round his thin neck and kissing his muddy-looking face, while +Eustace wrung his hand. Then they both rushed away to the Centaurs, and the +Marsh-wiggle, sinking back on his bed, remarked to himself, “Well, I wouldn’t +have dreamt of her doing that. Even though I am a good-looking chap.” + +To ride on a Centaur is, no doubt, a great honour (and except Jill and Eustace +there is probably no one alive in the world today who has had it) but it is very +uncomfortable. For no one who valued his life would suggest putting a saddle on +a Centaur, and riding bare-back is no fun; especially if, like Eustace, you have +never learned to ride at all. The Centaurs were very polite in a grave, gracious, +grown-up kind of way, and as they cantered through the Narnian woods they +spoke, without turning their heads, telling the children about the properties of +herbs and roots, the influences of the planets, the nine names of Aslan with their +meanings, and things of that sort. But however sore and jolted the two humans +were, they would now give anything to have that journey over again: to see those +glades and slopes sparkling with last night’s snow, to be met by rabbits and +squirrels and birds that wished you good morning, to breathe again the air of +Narnia and hear the voices of the Narnian trees. + +They came down to the river, flowing bright and blue in winter sunshine, far +below the last bridge (which is at the snug, red-roofed little town of Beruna) and +were ferried across in a flat barge by the ferryman; or rather, by the ferry-wiggle, +for it is Marsh-wiggles who do most of the watery and fishy kinds of work in + + + +Narnia. And when they had crossed they rode along the south bank of the river +and presently came to Cair Paravel itself. And at the very moment of their arrival +they saw that same bright ship which they had seen when they first set foot in +Narnia, gliding up the river like a huge bird. All the court were once more +assembled on the green between the castle and the quay to welcome King +Caspian home again. Rilian, who had changed his black clothes and was now +dressed in a scarlet cloak over silver mail, stood close to the water’s edge, bare¬ +headed, to receive his father; and the Dwarf Trumpkin sat beside him in his little +donkey-chair. The children saw there would be no chance of reaching the Prince +through all that crowd, and, anyway, they now felt rather shy. So they asked the +Centaurs if they might go on sitting on their backs a little longer and thus see +everything over the heads of the courtiers. And the Centaurs said they might. + +A flourish of silver trumpets came over the water from the ship’s deck: the +sailors threw a rope; rats (Talking Rats, of course) and Marsh-wiggles made it +fast ashore; and the ship was warped in. Musicians, hidden somewhere in the +crowd, began to play solemn, triumphal music. And soon the King’s galleon was +alongside and the Rats ran the gangway on board her. + +Jill expected to see the old King come down it. But there appeared to be +some hitch. A Lord with a pale face came ashore and knelt to the Prince and to +Trumpkin. The three were talking with their heads close together for a few +minutes, but no one could hear what they said. The music played on, but you +could feel that everyone was becoming uneasy. Then four Knights, carrying +something and going very slowly, appeared on deck. When they started to come +down the gangway you could see what they were carrying: it was the old King +on a bed, very pale and still. They set him down. The Prince knelt beside him +and embraced him. They could see King Caspian raising his hand to bless his +son. And everyone cheered, but it was a half-hearted cheer, for they all felt that +something was going wrong. Then suddenly the King’s head fell back upon his +pillows, the musicians stopped and there was a dead silence. The Prince, +kneeling by the King’s bed, laid down his head upon it and wept. + +There were whisperings and goings to and fro. Then Jill noticed that all who +wore hats, bonnets, helmets, or hoods were taking them off - Eustace included. +Then she heard a rustling and flapping noise up above the castle; when she +looked she saw that the great banner with the golden Lion on it was being +brought down to half-mast. And after that, slowly, mercilessly, with wailing +strings and disconsolate blowing of horns, the music began again: this time, a +tune to break your heart. + +They both slipped off their Centaurs (who took no notice of them). + +“I wish I was at home,” said Jill. + + + +Eustace nodded, saying nothing, and bit his lip. + +“I have come,” said a deep voice behind them. They turned and saw the Lion +himself, so bright and real and strong that everything else began at once to look +pale and shadowy compared with him. And in less time than it takes to breathe +Jill forgot about the dead King of Narnia and remembered only how she had +made Eustace fall over the cliff, and how she had helped to muff nearly all the +signs, and about all the snappings and quarrellings. And she wanted to say “I’m +sorry” but she could not speak. Then the Lion drew them towards him with his +eyes, and bent down and touched their pale faces with his tongue, and said: + +“Think of that no more. I will not always be scolding. You have done the +work for which I sent you into Narnia.” + +“Please, Aslan,” said Jill, “may we go home now?” + +“Yes. I have come to bring you Home,” said Aslan. Then he opened his +mouth wide and blew. But this time they had no sense of flying through the air: +instead, it seemed that they remained still, and the wild breath of Aslan blew +away the ship and the dead King and the castle and the snow and the winter sky. +For all these things floated off into the air like wreaths of smoke, and suddenly +they were standing in a great brightness of mid-summer sunshine, on smooth +turf, among mighty trees, and beside a fair, fresh stream. + +Then they saw that they were once more on the Mountain of Aslan, high up +above and beyond the end of that world in which Narnia lies. But the strange +thing was that the funeral music for King Caspian still went on, though no one +could tell where it came from. They were walking beside the stream and the +Lion went before them: and he became so beautiful, and the music so despairing, +that Jill did not know which of them it was that filled her eyes with tears. + +Then Aslan stopped, and the children looked into the stream. And there, on +the golden gravel of the bed of the stream, lay King Caspian, dead, with the +water flowing over him like liquid glass. His long white beard swayed in it like +water-weed. And all three stood and wept. Even the Lion wept: great Lion-tears, +each tear more precious than the Earth would be if it was a single solid diamond. +And Jill noticed that Eustace looked neither like a child crying, nor like a boy +crying and wanting to hide it, but like a grownup crying. At least, that is the +nearest she could get to it; but really, as she said, people don’t seem to have any +particular ages on that mountain. + +“Son of Adam,” said Aslan, “go into that thicket and pluck the thorn that you +will find there, and bring it to me.” + +Eustace obeyed. The thorn was a foot long and sharp as a rapier. + +“Drive it into my paw, Son of Adam,” said Aslan, holding up his right fore¬ +paw and spreading out the great pad towards Eustace. + + + +“Must I?” said Eustace. + +“Yes,” said Aslan. + +Then Eustace set his teeth and drove the thorn into the Lion’s pad. And there +came out a great drop of blood, redder than all redness that you have ever seen +or imagined. + +And it splashed into the stream over the dead body of the King. At the same +moment the doleful music stopped. And the dead King began to be changed. His +white beard turned to grey, and from grey to yellow, and got shorter and +vanished altogether; and his sunken cheeks grew round and fresh, and the +wrinkles were smoothed, and his eyes opened, and his eyes and lips both +laughed, and suddenly he leaped up and stood before them - a very young man, +or a boy. (But Jill couldn’t say which, because of people having no particular +ages in Aslan’s country. Even in this world, of course, it is the stupidest children +who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grownup.) And +he rushed to Aslan and flung his arms as far as they would go round the huge +neck; and he gave Aslan the strong kisses of a King, and Aslan gave him the +wild kisses of a Lion. + +At last Caspian turned to the others. He gave a great laugh of astonished joy. + +“Why! Eustace!” he said. “Eustace! So you did reach the end of the world +after all. What about my second-best sword that you broke on the sea-serpent?” + +Eustace made a step towards him with both hands held out, but then drew +back with a somewhat startled expression. + +“Look here! I say,” he stammered. “It’s all very well. But aren’t you? - I +mean didn’t you -?” + +“Oh, don’t be such an ass,” said Caspian. + +“But,” said Eustace, looking at Aslan. “Hasn’t he - er died?” + +“Yes,” said the Lion in a very quiet voice, almost (Jill thought) as if he were +laughing. “He has died. Most people have, you know. Even I have. There are +very few who haven’t.” + +“Oh,” said Caspian. “I see what’s bothering you. You think I’m a ghost, or +some nonsense. But don’t you see? I would be that if I appeared in Narnia now: +because I don’t belong there any more. But one can’t be a ghost in one’s own +country. I might be a ghost if I got into your world. I don’t know. But I suppose +it isn’t yours either, now you’re here.” + +A great hope rose in the children’s hearts. But Aslan shook his shaggy head. +“No, my dears,” he said. “When you meet me here again, you will have come to +stay. But not now. You must go back to your own world for a while.” + +“Sir,” said Caspian, “I’ve always wanted to have just one glimpse of their +world. Is that wrong?” + + + +“You cannot want wrong things any more, now that you have died, my son,” +said Aslan. “And you shall see their world - for five minutes of their time. It will +take no longer for you to set things right there.” Then Aslan explained to +Caspian what Jill and Eustace were going back to and all about Experiment +House: he seemed to know it quite as well as they did. + +“Daughter,” said Aslan to Jill, “pluck a switch off that bush.” She did; and as +soon as it was in her hand it turned into a fine new riding crop. + +“Now, Sons of Adam, draw your swords,” said Aslan. “But use only the flat, +for it is cowards and children, not warriors, against whom 1 send you.” + +“Are you coming with us, Aslan?” said Jill. + +“They shall see only my back,” said Aslan. + +He led them rapidly through the wood, and before they had gone many +paces, the wall of Experiment House appeared before them. Then Aslan roared +so that the sun shook in the sky and thirty feet of the wall fell down before them. +They looked through the gap, down into the school shrubbery and on to the roof +of the gym, all under the same dull autumn sky which they had seen before their +adventures began. Aslan turned to Jill and Eustace and breathed upon them and +touched their foreheads with his tongue. Then he lay down amid the gap he had +made in the wall and turned his golden back to England, and his lordly face +towards his own lands. At the same moment Jill saw figures whom she knew +only too well running up through the laurels towards them. Most of the gang +were there Adela Pennyfather and Cholmondely Major, Edith Winterblott, +'Spotty’ Sorrier, big Bannister, and the two loathsome Garrett twins. But +suddenly they stopped. Their faces changed, and all the meanness, conceit, +cruelty, and sneakishness almost disappeared in one single expression of terror. +For they saw the wall fallen down, and a lion as large as a young elephant lying +in the gap, and three figures in glittering clothes with weapons in their hands +rushing down upon them. For, with the strength of Aslan in them, Jill plied her +crop on the girls and Caspian and Eustace plied the flats of their swords on the +boys so well that in two minutes all the bullies were running like mad, crying +out, 'Murder! Fascists! Lions! It isn’t fair.’ And then the Head (who was, by the +way, a woman) came running out to see what was happening. And when she saw +the lion and the broken wall and Caspian and Jill and Eustace (whom she quite +failed to recognize) she had hysterics and went back to the house and began +ringing up the police with stories about a lion escaped from a circus, and escaped +convicts who broke down walls and carried drawn swords. In the midst of all +this fuss Jill and Eustace slipped quietly indoors and changed out of their bright +clothes into ordinary things, and Caspian went back into his own world. And the +wall, at Aslan’s word, was made whole again. When the police arrived and found + + + + + +no lion, no broken wall, and no convicts, and the Head behaving like a lunatic, +there was an inquiry into the whole thing. And in the inquiry all sorts of things +about Experiment House came out, and about ten people got expelled. After that, +the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made +an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn’t +much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily +ever after. + +Eustace buried his fine clothes secretly one night in the school grounds, but +Jill smuggled hers home and wore them at a fancy-dress ball next holidays. And +from that day forth things changed for the better at Experiment House, and it +became quite a good school. And Jill and Eustace were always friends. + +But far off in Narnia, King Rilian buried his father, Caspian the Navigator, +Tenth of that name, and mourned for him. He himself ruled Narnia well and the +land was happy in his days, though Puddleglum (whose foot was as good as new +in three weeks) often pointed out that bright mornings brought on wet +afternoons, and that you couldn’t expect good times to last. The opening into the +hillside was left open, and often in hot summer days the Narnians go in there +with ships and lanterns and down to the water and sail to and fro, singing, on the +cool, dark underground sea, telling each other stories of the cities that lie +fathoms deep below. If ever you have the luck to go to Narnia yourself, do not +forget to have a look at those caves. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +HOW SHASTA SET OUT ON HIS TRAVELS + +THIS is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and +the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and +his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him. + +In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a +poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him +Father. The boy’s name was Shasta. On most days Arsheesh went out in his boat +to fish in the morning, and in the afternoon he harnessed his donkey to a cart and +loaded the cart with fish and went a mile or so southward to the village to sell it. +If it had sold well he would come home in a moderately good temper and say +nothing to Shasta, but if it had sold badly he would find fault with him and +perhaps beat him. There was always something to find fault with for Shasta had +plenty of work to do, mending and washing the nets, cooking the supper, and +cleaning the cottage in which they both lived. + +Shasta was not at all interested in anything that lay south of his home +because he had once or twice been to the village with Arsheesh and he knew that +there was nothing very interesting there. In the village he only met other men +who were just like his father - men with long, dirty robes, and wooden shoes +turned up at the toe, and turbans on their heads, and beards, talking to one +another very slowly about things that sounded dull. But he was very interested in +everything that lay to the North because no one ever went that way and he was +never allowed to go there himself. When he was sitting out of doors mending the +nets, and all alone, he would often look eagerly to the North. One could see +nothing but a grassy slope running up to a level ridge and beyond that the sky +with perhaps a few birds in it. + +Sometimes if Arsheesh was there Shasta would say, “O my Father, what is +there beyond that hill?” And then if the fisherman was in a bad temper he would +box Shasta’s ears and tell him to attend to his work. Or if he was in a peaceable +mood he would say, “O my son, do not allow your mind to be distracted by idle +questions. For one of the poets has said, 'Application to business is the root of +prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering the +ship of folly towards the rock of indigence’.” + +Shasta thought that beyond the hill there must be some delightful secret +which his father wished to hide from him. In reality, however, the fisherman +talked like this because he didn’t know what lay to the North. Neither did he + + + +care. He had a very practical mind. + +One day there came from the South a stranger who was unlike any man that +Shasta had seen before. He rode upon a strong dappled horse with flowing mane +and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver. The spike of a helmet +projected from the middle of his silken turban and he wore a shirt of chain mail. +By his side hung a curving scimitar, a round shield studded with bosses of brass +hung at his back, and his right hand grasped a lance. His face was dark, but this +did not surprise Shasta because all the people of Calormen are like that; what did +surprise him was the man’s beard which was dyed crimson, and curled and +gleaming with scented oil. But Arsheesh knew by the gold on the stranger’s bare +arm that he was a Tarkaan or great lord, and he bowed kneeling before him till +his beard touched the earth and made signs to Shasta to kneel also. + +The stranger demanded hospitality for the night which of course the +fisherman dared not refuse. All the best they had was set before the Tarkaan for +supper (and he didn’t think much of it) and Shasta, as always happened when the +fisherman had company, was given a hunk of bread and turned out of the +cottage. On these occasions he usually slept with the donkey in its little thatched +stable. But it was much too early to go to sleep yet, and Shasta, who had never +learned that it is wrong to listen behind doors, sat down with his ear to a crack in +the wooden wall of the cottage to hear what the grown-ups were talking about. +And this is what he heard. + +“And now, O my host,” said the Tarkaan, “I have a mind to buy that boy of +yours.” + +“O my master,” replied the fisherman (and Shasta knew by the wheedling +tone the greedy look that was probably coming into his face as he said it), “what +price could induce your servant, poor though he is, to sell into slavery his only +child and his own flesh? Has not one of the poets said, 'Natural affection is +stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles?”' + +“It is even so,” replied the guest dryly. “But another poet has likewise said, +“He who attempts to deceive the judicious is already baring his own back for the +scourge.” Do not load your aged mouth with falsehoods. This boy is manifestly +no son of yours, for your cheek is as dark as mine but the boy is fair and white +like the accursed but beautiful barbarians who inhabit the remote North.” + +“How well it was said,” answered the fisherman, “that Swords can be kept +off with shields but the Eye of Wisdom pierces through every defence! Know +then, O my formidable guest, that because of my extreme poverty I have never +married and have no child. But in that same year in which the Tisroc (may he +live for ever) began his august and beneficent reign, on a night when the moon +was at her full, it pleased the gods to deprive me of my sleep. Therefore I arose + + + +from my bed in this hovel and went forth to the beach to refresh myself with +looking upon the water and the moon and breathing the cool air. And presently I +heard a noise as of oars coming to me across the water and then, as it were, a +weak cry. And shortly after, the tide brought to the land a little boat in which +there was nothing but a man lean with extreme hunger and thirst who seemed to +have died but a few moments before (for he was still warm), and an empty +water-skin, and a child, still living. “Doubtless,” said I, “these unfortunates have +escaped from the wreck of a great ship, but by the admirable designs of the gods, +the elder has starved himself to keep the child alive and has perished in sight of +land.” Accordingly, remembering how the gods never fail to reward those who +befriend the destitute, and being moved by compassion (for your servant is a +man of tender heart) -“ + +“Leave out all these idle words in your own praise,” interrupted the Tarkaan. +“It is enough to know that you took the child - and have had ten times the worth +of his daily bread out of him in labour, as anyone can see. And now tell me at +once what price you put on him, for I am wearied with your loquacity.” + +“You yourself have wisely said,” answered Arsheesh, “that the boy’s labour +has been to me of inestimable value. This must be taken into account in fixing +the price. For if I sell the boy I must undoubtedly either buy or hire another to do +his work.” + +“I’ll give you fifteen crescents for him,” said the Tarkaan. + +“Fifteen!” cried Arsheesh in a voice that was something between a whine +and a scream. “Fifteen! For the prop of my old age and the delight of my eyes! +Do not mock my grey beard, Tarkaan though you be. My price is seventy.” + +At this point Shasta got up and tiptoed away. He had heard all he wanted, for +he had open listened when men were bargaining in the village and knew how it +was done. He was quite certain that Arsheesh would sell him in the end for +something much more than fifteen crescents and much less than seventy, but that +he and the Tarkaan would take hours in getting to an agreement. + +You must not imagine that Shasta felt at all as you and I would feel if we had +just overheard our parents talking about selling us for slaves. For one thing, his +life was already little better than slavery; for all he knew, the lordly stranger on +the great horse might be kinder to him than Arsheesh. For another, the story +about his own discovery in the boat had filled him with excitement and with a +sense of relief. He had often been uneasy because, try as he might, he had never +been able to love the fisherman, and he knew that a boy ought to love his father. +And now, apparently, he was no relation to Arsheesh at all. That took a great +weight off his mind. “Why, I might be anyone!” he thought. “I might be the son +of a Tarkaan myself - or the son of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) or of a god!” + + + +He was standing out in the grassy place before the cottage while he thought +these things. Twilight was coming on apace and a star or two was already out, +but the remains of the sunset could still be seen in the west. Not far away the +stranger’s horse, loosely tied to an iron ring in the wall of the donkey’s stable, +was grazing. Shasta strolled over to it and patted its neck. It went on tearing up +the grass and took no notice of him. + +Then another thought came into Shasta’s mind. “I wonder what sort of a man +that Tarkaan is,” he said out loud. “It would be splendid if he was kind. Some of +the slaves in a great lord’s house have next to nothing to do. They wear lovely +clothes and eat meat every day. Perhaps he’d take me to the wars and I’d save his +life in a battle and then he’d set me free and adopt me as his son and give me a +palace and a chariot and a suit of armour. But then he might be a horrid cruel +man. He might send me to work on the fields in chains. I wish I knew. How can I +know? I bet this horse knows, if only he could tell me.” + +The Horse had lifted its head. Shasta stroked its smooth-as-satin nose and +said, “I wish you could talk, old fellow.” + +And then for a second he thought he was dreaming, for quite distinctly, +though in a low voice, the Horse said, “But I can.” + +Shasta stared into its great eyes and his own grew almost as big, with +astonishment. + +“How ever did you learn to talk?” he asked. + +“Hush! Not so loud,” replied the Horse. “Where I come from, nearly all the +animals talk.” + +“Wherever is that?” asked Shasta. + +“Narnia,” answered the Horse. “The happy land of Narnia - Narnia of the +heathery mountains and the thymy downs, Narnia of the many rivers, the +plashing glens, the mossy caverns and the deep forests ringing with the hammers +of the Dwarfs. Oh the sweet air of Narnia! An hour’s life there is better than a +thousand years in Calormen.” It ended with a whinny that sounded very like a +sigh. + +“How did you get here?” said Shasta. + +“Kidnapped,” said the Horse. “Or stolen, or captured whichever you like to +call it. I was only a foal at the time. My mother warned me not to range the +Southern slopes, into Archenland and beyond, but I wouldn’t heed her. And by +the Lion’s Mane I have paid for my folly. All these years I have been a slave to +humans, hiding my true nature and pretending to be dumb and witless like their +horses.” + +“Why didn’t you tell them who you were?” + +“Not such a fool, that’s why. If they’d once found out I could talk they would + + + +have made a show of me at fairs and guarded me more carefully than ever. My +last chance of escape would have been gone.” + +“And why began Shasta, but the Horse interrupted him. + +“Now look,” it said, “we mustn’t waste time on idle questions. You want to +know about my master the Tarkaan Anradin. Well, he’s bad. Not too bad to me, +for a war horse costs too much to be treated very badly. But you’d better be lying +dead tonight than go to be a human slave in his house tomorrow.” + +“Then I’d better run away,” said Shasta, turning very pale. + +“Yes, you had,” said the Horse. “But why not run away with me?” + +“Are you going to run away too?” said Shasta. + +“Yes, if you’ll come with me,” answered the Horse. “This is the chance for +both of us. You see if I run away without a rider, everyone who sees me will say +“Stray horse” and be after me as quick as he can. With a rider I’ve a chance to +get through. That’s where you can help me. On the other hand, you can’t get +very far on those two silly legs of yours (what absurd legs humans have!) +without being overtaken. But on me you can outdistance any other horse in this +country. That’s where I can help you. By the way, I suppose you know how to +ride?” + +“Oh yes, of course,” said Shasta. “At least, I’ve ridden the donkey.” + +“Ridden the what?” retorted the Horse with extreme contempt. (At least, that +is what he meant. Actually it came out in a sort of neigh - “Ridden the wha-ha- +ha-ha-ha.” Talking horses always become more horsy in accent when they are +angry.) + +“In other words,” it continued, “you can’t ride. That’s a drawback. I’ll have +to teach you as we go along. If you can’t ride, can you fall?” + +“I suppose anyone can fall,” said Shasta. + +“1 mean can you fall and get up again without crying and mount again and +fall again and yet not be afraid of falling?” + +“I - I’ll try,” said Shasta. “Poor little beast,” said the Horse in a gentler tone. +“I forget you’re only a foal. We’ll make a fine rider of you in time. And now - +we mustn’t start until those two in the but are asleep. Meantime we can make our +plans. My Tarkaan is on his way North to the great city, to Tashbaan itself and +the court of the Tisroc -“ + +“I say,” put in Shasta in rather a shocked voice, “oughtn’t you to say 'May he +live for ever’?” + +“Why?” asked the Horse. “I’m a free Narnian. And why should I talk slaves’ +and fools’ talk? I don’t want him to live for ever, and I know that he’s not going +to live for ever whether I want him to or not. And I can see you’re from the free +North too. No more of this Southern jargon between you and me! And now, back + + + +to our plans. As I said, my human was on his way North to Tashbaan.” + +“Does that mean we’d better go to the South?” + +“I think not,” said the Horse. “You see, he thinks I’m dumb and witless like +his other horses. Now if I really were, the moment I got loose I’d go back home +to my stable and paddock; back to his palace which is two days’ journey South. +That’s where he’ll look for me. He’d never dream of my going on North on my +own. And anyway he will probably think that someone in the last village who +saw him ride through has followed us to here and stolen me.” + +“Oh hurrah!” said Shasta. “Then we’ll go North. I’ve been longing to go to +the North all my life.” + +“Of course you have,” said the Horse. “That’s because of the blood that’s in +you. I’m sure you’re true Northern stock. But not too loud. I should think they’d +be asleep soon now.” + +“I’d better creep back and see,” suggested Shasta. + +“That’s a good idea,” said the Horse. “But take care you’re not caught.” + +It was a good deal darker now and very silent except for the sound of the +waves on the beach, which Shasta hardly noticed because he had been hearing it +day and night as long as he could remember. The cottage, as he approached it, +showed no light. When he listened at the front there was no noise. When he went +round to the only window, he could hear, after a second or two, the familiar noise +of the old fisherman’s squeaky snore. It was funny to think that if all went well +he would never hear it again. Holding his breath and feeling a little bit sorry, but +much less sorry than he was glad, Shasta glided away over the grass and went to +the donkey’s stable, groped along to a place he knew where the key was hidden, +opened the door and found the Horse’s saddle and bridle which had been locked +up there for the night. He bent forward and kissed the donkey’s nose. “I’m sorry +we can’t take you,” he said. + +“There you are at last,” said the Horse when he got back to it. “I was +beginning to wonder what had become of you.” + +“I was getting your things out of the stable,” replied Shasta. “And now, can +you tell me how to put them on?” + +For the next few minutes Shasta was at work, very cautiously to avoid +jingling, while the Horse said things like, “Get that girth a bit tighter,” or “You’ll +find a buckle lower down,” or “You’ll need to shorten those stirrups a good bit.” +When all was finished it said: + +“Now; we’ve got to have reins for the look of the thing, but you won’t be +using them. Tie them to the saddle-bow: very slack so that I can do what I like +with my head. And, remember - you are not to touch them.” + +“What are they for, then?” asked Shasta. + + + +“Ordinarily they are for directing me,” replied the Horse. “But as I intend to +do all the directing on this journey, you’ll please keep your hands to yourself. +And there’s another thing. I’m not going to have you grabbing my mane.” + +“But I say,” pleaded Shasta. “If I’m not to hold on by the reins or by your +mane, what am I to hold on by?” + +“You hold on with your knees,” said the Horse. “That’s the secret of good +riding. Grip my body between your knees as hard as you like; sit straight up, +straight as a poker; keep your elbows in. And by the way, what did you do with +the spurs?” + +“Put them on my heels, of course,” said Shasta. “I do know that much.” + +“Then you can take them off and put them in the saddlebag. We may be able +to sell them when we get to Tashbaan. Ready? And now I think you can get up.” + +“Ooh! You’re a dreadful height,” gasped Shasta after his first, and +unsuccessful, attempt. + +“I’m a horse, that’s all,” was the reply. “Anyone would think I was a +haystack from the way you’re trying to climb up me! There, that’s better. Now +sit up and remember what I told you about your knees. Funny to think of me +who has led cavalry charges and won races having a potato-sack like you in the +saddle! However, off we go.” It chuckled, not unkindly. + +And it certainly began their night journey with great caution. First of all it +went just south of the fisherman’s cottage to the little river which there ran into +the sea, and took care to leave in the mud some very plain hoof-marks pointing +South. But as soon as they were in the middle of the ford it turned upstream and +waded till they were about a hundred yards farther inland than the cottage. Then +it selected a nice gravelly bit of bank which would take no footprints and came +out on the Northern side. Then, still at a walking pace, it went Northward till the +cottage, the one tree, the donkey’s stable, and the creek - everything, in fact, that +Shasta had ever known - had sunk out of sight in the grey summer-night +darkness. They had been going uphill and now were at the top of the ridge - that +ridge which had always been the boundary of Shasta’s known world. He could +not see what was ahead except that it was all open and grassy. It looked endless: +wild and lonely and free. + +“I say!” observed the Horse. “What a place for a gallop, eh!” + +“Oh don’t let’s,” said Shasta. “Not yet. I don’t know how to - please, Horse. I +don’t know your name.” + +“Breehy-hinny-brinny-hooky-hah,” said the Horse. + +“I’ll never be able to say that,” said Shasta. “Can I call you Bree?” + +“Well, if it’s the best you can do, I suppose you must,” said the Horse. “And +what shall I call you?” + + + +“I’m called Shasta.” + +“H’m,” said Bree. “Well, now, there’s a name that’s really hard to pronounce. +But now about this gallop. It’s a good deal easier than trotting if you only knew, +because you don’t have to rise and fall. Grip with your knees and keep your eyes +straight ahead between my ears. Don’t look at the ground. If you think you’re +going to fall just grip harder and sit up straighten Ready? Now: for Narnia and +the North.” + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +A WAYSIDE ADVENTURE + +IT was nearly noon on the following day when Shasta was wakened by +something warm and soft moving over his face. He opened his eyes and found +himself staring into the long face of a horse; its nose and lips were almost +touching his. He remembered the exciting events of the previous night and sat +up. But as he did so he groaned. + +“Ow, Bree,” he gasped. “I’m so sore. All over. I can hardly move.” + +“Good morning, small one,” said Bree. “I was afraid you might feel a bit +stiff. It can’t be the falls. You didn’t have more than a dozen or so, and it was all +lovely, soft springy turf that must have been almost a pleasure to fall on. And the +only one that might have been nasty was broken by that gorse bush. No: it’s the +riding itself that comes hard at first. What about breakfast? I’ve had mine.” + +“Oh bother breakfast. Bother everything,” said Shasta. “I tell you I can’t +move.” But the horse nuzzled at him with its nose and pawed him gently with a +hoof till he had to get up. And then he looked about him and saw where they +were. Behind them lay a little copse. Before them the turf, dotted with white +flowers, sloped down to the brow of a cliff. Far below them, so that the sound of +the breaking waves was very faint, lay the sea. Shasta had never seen it from +such a height and never seen so much of it before, nor dreamed how many +colours it had. On either hand the coast stretched away, headland after headland, +and at the points you could see the white foam running up the rocks but making +no noise because it was so far off. There were gulls flying overhead and the heat +shivered on the ground; it was a blazing day. But what Shasta chiefly noticed +was the air. He couldn’t think what was missing, until at last he realized that +there was no smell of fish in it. For of course, neither in the cottage nor among +the nets, had he ever been away from that smell in his life. And this new air was +so delicious, and all his old life seemed so far away, that he forgot for a moment +about his bruises and his aching muscles and said: + +“I say, Bree, didn’t you say something about breakfast?” + +“Yes, I did,” answered Bree. “I think you’ll find something in the saddle¬ +bags. They’re over there on that tree where you hung them up last night - or +early this morning, rather.” + +They investigated the saddle-bags and the results were cheering- a meat +pasty, only slightly stale, a lump of dried figs and another lump of green cheese, +a little flask of wine, and some money; about forty crescents in all, which was + + + +more than Shasta had ever seen. + +While Shasta sat down - painfully and cautiously - with his back against a +tree and started on the pasty, Bree had a few more mouthfuls of grass to keep +him company. + +“Won’t it be stealing to use the money?” asked Shasta. + +“Oh,” said the Horse, looking up with its mouth full of grass, “I never +thought of that. A free horse and a talking horse mustn’t steal, of course. But I +think it’s all right. We’re prisoners and captives in enemy country. That money is +booty, spoil. Besides, how are we to get any food for you without it? I suppose, +like all humans, you won’t eat natural food like grass and oats.” + +“I can’t.” + +“Ever tried?” + +“Yes, I have. I can’t get it down at all. You couldn’t either if you were me.” + +“You’re rum little creatures, you humans,” remarked Bree. + +When Shasta had finished his breakfast (which was by far the nicest he had +ever eaten), Bree said, “I think I’ll have a nice roll before we put on that saddle +again.” And he proceeded to do so. “That’s good. That’s very good,” he said, +mbbing his back on the turf and waving all four legs in the air. “You ought to +have one too, Shasta,” he snorted. “It’s most refreshing.” + +But Shasta burst out laughing and said,’’You do look funny when you’re on +your back!” + +“I look nothing of the sort,” said Bree. But then suddenly he rolled round on +his side, raised his head and looked hard at Shasta, blowing a little. + +“Does it really look funny?” he asked in an anxious voice. + +“Yes, it does,” replied Shasta. “But what does it matter?” + +“You don’t think, do you,” said Bree, “that it might be a thing talking horses +never do - a silly, clownish trick I’ve learned from the dumb ones? It would be +dreadful to find, when I get back to Narnia, that I’ve picked up a lot of low, bad +habits. What do you think, Shasta? Honestly, now. Don’t spare my feelings. +Should you think the real, free horses - the talking kind - do roll?” + +“How should I know? Anyway I don’t think I should bother about it if I were +you. We’ve got to get there first. Do you know the way?” + +“I know my way to Tashbaan. After that comes the desert. Oh, we’ll manage +the desert somehow, never fear. Why, we’ll be in sight of the Northern +mountains then. Think of it! To Narnia and the North! Nothing will stop us then. +But I’d be glad to be past Tashbaan. You and I are safer away from cities.” + +“Can’t we avoid it?” + +“Not without going along way inland, and that would take us into cultivated +land and main roads; and I wouldn’t know the way. No, we’ll just have to creep + + + +along the coast. Up here on the downs we’ll meet nothing but sheep and rabbits +and gulls and a few shepherds. And by the way, what about starting?” + +Shasta’s legs ached terribly as he saddled Bree and climbed into the saddle, +but the Horse was kindly to him and went at a soft pace all afternoon. When +evening twilight came they dropped by steep tracks into a valley and found a +village. Before they got into it Shasta dismounted and entered it on foot to buy a +loaf and some onions and radishes. The Horse trotted round by the fields in the +dusk and met Shasta at the far side. This became their regular plan every second +night. + +These were great days for Shasta, and every day better than the last as his +muscles hardened and he fell less often. Even at the end of his training Bree still +said he sat like a bag of flour in the saddle. “And even if it was safe, young ‘un, +I’d be ashamed to be seen with you on the main road.” But in spite of his rude +words Bree was a patient teacher. No one can teach riding so well as a horse. +Shasta learned to trot, to canter, to jump, and to keep his seat even when Bree +pulled up suddenly or swung unexpectedly to the left or the right - which, as +Bree told him, was a thing you might have to do at any moment in a battle. And +then of course Shasta begged to be told of the battles and wars in which Bree had +carried the Tarkaan. And Bree would tell of forced marches and the fording of +swift rivers, of charges and of fierce fights between cavalry and cavalry when +the war horses fought as well as the men, being all fierce stallions, trained to bite +and kick, and to rear at the right moment so that the horse’s weight as well as the +rider’s would come down on a enemy’s crest in the stroke of sword or battleaxe. +But Bree did not want to talk about the wars as often as Shasta wanted to hear +about them. “Don’t speak of them, youngster,” he would say. “They were only +the Tisroc’s wars and I fought in them as a slave and a dumb beast. Give me the +Narnian wars where I shall fight as a free Horse among my own people! Those +will be wars worth talking about. Narnia and the North! Bra-ha-ha! Broo hoo!” + +Shasta soon learned, when he heard Bree talking like that, to prepare for a +gallop. + +After they had travelled on for weeks and weeks past more bays and +headlands and rivers and villages than Shasta could remember, there came a +moonlit night when they started their journey at evening, having slept during the +day. They had left the downs behind them and were crossing a wide plain with a +forest about half a mile away on their left. The sea, hidden by low sandhills, was +about the same distance on their right. They had jogged along for about an hour, +sometimes trotting and sometimes walking, when Bree suddenly stopped. + +“What’s up?” said Shasta. + +“S-s-ssh!” said Bree, craning his neck round and twitching his ears. “Did you + + + +hear something? Listen.” + +“It sounds like another horse - between us and the wood,” said Shasta after +he had listened for about a minute. + +“It is another horse,” said Bree. “And that’s what I don’t like.” + +“Isn’t it probably just a farmer riding home late?” said Shasta with a yawn. + +“Don’t tell me!” said Bree. “That’s not a farmer’s riding. Nor a farmer’s +horse either. Can’t you tell by the sound? That’s quality, that horse is. And it’s +being ridden by a real horseman. I tell you what it is, Shasta. There’s a Tarkaan +under the edge of that wood. Not on his war horse - it’s too light for that. On a +fine blood mare, I should say.” + +“Well, it’s stopped now, whatever it is,” said Shasta. + +“You’re right,” said Bree. “And why should he stop just when we do? Shasta, +my boy, I do believe there’s someone shadowing us at last.” + +“What shall we do?” said Shasta in a lower whisper than before. “Do you +think he can see us as well as hear us?” + +“Not in this light so long as we stay quite still,” answered Bree. “But look! +There’s a cloud coming up. I’ll wait till that gets over the moon. Then we’ll get +off to our right as quietly as we can, down to the shore. We can hide among the +sandhills if the worst comes to the worst.” + +They waited till the cloud covered the moon and then, first at a walking pace +and afterwards at a gentle trot, made for the shore. + +The cloud was bigger and thicker than it had looked at first and soon the +night grew very dark. Just as Shasta was saying to himself, “We must be nearly +at those sandhills by now,” his heart leaped into his mouth because an appalling +noise had suddenly risen up out of the darkness ahead; a long snarling roar, +melancholy and utterly savage. Instantly Bree swerved round and began +galloping inland again as fast as he could gallop. + +“What is it?” gasped Shasta. + +“Lions! ” said Bree, without checking his pace or turning his head. + +After that there was nothing but sheer galloping for some time. At last they +splashed across a wide, shallow stream and Bree came to a stop on the far side. +Shasta noticed that he was trembling and sweating all over. + +“That water may have thrown the brute off our scent,” panted Bree when he +had partly got his breath again. “We can walk for a bit now.” + +As they walked Bree said, “Shasta, I’m ashamed of myself. I’m just as +frightened as a common, dumb Calor mene horse. I am really. I don’t feel like a +Talking Horse at all. I don’t mind swords and lances and arrows but I can’t bear - +those creatures. I think I’ll trot for a bit.” + +About a minute later, however, he broke into a gallop again, and no wonder. + + + +For the roar broke out again, this time on their left from the direction of the +forest. + +“Two of them,” moaned Bree. + +When they had galloped for several minutes without any further noise from +the lions Shasta said, “I say! That other horse is galloping beside us now. Only a +stone’s throw away.” + +“All the b-better,” panted Bree. “Tarkaan on it - will have a sword - protect +us all.” + +“But, Bree!” said Shasta. “We might just as well be killed by lions as caught. +Or 1 might. They’ll hang me for horsestealing.” He was feeling less frightened +of lions than Bree because he had never met a lion; Bree had. + +Bree only snorted in answer but he did sheer away to his right. Oddly enough +the other horse seemed also to be sheering away to the left, so that in a few +seconds the space between them had widened a good deal. But as soon as it did +so there came two more lions’ roars, immediately after one another, one on the +right and the other on the left, the horses began drawing nearer together. So, +apparently, did the lions. The roaring of the brutes on each side was horribly +close and they seemed to be keeping up with the galloping horses quite easily. +Then the cloud rolled away. The moonlight, astonishingly bright, showed up +everything almost as if it were broad day. The two horses and two riders were +galloping neck to neck and knee to knee just as if they were in a race. Indeed +Bree said (afterwards) that a finer race had never been seen in Calormen. + +Shasta now gave himself up for lost and began to wonder whether lions +killed you quickly or played with you as a cat plays with a mouse and how much +it would hurt. At the same time (one sometimes does this at the most frightful +moments) he noticed everything. He saw that the other rider was a very small, +slender person, mail-clad (the moon shone on the mail) and riding magnificently. +He had no beard. + +Something flat and shining was spread out before them. Before Shasta had +time even to guess what it was there was + +a great splash and he found his mouth half full of salt water. The shining +thing had been a long inlet of the sea. Both horses were swimming and the water +was up to Shasta’s knees. There was an angry roaring behind them and looking +back Shasta saw a great, shaggy, and terrible shape crouched on the water’s +edge; but only one. “We must have shaken off the other lion,” he thought. + +The lion apparently did not think its prey worth a wetting; at any rate it made +no attempt to take the water in pursuit. The two horses, side by side, were now +well out into the middle of the creek and the opposite shore could be clearly +seen. The Tarkaan had not yet spoken a word. “But he will,” thought Shasta. “As + + + +soon as we have landed. What am I to say? I must begin thinking out a story.” + +Then, suddenly, two voices spoke at his side. + +“Oh, I am so tired,” said the one. “Hold your tongue, Hwin, and don’t be a +fool,” said the other. + +“I’m dreaming,” thought Shasta. “I could have sworn that other horse +spoke.” + +Soon the horses were no longer swimming but walking and soon with a great +sound of water running off their sides and tails and with a great crunching of +pebbles under eight hoofs, they came out on the farther beach of the inlet. The +Tarkaan, to Shasta’s surprise, showed no wish to ask questions. He did not even +look at Shasta but seemed anxious to urge his horse straight on. Bree, however, +at once shouldered himself in the other horse’s way. + +“Broo-hoo-hah!” he snorted. “Steady there! I heard you, I did. There’s no +good pretending, Ma’am. 1 heard you. You’re a Talking Horse, a Narnian horse +just like me.” + +“What’s it got to do with you if she is?” said the strange rider fiercely, laying +hand on sword-hilt. But the voice in which the words were spoken had already +told Shasta something. + +“Why, it’s only a girl!” he exclaimed. + +“And what business is it of yours if I am only a girl?” snapped the stranger. +“You’re probably only a boy: a rude, common little boy - a slave probably, who’s +stolen his master’s horse.” + +“That’s all you know,” said Shasta. + +“He’s not a thief, little Tarkheena,” said Bree. “At least, if there’s been any +stealing, you might just as well say I stole him. And as for its not being my +business, you wouldn’t expect me to pass a lady of my own race in this strange +country without speaking to her? It’s only natural I should.” + +“I think it’s very natural too,” said the mare. + +“I wish you’d held your tongue, Hwin,” said the girl. “Look at the trouble +you’ve got us into.” + +“I don’t know about trouble,” said Shasta. “You can clear off as soon as you +like. We shan’t keep you.” + +“No, you shan’t,” said the girl. + +“What quarrelsome creatures these humans are,” said Bree to the mare. +“They’re as bad as mules. Let’s try to talk a little sense. I take it, ma’am, your +story is the same as mine? Captured in early youth - years of slavery among the +Calormenes?” + +“Too true, sir,” said the mare with a melancholy whinny. + +“And now, perhaps - escape?” + + + +“Tell him to mind his own business, Hwin,” said the girl. + +“No, I won’t, Aravis,” said the mare putting her ears back. “This is my +escape just as much as yours. And I’m sure a noble war-horse like this is not +going to betray us. We are trying to escape, to get to Narnia.” + +“And so, of course, are we,” said Bree. “Of course you guessed that at once. +A little boy in rags riding (or trying to ride) a war-horse at dead of night couldn’t +mean anything but an escape of some sort. And, if I may say so, a highborn +Tarkheena riding alone at night - dressed up in her brother’s armour - and very +anxious for everyone to mind their own business and ask her no questions - well, +if that’s not fishy, call me a cob!” + +“All right then,” said Aravis. “You’ve guessed it. Hwin and I are running +away. We are trying to get to Narnia. And now, what about it?” + +“Why, in that case, what is to prevent us all going together?” said Bree. “I +trust, Madam Hwin, you will accept such assistance and protection as I may be +able to give you on the journey?” + +“Why do you keep talking to my horse instead of to me?” asked the girl. + +“Excuse me, Tarkheena,” said Bree (with just the slightest backward tilt of +his ears), “but that’s Calormene talk. We’re free Narnians, Hwin and I, and I +suppose, if you’re running away to Narnia, you want to be one too. In that case +Hwin isn’t your horse any longer. One might just as well say you’re her human.” + +The girl opened her mouth to speak and then stopped. Obviously she had not +quite seen it in that light before. + +“Still,” she said after a moment’s pause, “I don’t know that there’s so much +point in all going together. Aren’t we more likely to be noticed?” + +“Less,” said Bree; and the mare said, “Oh do let’s. I should feel much more +comfortable. We’re not even certain of the way. I’m sure a great charger like this +knows far more than we do.” + +“Oh come on, Bree,” said Shasta, “and let them go their own way. Can’t you +see they don’t want us?” + +“We do,” said Hwin. + +“Look here,” said the girl. “I don’t mind going with you, Mr War-Horse, but +what about this boy? How do I know he’s not a spy?” + +“Why don’t you say at once that you think I’m not good enough for you?” +said Shasta. + +“Be quiet, Shasta,” said Bree. “The Tarkheena’s question is quite reasonable. +I’ll vouch for the boy, Tarkheena. He’s been true to me and a good friend. And +he’s certainly either a Narnian or an Archenlander.” + +“All right, then. Let’s go together.” But she didn’t say anything to Shasta and +it was obvious that she wanted Bree, not him. + + + +“Splendid!” said Bree. “And now that we’ve got the water between us and +those dreadful animals, what about you two humans taking off our saddles and +our all having a rest and hearing one another’s stories.” + +Both the children unsaddled their horses and the horses had a little grass and +Aravis produced rather nice things to eat from her saddle-bag But Shasta sulked +and said No thanks, and that he wasn’t hungry. And he tried to put on what he +thought very grand and stiff manners, but as a fisherman’s but is not usually a +good place for learning grand manners, the result was dreadful. And he half +knew that it wasn’t a success and then became sulkier and more awkward than +ever. Meanwhile the two horses were getting on splendidly. They remembered +the very same places in Narnia - “the grasslands up above Beaversdam” and +found that they were some sort of second cousins once removed. This made +things more and more uncomfortable for the humans until at last Bree said, “And +now, Tarkheena, tell us your story. And don’t hurry it - I’m feeling comfortable +now.” + +Aravis immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone +and style from her usual one. For in Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories +are true or made up) is a thing you’re taught, just as English boys and girls are +taught essay-writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, +whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +AT THE GATES OF TASHBAAN + +“Mr name,” said the girl at once, “is Aravis Tarkheena and I am the only +daughter of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Rishti Tarkaan, the son of Kidrash +Tarkaan, the son of Ilsombreh Tisroc, the son of Ardeeb Tisroc who was +descended in a right line from the god Tash. My father is the lord of the province +of Calavar and is one who has the right of standing on his feet in his shoes +before the face of Tisroc himself (may he live for ever). My mother (on whom be +the peace of the gods) is dead and my father has married another wife. One of +my brothers has fallen in battle against the rebels in the far west and the other is +a child. Now it came to pass that my father’s wife, my step-mother, hated me, +and the sun appeared dark in her eyes as long as I lived in my father’s house. +And so she persuaded my father to promise me in marriage to Ahoshta Tarkaan. +Now this Ahoshta is of base birth, though in these latter years he has won the +favour of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) by flattery and evil counsels, and is +now made a Tarkaan and the lord of many cities and is likely to be chosen as the +Grand Vizier when the present Grand Vizier dies. Moreover he is at least sixty +years old and has a hump on his back and his face resembles that of an ape. +Nevertheless my father, because of the wealth and power of this Ahoshta, and +being persuaded by his wife, sent messengers offering me in marriage, and the +offer was favourably accepted and Ahoshta sent word that he would marry me +this very year at the time of high summer. + +“When this news was brought to me the sun appeared dark in my eyes and I +laid myself on my bed and wept for a day. But on the second day I rose up and +washed my face and caused my mare Hwin to be saddled and took with me a +sharp dagger which my brother had carried in the western wars and rode out +alone. And when my father’s house was out of sight and I was come to a green +open place in a certain wood where there were no dwellings of men, I +dismounted from Hwin my mare and took out the dagger. Then I parted my +clothes where I thought the readiest way lay to my heart and I prayed to all the +gods that as soon as I was dead I might find myself with my brother. After that I +shut my eyes and my teeth and prepared to drive the dagger into my heart. But +before I had done so, this mare spoke with the voice of one of the daughters of +men and said, “O my mistress, do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you +live you may yet have good fortune but all the dead are dead alike.” + +“I didn’t say it half so well as that,” muttered the mare. + + + +“Hush, Ma’am, hush,” said Bree, who was thoroughly enjoying the story. +“She’s telling it in the grand Calormene manner and no story-teller in a Tisroc’s +court could do it better. Pray go on, Tarkheena.” + +“When I heard the language of men uttered by my mare,” continued Aravis, +“I said to myself, the fear of death has disordered my reason and subjected me to +delusions. And I became full of shame for none of my lineage ought to fear +death more than the biting of a gnat. Therefore I addressed myself a second time +to the stabbing, but Hwin came near to me and put her head in between me and +the dagger and discoursed to me most excellent reasons and rebuked me as a +mother rebukes her daughter. And now my wonder was so great that I forgot +about killing myself and about Ahoshta and said, 'O my mare, how have you +learned to speak like one of the daughters of men?’ And Hwin told me what is +known to all this company, that in Narnia there are beasts that talk, and how she +herself was stolen from thence when she was a little foal. She told me also of the +woods and waters of Narnia and the castles and the great ships, till I said, 'In the +name of Tash and Azaroth and Zardeenah Lady of the Night, I have a great wish +to be in that country of Narnia.’ 'O my mistress,’ answered the mare, 'if you +were in Narnia you would be happy, for in that land no maiden is forced to marry +against her will.’ + +“And when we had talked together for a great time hope returned to me and I +rejoiced that I had not killed myself. Moreover it was agreed between Hwin and +me that we should steal ourselves away together and we planned it in this +fashion. We returned to my father’s house and I put on my gayest clothes and +sang and danced before my father and pretended to be delighted with the +marriage which he had prepared for me. Also I said to him, 'O my father and O +the delight of my eyes, give me your licence and permission to go with one of +my maidens alone for three days into the woods to do secret sacrifices to +Zardeenah, Lady of the Night and of Maidens, as is proper and customary for +damsels when they must bid farewell to the service of Zardeenah and prepare +themselves for marriage.’ And he answered, 'O my daughter and O the delight of +my eyes, so shall it be.’ + +“But when I came out from the presence of my father I went immediately to +the oldest of his slaves, his secretary, who had dandled me on his knees when I +was a baby and loved me more than the air and the light. And I swore him to be +secret and begged him to write a certain letter for me. And he wept and implored +me to change my resolution but in the end he said, 'To hear is to obey,’ and did +all my will. And I sealed the letter and hid it in my bosom.” + +“But what was in the letter?” asked Shasta. + +“Be quiet, youngster,” said Bree. “You’re spoiling the story. She’ll tell us all + + + +about the letter in the right place. Go on, Tarkheena.” + +“Then I called the maid who was to go with me to the woods and perform the +rites of Zardeenah and told her to wake me very early in the morning. And I +became merry with her and gave her wine to drink; but I had mixed such things +in her cup that I knew she must sleep for a night and a day. As soon as the +household of my father had committed themselves to sleep I arose and put on an +armour of my brother’s which I always kept in my chamber in his memory. I put +into my girdle all the money I had and certain choice jewels and provided myself +also with food, and saddled the mare with my own hands and rode away in the +second watch of the night. I directed my course not to the woods where my +father supposed that I would go but north and east to Tashbaan. + +“Now for three days and more I knew that my father would not seek me, +being deceived by the words I had said to him. And on the fourth day we arrived +at the city of Azim Baida. Now Azim Baida stands at the meeting of many roads +and from it the posts of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) ride on swift horses to +every part of the empire: and it is one of the rights and privileges of the greater +Tarkaans to send messages by them. I therefore went to the Chief of the +Messengers in the House of Imperial Posts in Azim Baida and said, 'O +dispatcher of messages, here is a letter from my uncle Ahoshta Tarkaan to +Kidrash Tarkaan lord of Calavar. Take now these five crescents and cause it to be +sent to him.’ And the Chief of the Messengers said, 'To hear is to obey.’ + +“This letter was feigned to be written by Ahoshta and this was the +signification of the writing: 'Ahoshta Tarkaan to Kidrash Tarkaan, salutation and +peace. In the name of Tash the irresistible, the inexorable. Be it known to you +that as I made my journey towards your house to perform the contract of +marriage between me and your daughter Aravis Tarkheena, it pleased fortune +and the gods that I fell in with her in the forest when she had ended the rites and +sacrifices of Zardeenah according to the custom of maidens. And when I learned +who she was, being delighted with her beauty and discretion, I became inflamed +with love and it appeared to me that the sun would be dark to me if I did not +marry her at once. Accordingly I prepared the necessary sacrifices and married +your daughter the same hour that I met her and have returned with her to my +own house. And we both pray and charge you to come hither as speedily as you +may that we may be delighted with your face and speech; and also that you may +bring with you the dowry of my wife, which, by reason of my great charges and +expenses, I require without delay. And because thou and I are brothers I assure +myself that you will not be angered by the haste of my marriage which is wholly +occasioned by the great love I bear your daughter. And I commit you to the care +of all the gods.’ + + + +“As soon as I had done this I rode on in all haste from Azim Baida, fearing +no pursuit and expecting that my father, having received such a letter, would +send messages to Ahoshta or go to him himself, and that before the matter was +discovered I should be beyond Tashbaan. And that is the pith of my story until +this very night when I was chased by lions and met you at the swimming of the +salt water.” + +“And what happened to the girl - the one you drugged?” asked Shasta. + +“Doubtless she was beaten for sleeping late,” said Aravis coolly. “But she +was a tool and spy of my stepmother’s. I am very glad they should beat her.” + +“I say, that was hardly fair,” said Shasta. + +“I did not do any of these things for the sake of pleasing you,” said Aravis. + +“And there’s another thing I don’t understand about that story,” said Shasta. +“You’re not grown up, I don’t believe you’re any older than I am. I don’t believe +you’re as old. How could you be getting married at your age?” + +Aravis said nothing, but Bree at once said, “Shasta, don’t display your +ignorance. They’re always married at that age in the great Tarkaan families.” + +Shasta turned very red (though it was hardly light enough for the others to +see this) and felt snubbed. Aravis asked Bree for his story. Bree told it, and +Shasta thought that he put in a great deal more than he needed about the falls and +the bad riding. Bree obviously thought it very funny, but Aravis did not laugh. +When Bree had finished they all went to sleep. + +Next day all four of them, two horses and two humans, continued their +journey together. Shasta thought it had been much pleasanter when he and Bree +were on their own. For now it was Bree and Aravis who did nearly all the +talking. Bree had lived a long time in Calormen and had always been among +Tarkaans and Tarkaans’ horses, and so of course he knew a great many of the +same people and places that Aravis knew. She would always be saying things +like, “But if you were at the fight of Zulindreh you would have seen my cousin +Alimash,” and Bree would answer, “Oh, yes, Alimash, he was only captain of +the chariots, you know. I don’t quite hold with chariots or the kind of horses who +draw chariots. That’s not real cavalry. But he is a worthy nobleman. He filled my +nosebag with sugar after the taking of Teebeth.” Or else Bree would say, “I was +down at the lake of Mezreel that summer,” and Aravis would say, “Oh, Mezreel! +I had a friend there, Lasaraleen Tarkheena. What a delightful place it is. Those +gardens, and the Valley of the Thousand Perfumes!” Bree was not in the least +trying to leave Shasta out of things, though Shasta sometimes nearly thought he +was. People who know a lot of the same things can hardly help talking about +them, and if you’re there you can hardly help feeling that you’re out of it. + +Hwin the mare was rather shy before a great war-horse like Bree and said + + + +very little. And Aravis never spoke to Shasta at all if she could help it. + +Soon, however, they had more important things to think of. They were +getting near Tashbaan. There were more, and larger, villages, and more people +on the roads. They now did nearly all their travelling by night and hid as best +they could during the day. And at every halt they argued and argued about what +they were to do when they reached Tashbaan. Everyone had been putting off this +difficulty, but now it could be put off no longer. During these discussions Aravis +became a little, a very little, less unfriendly to Shasta; one usually gets on better +with people when one is making plans than when one is talking about nothing in +particular. + +Bree said the first thing now to do was to fix a place where they would all +promise to meet on the far side of Tashbaan even if, by any ill luck, they got +separated in passing the city. He said the best place would be the Tombs of the +Ancient Kings on the very edge of the desert. “Things like great stone bee¬ +hives,” he said, “you can’t possibly miss them. And the best of it is that none of +the Calormenes will go near them because they think the place is haunted by +ghouls and are afraid of it.” Aravis asked if it wasn’t really haunted by ghouls. +But Bree said he was a free Narnian horse and didn’t believe in these Calormene +tales. And then Shasta said he wasn’t a Calormene either and didn’t care a straw +about these old stories of ghouls. This wasn’t quite true. But it rather impressed +Aravis (though at the moment it annoyed her too) and of course she said she +didn’t mind any number of ghouls either. So it was settled that the Tombs should +be their assembly place on the other side of Tashbaan, and everyone felt they +were getting on very well till Hwin humbly pointed out that the real problem was +not where they should go when they had got through Tashbaan but how they +were to get through it. + +“We’ll settle that tomorrow, Ma’am,” said Bree. “Time for a little sleep +now.” + +But it wasn’t easy to settle. Aravis’s first suggestion was that they should +swim across the river below the city during the night and not go into Tashbaan at +all. But Bree had two reasons against this. One was that the river-mouth was +very wide and it would be far too long a swim for Hwin to do, especially with a +rider on her back. (He thought it would be too long for himself too, but he said +much less about that). The other was that it would be full of shipping and of +course anyone on the deck of a ship who saw two horses swimming past would +be almost certain to be inquisitive. + +Shasta thought they should go up the river above Tashbaan and cross it +where it was narrower. But Bree explained that there were gardens and pleasure +houses on both banks of the river for miles and that there would be Tarkaans and + + + +Tarkheenas living in them and riding about the roads and having water parties on +the river. In fact it would be the most likely place in the world for meeting +someone who would recognize Aravis or even himself. + +“We’ll have to have a disguise,” said Shasta. + +Hwin said it looked to her as if the safest thing was to go right through the +city itself from gate to gate because one was less likely to be noticed in the +crowd. But she approved of the idea of disguise as well. She said, “Both the +human will have to dress in rags and look like peasants or slaves And all +Aravis’s armour and our saddles and things must be made into bundles and put +on our backs, and the children must pretend to drive us and people will think +we’re on pack-horses.” + +“My dear Hwin!” said Aravis rather scornfully. “As anyone could mistake +Bree for anything but a war-hors however you disguised him!” + +“I should think not, indeed,” said Bree, snorting an letting his ears go ever so +little back. + +“I know it’s not a very good plan,” said Hwin. “But I think it’s our only +chance. And we haven’t been groomed for ages and we’re not looking quite +ourselves (at least, I’m sure I’m not). I do think if we get well plastered with +mud and go along with our heads down as if we’re tired and lazy -and don’t lift +our hooves hardly at all - we might not be noticed. And our tails ought to be cut +shorter: not neatly, you know, but all ragged.” + +“My dear Madam,” said Bree. “Have you pictured to yourself how very +disagreeable it would be to arrive in Narnia in that condition?” + +“Well,” said Hwin humbly (she was a very sensible mare), “the main thing is +to get there.” + +Though nobody much liked it, it was Hwin’s plan which had to be adopted in +the end. It was a troublesome one and involved a certain amount of what Shasta +called stealing, and Bree called “raiding”. One farm lost a few sacks that evening +and another lost a coil of rope the next: but some tattered old boy’s clothes for +Aravis to wear had to be fairly bought and paid for in a village. Shasta returned +with them in triumph just as evening was closing in. The others were waiting for +him among the trees at the foot of a low range of wooded hills which lay right +across their path. Everyone was feeling excited because this was the last hill; +when they reached the ridge at the top they would be looking down on Tashbaan. +“I do wish we were safely past it,” muttered Shasta to Hwin. “Oh I do, I do,” +said Hwin fervently. + +That night they wound their way through the woods up to the ridge by a +wood-cutter’s track. And when they came out of the woods at the top they could +see thousands of lights in the valley down below them. Shasta had had no notion + + + +of what a great city would be like and it frightened him. They had their supper +and the children got some sleep. But the horses woke them very early in the +morning. + +The stars were still out and the grass was terribly cold and wet, but daybreak +was just beginning, far to their right across the sea. Aravis went a few steps +away into the wood and came back looking odd in her new, ragged clothes and +carrying her real ones in a bundle. These, and her armour and shield and scimitar +and the two saddles and the rest of the horses’ fine furnishings were put into the +sacks. Bree and Hwin had already got themselves as dirty and bedraggled as they +could and it remained to shorten their tails. As the only tool for doing this was +Aravis’s scimitar, one of the packs had to be undone again in order to get it out. +It was a longish job and rather hurt the horses. + +“My word!” said Bree, “if I wasn’t a Talking Horse what a lovely kick in the +face I could give you! I thought you were going to cut it, not pull it out. That’s +what it feels like.” + +But in spite of semi-darkness and cold fingers all was done in the end, the +big packs bound on the horses, the rope halters (which they were now wearing +instead of bridles and reins) in the children’s hands, and the journey began. + +“Remember,” said Bree. “Keep together if we possibly can. If not, meet at +the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, and whoever gets there first must wait for the +others.” + +“And remember,” said Shasta. “Don’t you two horses forget yourselves and +start talking, whatever happens.” + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +SHASTA FALLS IN WITH THE NARNIANS + +AT first Shasta could see nothing in the valley below him but a sea of mist +with a few domes and pinnacles rising from it; but as the light increased and the +mist cleared away he saw more and more. A broad river divided itself into two +streams and on the island between them stood the city of Tashbaan, one of the +wonders of the world. Round the very edge of the island, so that the water +lapped against the stone, ran high walls strengthened with so many towers that +he soon gave up trying to count them. Inside the walls the island rose in a hill +and every bit of that hill, up to the Tisroc’s palace and the great temple of Tash at +the top, was completely covered with buildings - terrace above terrace, street +above street, zigzag roads or huge flights of steps bordered with orange trees and +lemon trees, roofgardens, balconies, deep archways, pillared colonnades, spires, +battlements, minarets, pinnacles. And when at last the sun rose out of the sea and +the great silver-plated dome of the temple flashed back its light, he was almost +dazzled. + +“Get on, Shasta,” Bree kept saying. + +The river banks on each side of the valley were such a mass of gardens that +they looked at first like forest, until you got closer and saw the white walls of +innumerable houses peeping out from beneath the trees. Soon after that, Shasta +noticed a delicious smell of flowers and fruit. About fifteen minutes later they +were down among them, plodding on a level road with white walls on each side +and trees bending over the walls. + +“I say,” said Shasta in an awed voice. “This is a wonderful place!” + +“I daresay,” said Bree. “But I wish we were safely through it and out at the +other side. Narnia and the North!” + +At that moment a low, throbbing noise began which gradually swelled louder +and louder till the whole valley seemed to be swaying with it. It was a musical +noise, but so strong and solemn as to be a little frightening. + +“That’s the horns blowing for the city gates to be open,” said Bree. “We shall +be there in a minute. Now, Aravis, do droop your shoulders a bit and step heavier +and try to look less like a princess. Try to imagine you’ve been kicked and +cuffed and called names all your life.” + +“If it comes to that,” said Aravis, “what about you drooping your head a bit +more and arching your neck a bit less and trying to look less like a war-horse?” + +“Hush,” said Bree. “Here we are.” + + + +And they were. They had come to the river’s edge and the road ahead of +them ran along a many-arched bridge. The water danced brightly in the early +sunlight; away to the right nearer the river’s mouth, they caught a glimpse ships’ +masts. Several other travellers were before them on the bridge, mostly peasants +driving laden donkeys and mules or carrying baskets on their heads. The +children and horses joined the crowd. + +“Is anything wrong?” whispered Shasta to Aravis, who had an odd look on +her face. + +“Oh it’s all very well for you,” whispered Aravis rather savagely. “What +would you care about Tashbaan? But I ought to be riding in on a litter with +soldiers before me and slaves behind, and perhaps going to a feast in the Tisroc’s +palace (may he live for ever) - not sneaking in like this. It’s different for you.” + +Shasta thought all this very silly. + +At the far end of the bridge the walls of the city towered high above them +and the brazen gates stood open in the gateway which was really wide but +looked narrow because it was so very high. Half a dozen soldiers, leaning on +their spears, stood on each side. Aravis couldn’t help thinking, “They’d all jump +to attention and salute me if they knew whose daughter I am.” But the others +were only thinking of how they’d get through and hoping the soldiers would not +ask any questions. Fortunately they did not. But one of them picked a carrot out +of a peasant’s basket and threw it at Shasta with a rough laugh, saying: + +“Hey! Horse-boy! You’ll catch it if your master finds you’ve been using his +saddle-horse for pack work.” + +This frightened him badly for of course it showed that no one who knew +anything about horses would mistake Bree for anything but a charger. + +“It’s my master’s orders, so there!” said Shasta. But it would have been +better if he had held his tongue for the soldier gave him a box on the side of his +face that nearly knocked him down and said, “Take that, you young filth, to +teach you how to talk to freemen.” But they all slunk into the city without being +stopped. Shasta cried only a very little; he was used to hard knocks. + +Inside the gates Tashbaan did not at first seem so splendid as it had looked +from a distance. The first street was narrow and there were hardly any windows +in the walls on each side. It was much more crowded than Shasta had expected: +crowded partly by the peasants (on their way to market) who had come in with +them, but also with watersellers, sweetmeat sellers, porters, soldiers, beggars, +ragged children, hens, stray dogs, and bare-footed slaves. What you would +chiefly have noticed if you had been there was the smells, which came from +unwashed people, unwashed dogs, scent, garlic, onions, and the piles of refuse +which lay everywhere. + + + +Shasta was pretending to lead but it was really Bree, who knew the way and +kept guiding him by little nudges with his nose. They soon turned to the left and +began going up a steep hill. It was much fresher and pleasanter, for the road was +bordered by trees and there were houses only on the right side; on the other they +looked out over the roofs of houses in the lower town and could see some way +up the river. Then they went round a hairpin bend to their right and continued +rising. They were zigzagging up to the centre of Tashbaan. Soon they came to +finer streets. Great statues of the gods and heroes of Calormen - who are mostly +impressive rather than agreeable to look at- rose on shining pedestals. Palm trees +and pillared arcades cast shadows over the burning pavements. And through the +arched gateways of many a palace Shasta caught sight of green branches, cool +fountains, and smooth lawns. It must be nice inside, he thought. + +At every turn Shasta hoped they were getting out of the crowd, but they +never did. This made their progress very slow, and every now and then they had +to stop altogether. This usually happened because a loud voice shouted out +“Way, way, way, for the Tarkaan”, or “for the Tarkheena”, or “for the fifteenth +Vizier”, “or for the Ambassador”, and everyone in the crowd would crush back +against the walls; and above their heads Shasta would sometimes see the great +lord or lady for whom all the fuss was being made, lolling upon a litter which +four or even six gigantic slaves carried on their bare shoulders. For in Tashbaan +there is only one traffic regulation, which is that everyone who is less important +has to get out of the way for everyone who is more important; unless you want a +cut from a whip or punch from the butt end of a spear. + +It was in a splendid street very near the top of the city (the Tisroc’s palace +was the only thing above it) that the most disastrous of these stoppages occurred. + +“Way! Way! Way!” came the voice. “Way for the White Barbarian King, the +guest of the Tisroc (may he live for ever)! Way for the Narnian lords.” + +Shasta tried to get out of the way and to make Bree go back. But no horse, +not even a Talking Horse from Narnia, backs easily. And a woman with a very +edgy basket in her hands, who was just behind Shasta, pushed the basket hard +against his shoulders, and said, “Now then! Who are you shoving!” And then +someone else jostled him from the side and in the confusion of the moment he +lost hold of Bree. And then the whole crowd behind him became so stiffened and +packed tight that he couldn’t move at all. So he found himself, unintentionally, in +the first row and had a fine sight of the party that was coming down the street. + +It was quite unlike any other party they had seen that day. The crier who +went before it shouting “Way, way!” was the only Calormene in it. And there +was no litter; everyone was on foot. There were about half a dozen men and +Shasta had never seen anyone like them before. For one thing, they were all as + + + +fair-skinned as himself, and most of them had fair hair. And they were not +dressed like men of Calormen. Most of them had legs bare to the kneee. Their +tunics were of fine, bright, hardy colours - woodland green, or gay yellow, or +fresh blue. Instead of turbans they wore steel or silver caps, some of them set +with jewels, and one with little wings on each side of it. A few were bare¬ +headed. The swords at their sides were long and straight, not curved like +Calormene scimitars. And instead of being grave and mysterious like most +Calormenes, they walked with a swing and let their arms and shoulders free, and +chatted and laughed. One was whistling. You could see that they were ready to +be friends with anyone who was friendly and didn’t give a fig for anyone who +wasn’t. Shasta thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life. + +But there was not time to enjoy it for at once a really dreadful thing +happened. The leader of the fair-headed men suddenly pointed at Shasta, cried +out, “There he is! There’s our runaway!” and seized him by the shoulder. Next +moment he gave Shasta a smack - not a cruel one to make you cry but a sharp +one to let you know you are in disgrace and added, shaking: + +“Shame on you, my lord! Fie for shame! Queen Susan’s eyes are red with +weeping because of you. What! Truant for a whole night! Where have you +been?” + +Shasta would have darted under Bree’s body and tried to make himself +scarce in the crowd if he had had the least chance; but the fair-haired men were +all round him by now and he was held firm. + +Of course his first impulse was to say that he was only poor Arsheesh the +fisherman’s son and that the foreign lord must have mistaken him for someone +else. But then, the very last thing he wanted to do in that crowded place was to +start explaining who he was and what he was doing. If he started on that, he +would soon be asked where he had got his horse from, and who Aravis was - and +then, goodbye to any chance of getting through Tashbaan. His next impulse was +to look at Bree for help. But Bree had no intention of letting all the crowd know +that he could talk, and stood looking just as stupid as a horse can. As for Aravis, +Shasta did not even dare to look at her for fear of drawing attention. And there +was no time to think, for the leader of the Narnians said at once: + +“Take one of his little lordship’s hands, Peridan, of your courtesy, and I’ll +take the other. And now, on. Our royal sister’s mind will be greatly eased when +she sees our young scapegrace safe in our lodging.” + +And so, before they were half-way through Tashbaan, all their plans were +ruined, and without even a chance to say good-bye to the others Shasta found +himself being marched off among strangers and quite unable to guess what +might be going to happen next. The Narnian King - for Shasta began to see by + + + +the way the rest spoke to him that he must be a king - kept on asking him +questions; where he had been, how he had got out, what he had done with his +clothes, and didn’t he know that he had been very naughty. Only the king called +it “naught” instead of naughty. + +And Shasta said nothing in answer, because he couldn’t think of anything to +say that would not be dangerous. + +“What! All mum?” asked the king. “I must plainly tell you, prince, that this +hangdog silence becomes one of your blood even less than the scape itself. To +mn away might pass for a boy’s frolic with some spirit in it. But the king’s son +of Archenland should avouch his deed; not hang his head like a Calormene +slave.” + +This was very unpleasant, for Shasta felt all the time that this young king +was the very nicest kind of grown-up and would have liked to make a good +impression on him. + +The strangers led him-held tightly by both hands-along a narrow street and +down a flight of shallow stairs and then up another to a wide doorway in a white +wall with two tall, dark cypress trees, one on each side of it. Once through the +arch, Shasta found himself in a courtyard which was also a garden. A marble +basin of clear water in the centre was kept continually rippling by the fountain +that fell into it. Orange trees grew round it out of smooth grass, and the four +white walls which surrounded the lawn were covered with climbing roses. The +noise and dust and crowding of the streets seemed suddenly fad away. He was +led rapidly across the garden and then into a dark doorway. The crier remained +outside. After that they took him along a corridor, where the stone floor felt +beautifully cool to his hot feet, and up some stairs. A moment later he found +himself blinking in the light of a big, airy room with wide open windows, all +looking North so that no sun came in. There was a carpet on the floor more +wonderfully coloured than anything he had ever seen and his feet sank down into +it as if he were treading in thick moss. All round the walls there were low sofas +with rich cushions on them, and the room seemed to be full of people; very queer +people some of them, thought Shasta. But he had no time to think of that before +the most beautiful lady he had ever seen rose from her place and threw her arms +round him and kissed him, saying: + +“Oh Corin, Corin, how could you? And thou and I such close friends ever +since thy mother died. And what should I have said to thy royal father if I came +home without thee? Would have been a cause almost of war between Archenland +and Narnia which are friends time out of mind. It was naught, playmate, very +naught of thee to use us so.” + +“Apparently,” thought Shasta to himself, “I’m being mistaken for a prince of + + + +Archenland, wherever that is. And these must be the Narnians. I wonder where +the real Corin is?” But these thoughts did not help him say anything out loud. + +“Where hast been, Corin?” said the lady, her hands still on Shasta’s +shoulders. + +“I-1 don’t know,” stammered Shasta. + +“There it is, Susan,” said the King. “I could get no tale out of him, true or +false.” + +“Your Majesties! Queen Susan! King Edmund!” said a voice: and when +Shasta turned to look at the speaker he nearly jumped out of his skin with +surprise. For this was one of these queer people whom he had noticed out of the +corner of his eye when he first came into the room. He was about the same +height as Shasta himself. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs +were hairy like a goat’s, and shaped like a goat’s and he had goat’s hooves and a +tail. His skin was rather red and he had curly hair and a short pointed beard and +two little horns. He was in fact a Faun, which is a creature Shasta had never seen +a picture of or even heard of. And if you’ve read a book called The Fion, the +Witch and the Wardrobe you may like to know that this was the very same Faun, +Tumnus by name, whom Queen Susan’s sister Fucy had met on the very first day +when she found her way into Narnia. But he was a good deal older now for by +this time Peter and Susan and Edmund and Fucy had been Kings and Queens of +Narnia for several years. + +“Your Majesties,” he was saying, “His little Highness has had a touch of the +sun. Fook at him! He is dazed. He does not know where he is.” + +Then of course everyone stopped scolding Shasta and asking him questions +and he was made much of and laid on a sofa and cushions were put under his +head and he was given iced sherbet in a golden cup to drink and told to keep +very quiet. + +Nothing like this had ever happened to Shasta in his life before. He had +never even imagined lying on anything so comfortable as that sofa or drinking +anything so delicious as that sherbet. He was still wondering what had happened +to the others and how on earth he was going to escape and meet them at the +Tombs, and what would happen when the real Corin turned up again. But none +of these worries seemed so pressing now that he was comfortable. And perhaps, +later on, there would be nice things to eat! + +Meanwhile the people in that cool airy room were very interesting. Besides +the Faun there were two Dwarfs (a kind of creature he had never seen before) +and a very large Raven. + +The rest were all humans; grown-ups, but young, and all of them, both men +and women, had nicer faces and voices than most Calormenes. And soon Shasta + + + +found himself taking an interest in the conversation. “Now, Madam,” the King +was saying to Queen Susan (the lady who had kissed Shasta). “What think you? +We have been in this city fully three weeks. Have you yet settled in your mind +whether you will marry this dark-faced lover of yours, this Prince Rabadash, or +no?” + +The lady shook her head. “No, brother,” she said, “not for all the jewels in +Tashbaan.” (’’Hullo!” thought Shasta. “Although they’re king and queen, they’re +brother and sister, not married to one another.”) + +“Truly, sister,” said the King, “I should have loved you the less if you had +taken him. And I tell you that at the first coming of the Tisroc’s ambassadors into +Narnia to treat of this marriage, and later when the Prince was our guest at Cair +Paravel, it was a wonder to me that ever you could find it in your heart to show +him so much favour.” + +“That was my folly, Edmund,” said Queen Susan, “of which I cry you mercy. +Yet when he was with us in Narnia, truly this Prince bore himself in another +fashion than he does now in Tashbaan. For I take you all to witness what +marvellous feats he did in that great tournament and hastilude which our brother +the High King made for him, and how meekly and courteously he consorted with +us the space of seven days. But here, in his own city, he has shown another +face.” + +“Ah!” croaked the Raven. “It is an old saying: see the bear in his own den +before you judge of his conditions.” + +“That’s very true, Sallowpad,” said one of the Dwarfs. “And another is, +Come, live with me and you’ll know me.” + +“Yes,” said the King. “We have now seen him for what he is: that is, a most +proud, bloody, luxurious, cruel, and selfpleasing tryant.” + +“Then in the name of Aslan,” said Susan, “let us leave Tashbaan this very +day.” + +“There’s the rub, sister,” said Edmund. “For now I must open to you all that +has been growing in my mind these last two days and more. Peridan, of your +courtesy look to the door and see that there is no spy upon us. All well? So. For +now we must be secret.” + +Everyone had begun to look very serious. Queen Susan jumped up and ran to +her brother. “Oh, Edmund,” she cried. “What is it? There is something dreadful +in your face.” + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +PRINCE CORIN + +“MY dear sister and very good Lady,” said King Edmund, “you must now +show your courage. For I tell you plainly we are in no small danger.” + +“What is it, Edmund asked the Queen. + +“It is this,” said Edmund. “I do not think we shall find it easy to leave +Tashbaan. While the Prince had hope that you would take him, we were +honoured guests. But by the Lion’s Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat +denial we shall be no better than prisoners.” + +One of the Dwarfs gave a low whistle. + +“I warned your Majesties, I warned you,” said Sallowpad the Raven. “Easily +in but not easily out, as the lobster said in the lobster pot!” + +“I have been with the Prince this morning,” continued Edmund. “He is little +used (more’s the pity) to having his will crossed. And he is very chafed at your +long delays and doubtful answers. This morning he pressed very hard to know +your mind. I put it aside-meaning at the same time to diminish his hopes - with +some light common jests about women’s fancies, and hinted that his suit was +likely to be cold. He grew angry and dangerous. There was a sort of threatening, +though still veiled under a show of courtesy, in every word he spoke.” + +“Yes,” said Tumnus. “And when I supped with the Grand Vizier last night, it +was the same. He asked me how I like Tashbaan. And I (for I could not tell him I +hated every stone of it and I would not lie) told him that now, when high summer +was coming on, my heart turned to the cool woods and dewy slopes of Narnia. +He gave a smile that meant no good and said, 'There is nothing to hinder you +from dancing there again, little goatfoot; always provided you leave us in +exchange a bride for our prince.’” + +“Do you mean he would make me his wife by force?” exclaimed Susan. + +“That’s my fear, Susan,” said Edmund: “Wife: or slave which is worse.” + +“But how can he? Does the Tisroc think our brother the High King would +suffer such an outrage?” + +“Sire,” said Peridan to the King. “They would not be so mad. Do they think +there are no swords and spears in Narnia?” + +“Alas,” said Edmund. “My guess is that the Tisroc has very small fear of +Narnia. We are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire +were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longs to blot them out, +gobble them up. When first he suffered the Prince to come to Cair Paravel as + + + +your lover, sister, it may be that he was only seeking an occasion against us. +Most likely he hopes to make one mouthful of Narnia and Archenland both.” + +“Let him try,” said the second Dwarf. “At sea we are as big as he is. And if +he assaults us by land, he has the desert to cross.” + +“True, friend,” said Edmund. “But is the desert a sure defence? What does +Sallowpad say?” + +“I know that desert well,” said the Raven. “For I have flown above it far and +wide in my younger days,” (you may be sure that Shasta pricked up his ears at +this point). “And this is certain; that if the Tisroc goes by the great oasis he can +never lead a great army across it into Archenland. For though they could reach +the oasis by the end of their first day’s march, yet the springs there would be too +little for the thirst of all those soldiers and their beasts. But there is another way.” + +Shasta listened more attentively still. + +“He that would find that way,” said the Raven, “must start from the Tombs of +the Ancient Kings and ride northwest so that the double peak of Mount Pire is +always straight ahead of him. And so, in a day’s riding or a little more, he shall +come to the head of a stony valley, which is so narrow that a man might be +within a furlong of it a thousand times and never know that it was there. And +looking down this valley he will see neither grass nor water nor anything else +good. But if he rides on down it he will come to a river and can ride by the water +all the way into Archenland.” + +“And do the Calormenes know of this Western way?” asked the Queen. + +“Friends, friends,” said Edmund, “what is the use of all this discourse? We +are not asking whether Narnia or Calormen would win if war arose between +them. We are asking how to save the honour of the Queen and our own lives out +of this devilish city. For though my brother, Peter the High King, defeated the +Tisroc a dozen times over, yet long before that day our throats would be cut and +the Queen’s grace would be the wife, or more likely, the slave, of this prince.” + +“We have our weapons, King,” said the first Dwarf. “And this is a reasonably +defensible house.” + +“As to that,” said the King, “I do not doubt that every one of us would sell +our lives dearly in the gate and they would not come at the Queen but over our +dead bodies. Yet we should be merely rats fighting in a trap when all’s said.” + +“Very true,” croaked the Raven. “These last stands in a house make good +stories, but nothing ever came of them. After their first few repulses the enemy +always set the house on fire.” + +“I am the cause of all this,” said Susan, bursting into tears. “Oh, if only I had +never left Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came +from Calormen. The Moles were planting an orchard for us ... oh . . . oh.” + + + +And she buried her face in her hands and sobbed. + +“Courage, Su, courage,” said Edmund. “Remember-but what is the matter +with you, Master Tumnus?” For the Faun was holding both his horns with his +hands as if he were trying to keep his head on by them and writhing to and fro as +if he had a pain in his inside. + +“Don’t speak to me, don’t speak to me,” said Tumnus. “I’m thinking. I’m +thinking so that I can hardly breathe. Wait, wait, do wait.” + +There was a moment’s puzzled silence and then the Faun looked up, drew a +long breath, mopped its forehead and said: + +“The only difficulty is how to get down to our ship-with some stores, too- +without being seen and stopped.” + +“Yes,” said a Dwarf dryly. “Just as the beggar’s only difficulty about riding is +that he has no horse.” + +“Wait, wait,” said Mr Tumnus impatiently. “All we need is some pretext for +going down to our ship today and taking stuff on board.” + +“Yes,” said King Edmund doubtfully. + +“Well, then,” said the Faun, “how would it be if your majesties bade the +Prince to a great banquet to be held on board our own galleon, the Spendour +Hyaline, tomorrow night? And let the message be worded as graciously as the +Queen can contrive without pledging her honour: so as to give the Prince a hope +that she is weakening.” + +“This is very good counsel, Sire,” croaked the Raven. + +“And then,” continued Tumnus excitedly, “everyone will expect us to be +going down to the ship all day, making preparations for our guests. And let some +of us go to the bazaars and spend every minim we have at the fruiterers and the +sweetmeat sellers and the wine merchants, just as we would if we were really +giving a feast. And let us order magicians and jugglers and dancing girls and +flute players, all to be on board tomorrow night.” + +“I see, I see,” said King Edmund, rubbing his hands. + +“And then,” said Tumnus, “we’ll all be on board tonight. And as soon as it is +quite dark-“ + +“Up sails and out oars-!” said the King. + +“And so to sea,” cried Tumnus, leaping up and beginning to dance. + +“And our nose Northward,” said the first Dwarf. + +“Running for home! Hurrah for Narnia and the North!” said the other. + +“And the Prince waking next morning and finding his birds flown!” said +Peridan, clapping his hands. + +“Oh Master Tumnus, dear Master Tumnus,” said the Queen, catching his +hands and swinging with him as he danced. “You have saved us all.” + + + +“The Prince will chase us,” said another lord, whose name Shasta had not +heard. + +“That’s the least of my fears,” said Edmund. “I have seen all the shipping in +the river and there’s no tall ship of war nor swift galley there. I wish he may +chase us! For the Splendour Hyaline could sink anything he has to send after her +- if we were overtaken at all.” + +“Sire,” said the Raven. “You shall hear no better plot than the Faun’s though +we sat in council for seven days. And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs. +Which is as much as to say, let us all take our food and then at once be about our +business.” + +Everyone arose at this and the doors were opened and the lords and the +creatures stood aside for the King and Queen to go out first. Shasta wondered +what he ought to do, but Mr Tumnus said, “Fie there, your Highness, and I will +bring you up a little feast to yourself in a few moments. There is no need for you +to move until we are all ready to embark.” + +Shasta laid his head down again on the pillows and soon he was alone in the +room. + +“This is perfectly dreadful,” thought Shasta. It never came into his head to +tell these Narnians the whole truth and ask for their help. Having been brought +up by a hard, closefisted man like Arsheesh, he had a fixed habit of never telling +grown-ups anything if he could help it: he thought they would always spoil or +stop whatever you were trying to do. And he thought that even if the Narnian +King might be friendly to the two horses, because they were Talking Beasts of +Narnia, he would hate Aravis, because she was a Calormene, and either sell her +for a slave or send her back to her father. As for himself, “I simply dn’t tell them +I’m not Prince Corin now,” thought Shasta. “I’ve heard all their plans. If they +knew I wasn’t one of themselves, they’d never let me out of this house alive. +They’d be afraid I’d betray them to the Tisroc. They’d kill me. And if the real +Corin turns up, it’ll all come out, and they will!” He had, you see, no idea of +how noble and free-born people behave. + +“What am I to do? What am I to do?” he kept saying to himself. “What- +hullo, here comes that goaty little creature again.” + +The Faun trotted in, half dancing, with a tray in its hands which was nearly +as large as itself. This he set on an inlaid table beside Shasta’s sofa, and sat down +himself on the carpeted floor with his goaty legs crossed. + +“Now, princeling,” he said. “Make a good dinner. It will be your last meal in +Tashbaan.” + +It was a fine meal after the Calormene fashion. I don’t know whether you +would have liked it or not, but Shasta did. There were lobsters, and salad, and + + + +snipe stuffed with almonds and truffles, and a complicated dish made of +chickenlivers and rice and raisins and nuts, and there were cool melons and +gooseberry fools and mulberry fools, and every kind of nice thing that can be +made with ice. There was also a little flagon of the sort of wine that is called +“white” though it is really yellow. + +While Shasta was eating, the good little Faun, who thought he was still dazed +with sunstroke, kept talking to him about the fine times he would have when +they all got home; about his good old father King Lune of Archenland and the +little castle where he lived on the southern slopes of the pass. “And don’t forget,” +said Mr Tumnus, “that you are promised your first suit of armour and your first +war horse on your next birthday. And then your Highness will begin to learn +how to tilt and joust. And in a few years, if all goes well, King Peter has +promised your royal father that he himself will make you Knight at Cair Paravel. +And in the meantime there will be plenty of comings and goings between Narnia +and Archenland across the neck of the mountains. And of course you remember +you have promised to come for a whole week to stay with me for the Summer +Festival, and there’ll be bonfires and all-night dances of Fauns and Dryads in the +heart of the woods and, who knows?-we might see Aslan himself!” + +When the meal was over the Faun told Shasta to stay quietly where he was. +“And it wouldn’t do you any harm to have a little sleep,” he added. “I’ll call you +in plenty of time to get on board. And then, Home. Narnia and the North!” + +Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling +him that when he was left alone his thoughts took a different turn. He only hoped +now that the real Prince Corin would not turn up until it was too late and that he +would be taken away to Narnia by ship. I am afraid he did not think at all of +what might happen to the real Corin when he was left behind in Tashbaan. He +was a little worried about Aravis and Bree waiting for him at the Tombs. But +then he said to himself, “Well, how can I help it?” and, “Anyway, that Aravis +thinks she’s too good to go about with me, so she can jolly well go alone,” and at +the same time he couldn’t help feeling that it would be much nicer going to +Narnia by sea than toiling across the desert. + +When he had thought all this he did what I expect you would have done if +you had been up very early and had a long walk and a great deal of excitement +and then a very good meal, and were lying on a sofa in a cool room with no +noise in it except when a bee came buzzing in through the wide open windows. +He fell asleep. + +What woke him was a loud crash. He jumped up off the sofa, staring. He saw +at once from the mere look of the room - the lights and shadows all looked +different - that he must have slept for several hours. He saw also what had made + + + +the crash: a costly porcelain vase which had been standing on the window-sill +lay on -the floor broken into about thirty pieces. But he hardly noticed all these +things. What he did notice was two hands gripping the window-sill from outside. +They gripped harder and harder (getting white at the knuckles) and then up came +a head and a pair of shoulders. A moment later there was a boy of Shasta’s own +age sitting astride the sill with one leg hanging down inside the room. + +Shasta had never seen his own face in a looking-glass. Even if he had, he +might not have realized that the other boy was (at ordinary times) almost exactly +like himself. At the moment this boy was not particularly like anyone for he had +the finest black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which +must have been splendid ones when he put them on) were torn and dirty, and +there was both blood and mud on his face. + +“Who are you?” said the boy in a whisper. + +“Are you Prince Corin?” said Shasta. + +“Yes, of course,” said the other. “But who are you?” + +“I’m nobody, nobody in particular, I mean,” said Shasta. “King Edmund +caught me in the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one +another. Can I get out the way you’ve got in?” + +“Yes, if you’re any good at climbing,” said Corin. “But why are you in such +a hurry? I say: we ought to be able to get some fun out of this being mistaken for +one another.” + +“No, no,” said Shasta. “We must change places at once. It’ll be simply +frightful if Mr Tumnus comes back and finds us both here. I’ve had to pretend to +be you. And you’re starting tonight - secretly. And where were you all this +time?” + +“A boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan,” said Prince +Corin, “so I knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother +came out. So I knocked the big brother down. Then they all followed me until +we ran into three old men with spears who are called the Watch. So I fought the +Watch and they knocked me down. It was getting dark by now. Then the Watch +took me along to lock me up somewhere. So I asked them if they’d like a stoup +of wine and they said they didn’t mind if they did. Then I took them to a wine +shop and got them some and they all sat down and drank till they feel asleep. I +thought it was time for me to be off so I came out quietly and then I found the +first boy - the one who had started all the trouble - still hanging about. So I +knocked him down again. After that I climbed up a pipe on to the roof of a house +and lay quiet till it began to get light this morning. Ever since that I’ve been +finding my way back. I say, is there anything to drink?” + +“No, I drank it,” said Shasta. “And now, show me how you got in. There’s + + + +not a minute to lose. You’d better lie down on the sofa and pretend-but I forgot. +It’ll be no good with all those bruises and black eye. You’ll just have to tell them +the truth, once I’m safely away.” + +“What else did you think I’d be telling them?” asked the Prince with a rather +angry look. “And who are you?” + +“There’s no time,” said Shasta in a frantic whisper. “I’m a Narnian, I believe; +something Northern anyway. But I’ve been brought up all my life in Calormen. +And I’m escaping: across the desert; with a talking Horse called Bree. And now, +quick! How do I get away?” + +“Look,” said Corin. “Drop from this window on to the roof of the verandah. +But you must do it lightly, on your toes, or someone will hear you. Then along to +your left and you can get up to the top of that wall if you’re any good at all as a +climber. Then along the wall to the corner. Drop onto the rubbish heap you will +find outside, and there you are.” + +“Thanks,” said Shasta, who was already sitting on the sill. The two boys +were looking into each other’s faces and suddenly found that they were friends. + +“Good-bye,” said Corin. “And good luck. I do hope you get safe away.” + +“Good-bye,” said Shasta. “I say, you have been having some adventures.” + +“Nothing to yours,” said the Prince. “Now drop; lightlyl say,” he added as +Shasta dropped. “I hope we meet in Archenland. Go to my father King Lune and +tell him you’re a friend of mine. Look out! I hear someone coming.” + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +SHASTA AMONG THE TOMBS + +SHASTA ran lightly along the roof on tiptoes. It felt hot to his bare feet. He +was only a few seconds scrambling up the wall at the far end and when he got to +the corner he found himself looking down into a narrow, smelly street, and there +was a rubbish heap against the outside of the wall just as Corin had told him. +Before jumping down he took a rapid glance round him to get his bearings. +Apparently he had now come over the crown of the island-hill on which +Tashbaan is built. Everything sloped away before him, flat roofs below flat roofs, +down to the towers and battlements of the city’s Northern wall. Beyond that was +the river and beyond the river a short slope covered with gardens. But beyond +that again there was something he had never seen the like of - a great yellowish- +grey thing, flat as a calm sea, and stretching for miles. On the far side of it were +huge blue things, lumpy but with jagged edges, and some of them with white +tops. “The desert! the mountains!” thought Shasta. + +He jumped down on to the rubbish and began trotting along downhill as fast +as he could in the narrow lane, which soon brought him into a wider street where +there were more people. No one bothered to look at a little ragged boy running +along on bare feet. Still, he was anxious and uneasy till he turned a corner and +there saw the city gate in front of him. Here he was pressed and jostled a bit, for +a good many other people were also going out; and on the bridge beyond the +gate the crowd became quite a slow procession, more like a queue than a crowd. +Out there, with clear running water on each side, it was deliciously fresh after +the smell and heat and noise of Tashbaan. + +When once Shasta had reached the far end of the bridge he found the crowd +melting away; everyone seemed to be going either to the left or right along the +river bank. He went straight ahead up a road that did not appear to be much used, +between gardens. In a few paces he was alone, and a few more brought him to +the top of the slope. There he stood and stared. It was like coming to the end of +the world for all the grass stopped quite suddenly a few feet before him and the +sand began: endless level sand like on a sea shore but a bit rougher because it +was never wet. The mountains, which now looked further off than before, +loomed ahead. Greatly to his relief he saw, about five minutes’ walk away on his +left, what must certainly be the Tombs, just as Bree had described them; great +masses of mouldering stone shaped like gigantic bee-hive, but a little narrower. +They looked very black and grim, for the sun was now setting right behind them. + + + +He turned his face West and trotted towards the Tombs. He could not help +looking out very hard for any sign of his friends, though the setting sun shone in +his face so that he could see hardly anything. “And anyway,” he thought, “of +course they’ll be round on the far side of the farthest Tomb, not this side where +anyone might see them from the city.” + +There were about twelve Tombs, each with a low arched doorway that +opened into absolute blackness. They were dotted about in no kind of order, so +that it took a long time, going round this one and going round that one, before +you could be sure that you had looked round every side of every tomb. This was +what Shasta had to do. There was nobody there. + +It was very quiet here out on the edge of the desert; and now the sun had +really set. + +Suddenly from somewhere behind him there came a terrible sound. Shasta’s +heart gave a great jump and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from +screaming. Next moment he realized what it was: the horns of Tashbaan blowing +for the closing of the gates. “Don’t be a silly little coward,” said Shasta to +himself. “Why, it’s only the same noise you heard this morning.” But there is a +great difference between a noise heard letting you in with your friends in the +morning, and a noise heard alone at nightfall, shutting you out. And now that the +gates were shut he knew there was no chance of the others joining him that +evening. “Either they’re shut up in Tashbaan for the night,” thought Shasta, “or +else they’ve gone on without me. It’s just the sort of thing that Aravis would do. +But Bree wouldn’t. Oh, he wouldn’t. - now, would he?” + +In this idea about Aravis Shasta was once more quite wrong. She was proud +and could be hard enough but she was as true as steel and would never have +deserted a companion, whether she liked him or not. + +Now that Shasta knew he would have to spend the night alone (it was getting +darker every minute) he began to like the look of the place less and less. There +was something very uncomfortable about those great, silent shapes of stone. He +had been trying his hardest for a long time not to think of ghouls: but he couldn’t +keep it up any longer. + +“Ow! Ow! Help!” he shouted suddenly, for at that very moment he felt +something touch his leg. I don’t think anyone can be blamed for shouting if +something comes up from behind and touches him; not in such a place and at +such a time, when he is frightened already. Shasta at any rate was too frightened +to run. Anything would be better than being chased round and round the burial +places of the Ancient Kings with something he dared not look at behind him. +Instead, he did what was really the most sensible thing he could do. He looked +round; and his heart almost burst with relief. What had touched him was only a + + + +cat. + + +The light was too bad now for Shasta to see much of the cat except that it +was big and very solemn. It looked as if it might have lived for long, long years +among the Tombs, alone. Its eyes made you think it knew secrets it would not +tell. + +“Puss, puss,” said Shasta. “I suppose you’re not a talking cat.” + +The cat stared at him harder than ever. Then it started walking away, and of +course Shasta followed it. It led him right through the tombs and out on the +desert side of them. There it sat down bolt upright with its tail curled round its +feet and its face set towards the desert and towards Narnia and the North, as still +as if it were watching for some enemy. Shasta lay down beside it with his back +against the cat and his face towards the Tombs, because if one is nervous there’s +nothing like having your face towards the danger and having something warm +and solid at your back. The sand wouldn’t have seemed very comfortable to you, +but Shasta had been sleeping on the ground for weeks and hardly noticed it. Very +soon he fell asleep, though even in his dreams he went on wondering what had +happened to Bree and Aravis and Hwin. + +He was wakened suddenly by a noise he had never heard before. “Perhaps it +was only a nightmare,” said Shasta to himself. At the same moment he noticed +that the cat had gone from his back, and he wished it hadn’t. But he lay quite still +without even opening his eyes because he felt sure he would be more frightened +if he sat up and looked round at the Tombs and the loneliness: just as you or I +might lie still with the clothes over our heads. But then the noise came again - a +harsh, piercing cry from behind him out of the desert. Then of course he had to +open his eyes and sit up. + +The moon was shining brightly. The Tombs - far bigger and nearer than he +had thought they would be - looked grey in the moonlight. In fact, they looked +horribly like huge people, draped in grey robes that covered their heads and +faces. They were not at all nice things to have near you when spending a night +alone in a strange place. But the noise had come from the opposite side, from the +desert. Shasta had to turn his back on the Tombs (he didn’t like that much) and +stare out across the level sand. The wild cry rang out again. + +“I hope it’s not more lions,” thought Shasta. It was in fact not very like the +lion’s roars he had heard on the night when they met Hwin and Aravis, and was +really the cry of a jackal. But of course Shasta did not know this. Even if he had +known, he would not have wanted very much to meet a jackal. + +The cries rang out again and again. “There’s more than one of them, +whatever they are,” thought Shasta. “And they’re coming nearer.” + +I suppose that if he had been an entirely sensible boy he would have gone + + + +back through the Tombs nearer to the river where there were houses, and wild +beasts would be less likely to come. But then there were (or he thought there +were) the ghouls. To go back through the Tombs would mean going past those +dark openings in the Tombs; and what might come out of them? It may have +been silly, but Shasta felt he would rather risk the wild beasts. Then, as the cries +came nearer and nearer, he began to change his mind. + +He was just going to run for it when suddenly, between him and the desert, a +huge animal bounded into view. As the moon was behind it, it looked quite +black, and Shasta did not know what it was, except that it had a very big, shaggy +head and went on four legs. It did not seem to have noticed Shasta, for it +suddenly stopped, turned its head towards the desert and let out a roar which re¬ +echoed through the Tombs and seemed to shake the sand under Shasta’s feet. +The cries of the other creatures suddenly stoppd and he thought he could hear +feet scampering away. Then the great beast turned to examine Shasta. + +“It’s a lion, I know it’s a lion,” thought Shasta. “I’m done. I wonder will it +hurt much. I wish it was over. I wonder does anything happen to people after +they’re dead. O-o-oh! Here it comes!” And he shut his eyes and his teeth tight. + +But instead of teeth and claws he only felt something warm lying down at his +feet. And when he opened his eyes he said, “Why, it’s not nearly as big as I +thought! It’s only half the size. No, it isn’t even quarter the size. I do declare it’s +only the cat!! I must have dreamed all that about its being as big as a horse.” + +And whether he really had been dreaming or not, what was now lying at his +feet, and staring him out of countenance with its big, green, unwinking eyes, was +the cat; though certainly one of the largest cats he had ever seen. + +“Oh, Puss,” gasped Shasta. “I am so glad to see you again. I’ve been having +such horrible dreams.” And he at once lay down again, back to back with the cat +as they had been at the beginning of the night. The warmth from it spread all +over him. + +“I’ll never do anything nasty to a cat again as long as I live,” said Shasta, +half to the cat and half to himself. “I did once, you know. I threw stones at a half- +starved mangy old stray. Hey! Stop that.” For the cat had turned round and given +him a scratch. “None of that,” said Shasta. “It isn’t as if you could understand +what I’m saying.” Then he dozed off. + +Next morning when he woke, the cat was gone, the sun was already up, and +the sand hot. Shasta, very thirsty, sat up and rubbed his eyes. The desert was +blindingly white and, though there was a murmur of noises from the city behind +him, where he sat everything was perfectly still. When he looked a little left and +west, so that the sun was not in his eyes, he could see the mountains on the far +side of the desert, so sharp and clear that they looked only a stone’s throw away. + + + +He particularly noticed one blue height that divided into two peaks at the top and +decided that it must be Mount Pire. “That’s our direction, judging by what the +Raven said,” he thought, “so I’ll just make sure of it, so as not to waste any time +when the others turn up.” So he made a good, deep straight furrow with his foot +pointing exactly to Mount Pire. + +The next job, clearly, was to get something to eat and drink. Shasta trotted +back through the Tombs - they looked quite ordinary now and he wondered how +he could ever have been afraid of them - and down into the cultivated land by the +river’s side. There were a few people about but not very many, for the city gates +had been open several hours and the early morning crowds had already gone in. +So he had no diffculty in doing a little “raiding” (as Bree called it). It involved a +climb over a garden wall and the results were three oranges, a melon, a fig or +two, and a pomegranate. After that, he went down to the river bank, but not too +near the bridge, and had a drink. The water was so nice that he took off his hot, +dirty clothes and had a dip; for of course Shasta, having lived on the shore all his +life, had learned to swim almost as soon as he had learned to walk. When he +came out he lay on the grass looking across the water at Tashbaan - all the +splendour and strength and glory of it. But that made him remember the dangers +of it too. He suddenly realized that the others might have reached the Tombs +while he was bathing (’’and gone on without me, as likely as not”), so he dressed +in a fright and tore back at such a speed that he was all hot and thirsty when he +arrived and so the good of his bathe was gone. + +Like most days when you are alone and waiting for something this day +seemed about a hundred hours long. He had plenty to think of, of course, but +sitting alone, just thinking, is pretty slow. He thought a good deal about the +Narnians and especially about Corin. He wondered what had happened when +they discovered that the boy who had been lying on the sofa and hearing all their +secret plans wasn’t really Corin at all. It was very unpleasant to think of all those +nice people imagining him a traitor. + +But as the sun slowly, slowly climbed up to the top of the sky and then +slowly, slowly began going downwards to the West, and no one came and +nothing at all happened, he began to get more and more anxious. And of course +he now realized that when they arranged to wait for one another at the Tombs no +one had said anything about How Long. He couldn’t wait here for the rest of his +life! And soon it would be dark again, and he would have another night just like +last night. A dozen different plans went through his head, all wretched ones, and +at last he fixed on the worst plan of all. He decided to wait till it was dark and +then go back to the river and steal as many melons as he could carry and set out +for Mount Pire alone, trusting for his direction to the line he had drawn that + + + +morning in the sand. It was a crazy idea and if he had read as many books as you +have about journeys over deserts he would never have dreamed of it. But Shasta +had read no books at all. + +Before the sun set something did happen. Shasta was sitting in the shadow of +one of the Tombs when he looked up and saw two horses coming towards him. +Then his heart gave a great leap, for he recognized them as Bree and Hwin. But +the next moment his heart went down into his toes again. There was no sign of +Aravis. The Horses were being led by a strange man, an armed man pretty +handsomely dressed like an upper slave in a great family. Bree and Hwin were +no longer got up like pack-horses, but saddled and bridled. And what could it all +mean? “It’s a trap,” thought Shasta. “Somebody has caught Aravis and perhaps +they’ve tortured her and she’s given the whole thing away. They want me to +jump out and run up and speak to Bree and then I’ll be caught too! And yet if I +don’t, I may be losing my only chance to meet the others. Oh I do wish I knew +what had happened.” And he skulked behind the Tomb, looking out every few +minutes, and wondering which was the least dangerous thing to do. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +ARAVIS IN TASHBAAN + +WHAT had really happened was this. When Aravis saw Shasta hurried away +by the Narnians and found herself alone with two horses who (very wisely) +wouldn’t say a word, she never lost her head even for a moment. She grabbed +Bree’s halter and stood still, holding both the horses; and though her heart was +beating as hard as a hammer, she did nothing to show it. As soon as the Narnian +lords had passed she tried to move on again. But before she could take a step, +another crier (’’Bother all these people” thought Aravis) was heard shouting out, +“Way, way, way! Way for the Tarkheena Lasaraleen!” and immediately, +following the crier, came four armed slaves and then four bearers carrying a litter +which was all a-flutter with silken curtains and all a-jingle with silver bells and +which scented the whole street with perfumes and flowers. After the litter, +female slaves in beautiful clothes, and then a few grooms, runners, pages, and +the like. And now Aravis made her first mistake. + +She knew Lasaraleen quite well - almost as if they had been at school +together - because they had often stayed in the same houses and been to the same +parties. And Aravis couldn’t help looking up to see what Lasaraleen looked like +now that she was married and a very great person indeed. + +It was fatal. The eyes of the two girls met. And immediately Lasaraleen sat +up in the litter and burst out at the top of her voice. + +“Aravis! What on earth are you doing here? Your father-“ + +There was not a moment to lose. Without a second’s delay Aravis let go the +Horses, caught the edge of the litter, swung herself up beside Lasaraleen and +whispered furiously in her ear. + +“Shut up! Do you hear! Shut up. You must hide me. Tell your people-“ + +“But darling-” began Lasaraleen in the same loud voice. (She didn’t in the +least mind making people stare; in fact she rather liked it.) + +“Do what I tell you or I’ll never speak to you again,” hissed Aravis. “Please, +please be quick, Las. It’s frightfully important. Tell your people to bring those +two horses along. Pull all the curtains of the litter and get away somewhere +where I can’t be found. And do hurry.” + +“All right, darling,” said Lasaraleen in her lazy voice. “Here. Two of you +take the Tarkheena’s horses.” (This was to the slaves.) “And now home. I say, +darling, do you think we really want the curtains drawn on a day like this? I +mean to say-“ + + + +But Aravis had already drawn the curtains, enclosing Lasaraleen and herself +in a rich and scented, but rather stuffy, kind of tent. + +“I mustn’t be seen,” “she said. “My father doesn’t know I’m here. I’m +running away.” + +“My dear, how perfectly thrilling,” said Lasaraleen. “I’m dying to hear all +about it. Darling, you’re sitting on my dress. Do you mind? That’s better. It is a +new one. Do you like it? I got it at-“ + +“Oh, Las, do be serious,” said Aravis. “Where is my father?” + +“Didn’t you know?” said Lasaraleen. “He’s here, of course. He came to town +yesterday and is asking about you everywhere. And to think of you and me being +here together and his not knowing anything about it! It’s the funniest thing I ever +heard.” And she went off into giggles. She always had been a terrible giggler, as +Aravis now remembered. + +“It isn’t funny at all,” she said. “It’s dreadfully serious. Where can you hide +me?” + +“No difficulty at all, my dear girl,” said Lasaraleen. “I’ll take you home. My +husband’s away and no one will see you. Phew! It’s not much fun with the +curtains drawn. I want to see people. There’s no point in having a new dress on if +one’s to go about shut up like this.” + +“I hope no one heard you when you shouted out to me like that,” said Aravis. + +“No, no, of course, darling,” said Lasaraleen absentmindedly. “But you +haven’t even told me yet what you think of the dress.” + +“Another thing,” said Aravis. “You must tell your people to treat those two +horses very respectfully. That’s part of the secret. They’re really Talking Horses +from Narnia.” + +“Fancy!” said Lasaraleen. “How exciting! And oh, darling, have you seen the +barbarian queen from Narnia? She’s staying in Tashbaan at present. They say +Prince Rabadash is madly in love with her. There have been the most wonderful +parties and hunts and things all this last fortnight. I can’t see that she’s so very +pretty myself. But some of the Narnian men are lovely. I was taken out on a river +party the day before yesterday, and I was wearing my-“ + +“How shall we prevent your people telling everyone that you’ve got a visitor +- dressed like a beggar’s brat - in your house? It might so easily get round to my +father.” + +“Now don’t keep on fussing, there’s a dear,” said Lasaraleen. “We’ll get you +some proper clothes in a moment. And here we are!” + +The bearers had stopped and the litter was being lowered. When the curtains +had been drawn Aravis found that she was in a courtyard-garden very like the +one that Shasta had been taken into a few minutes earlier in another part of the + + + +city. Lasaraleen would have gone indoors at once but Aravis reminded her in a +frantic whisper to say something to the slaves about not telling anyone of their +mistress’s strange visitor. + +“Sorry, darling, it had gone right out of my head,” said Lasareleen. “Here. +All of you. And you, doorkeeper. No one is to be let out of the house today. And +anyone I catch talking about this young lady will be first beaten to death and +then burned alive and after that be kept on bread and water for six weeks. +There.” + +Although Lasaraleen had said she was dying to hear Aravis’s story, she +showed no sign of really wanting to hear it at all. She was, in fact, much better at +talking than at listening. She insisted on Aravis having a long and luxurious bath +(Calormene baths are famous) and then dressing her up in the finest clothes +before she would let her explain anything. The fuss she made about choosing the +dresses nearly drove Aravis mad. She remembered now that Lasaraleen had +always been like that, interested in clothes and parties and gossip. Aravis had +always been more interested in bows and arrows and horses and dogs and +swimming. You will guess that each thought the other silly. But when at last they +were both seated after a meal (it was chiefly of the whipped cream and jelly and +fruit and ice sort) in a beautiful pillared room (which Aravis would have liked +better if Lasaraleen’s spoiled pet monkey hadn’t been climbing about it all the +time) Lasaraleen at last asked her why she was running away from home. + +When Aravis had finished telling her story, Lasaraleen said, “But, darling, +why don’t you marry Ahoshta Tarkaan? Everyone’s crazy about him. My +husband says he is beginning to be one of the greatest men in Calormen. He has +just been made Grand Vizier now old Axartha has died. Didn’t you know?” + +“I don’t care. I can’t stand the sight of him,” said Aravis. + +“But, darling, only think! Three palaces, and one of them that beautiful one +down on the lake at Ilkeen. Positively ropes of pearls, I’m told. Baths of asses’ +milk. And you’d see such a lot of me.” + +“He can keep his pearls and palaces as far as I’m concerned,” said Aravis. + +“You always were a queer girl, Aravis,” said Lasaraleen. “What more do you +want?” + +In the end, however, Aravis managed to make her friend believe that she was +in earnest and even to discuss plans. There would be no difficulty now about +getting the two horses out of the North gate and then on to the Tombs. No one +would stop or question a groom in fine clothes leading a war horse and a lady’s +saddle horse down to the river, and Lasaraleen had plenty of grooms to send. It +wasn’t so easy to decide what to do about Aravis herself. She suggested that she +could be carried out in the litter with the curtains drawn. But Lasaraleen told her + + + +that litters were only used in the city and the sight of one going out through the +gate would be certain to lead to questions. + +When they had talked for a long time - and it was all the longer because +Aravis found it hard to keep her friend to the point-at last Lasaraleen clapped her +hands and said, “Oh, I have an idea. There is one way of getting out of the city +without using the gates. The Tisroc’s garden (may he live for ever!) runs right +down to the water and there is a little water-door. Only for the palace people of +course - but then you know, dear (here she tittered a little) we almost are palace +people. I say, it is lucky for you that you came to me. The dear Tisroc (may he +live for ever!) is so kind. We’re asked to the palace almost every day and it is +like a second home. I love all the dear princes and princesses and I positively +adore Prince Rabadash. I might run in and see any of the palace ladies at any +hour of the day or night. Why shouldn’t I slip in withyou, after dark, and let you +out by the water-door? There are always a few punts and things tied up outside +it. And even if we were caught-“ + +“All would be lost,” said Aravis. + +“Oh darling, don’t get so excited,” said Lasaraleen. “I was going to say, even +if we were caught everyone would only say it was one of my mad jokes. I’m +getting quite well known for them. Only the other day- do listen, dear, this is +frightfully funny-“ + +“I meant, all would be lost for me,” said Aravis a little sharply. + +“Oh - ah - yes -1 do see what you mean, darling. Well, can you think of any +better plan?” + +Aravis couldn’t, and answered, “No. We’ll have to risk it. When can we +start?” + +“Oh, not tonight,” said Lasaraleen. “Of course not tonight. There’s a great +feast on tonight (I must start getting my hair done for it in a few minutes) and the +whole place will be a blaze of lights. And such a crowd too! It would have to be +tomorrow night.” + +This was bad news for Aravis, but she had to make the best of it. The +afternoon passed very slowly and it was a relief when Lasaraleen went out to the +banquet, for Aravis was very tired of her giggling and her talk about dresses and +parties, weddings and engagements and scandals. She went to bed early and that +part she did enjoy: it was so nice to have pillows and sheets again. + +But the next day passed very slowly. Lasaraleen wanted to go back on the +whole arrangement and kept on telling Aravis that Narnia was a country of +perpetual snow and ice inhabited by demons and sorcerers, and she was mad to +think of going there. “And with a peasant boy, too!” said Lasaraleen. “Darling, +think of it! It’s not Nice.” Aravis had thought of it a good deal, but she was so + + + +tired of Lasaraleen’s silliness by now that, for the first time, she began to think +that travelling with Shasta was really rather more fun than fashionable life in +Tashbaan. So she only replied, “You forget that I’ll be nobody, just like him, +when we get to Narnia. And anyway, I promised.” + +“And to think,” said Lasaraleen, almost crying, “that if only you had sense +you could be the wife of a Grand Vizier!” Aravis went away to have a private +word with the horses. + +“You must go with a groom a little before sunset down to the Tombs,” she +said. “No more of those packs. You’ll be saddled and bridled again. But there’ll +have to be food in Hwin’s saddle-bags and a full water-skin behind yours, Bree. +The man has orders to let you both have a good long drink at the far side of the +bridge.” + +“And then, Narnia and the North!” whispered Bree. “But what if Shasta is +not at the Tombs.” + +“Wait for him of course,” said Aravis. “I hope you’ve been quite +comfortable.” + +“Never better stabled in my life,” said Bree. “But if the husband of that +tittering Tarkheena friend of yours is paying his head groom to get the best oats, +then I think the head groom is cheating him.” + +Aravis and Lasaraleen had supper in the pillared room. + +About two hours later they were ready to start. Aravis was dressed to look +like a superior slave-girl in a great house and wore a veil over her face. They had +agreed that if any questions were asked Lasaraleen would pretend that Aravis +was a slave she was taking as a present to one of the princesses. + +The two girls went out on foot. A very few minutes brought them to the +palace gates. Here there were of course soldiers on guard but the officer knew +Lasaraleen quite well and called his men to attention and saluted. They passed at +once into the Hall of Black Marble. A fair number of courtiers, slaves and others +were still moving about here but this only made the two girls less conspicuous. +They passed on into the Hall of Pillars and then into the Hall of Statues and +down the colonnade, passing the great beatencopper doors of the throne room. It +was all magnificent beyond description; what they could see of it in the dim light +of the lamps. + +Presently they came out into the garden-court which sloped downhill in a +number of terraces. On the far side of that they came to the Old Palace. It had +already grown almost quite dark and they now found themselves in a maze of +corridors lit only by occasional torches fixed in brackets to the walls. Lasaraleen +halted at a place where you had to go either left or right. + +“Go on, do go on,” whispered Aravis, whose heart was beating terribly and + + + +who still felt that her father might run into them at any corner. + +“I’m just wondering...” said Lasaraleen. “I’m not absolutely sure which way +we go from here. I think it’s the left. Yes, I’m almost sure it’s the left. What fun +this is!” + +They took the left hand way and found themselves in a passage that was +hardly lighted at all and which soon began going down steps. + +“It’s all right,” said Lasaraleen. “I’m sure we’re right now. I remember these +steps.” But at that moment a moving light appeared ahead. A second later there +appeared from round a distant corner, the dark shapes of two men walking +backwards and carrying tall candles. And of course it is only before royalties that +people walk backwards. Aravis felt Lasaraleen grip her arm - that sort of sudden +grip which is almost a pinch and which means that the person who is gripping +you is very frightened indeed. Aravis thought it odd that Lasaraleen should be so +afraid of the Tisroc if he were really such a friend of hers, but there was no time +to go on thinking. Lasaraleen was hurrying her back to the top of the steps, on +tiptoes, and groping wildly along the wall. + +“Here’s a door,” she whispered. “Quick.” + +They went in, drew the door very softly behind them, and found themselves +in pitch darkness. Aravis could hear by Lasaraleen’s breathing that she was +terrified. + +“Tash preserve us!” whispered Lasaraleen. “What shall we do if he comes in +here. Can we hide?” + +There was a soft carpet under their feet. They groped forward into the room +and blundered on to a sofa. + +“Let’s lie down behind it,” whimpered Lasaraleen. “Oh, I do wish we hadn’t +come.” + +There was just room between the sofa and the curtained wall and the two +girls got down. Lasaraleen managed to get the better position and was +completely covered. The upper part of Aravis’s face stuck out beyond the sofa, +so that if anyone came into that room with a light and happened to look in +exactly the right place they would see her. But of course, because she was +wearing a veil, what they saw would not at once look like a forehead and a pair +of eyes. Aravis shoved desperately to try to make Lasaraleen give her a little +more room. But Lasaraleen, now quite selfish in her panic, fought back and +pinched her feet. They gave it up and lay still, panting a little. Their own breath +semed dreadfully noisy, but there was no other noise. + +“Is it safe?” said Aravis at last in the tiniest possible whisper. + +“I - I - think so,” began Lasaraleen. “But my poor nerves and then came +the most terrible noise they could have heard at that moment: the noise of the + + + +door opening. And then came light. And because Aravis couldn’t get her head +any further in behind the sofa, she saw everything. + +First came the two slaves (deaf and dumb, as Aravis rightly guessed, and +therefore used at the most secret councils) walking backwards and carrying the +candles. They took up their stand one at each end of the sofa. This was a good +thing, for of course it was now harder for anyone to see Aravis once a slave was +in front of her and she was looking between his heels. Then came an old man, +very fat, wearing a curious pointed cap by which she immediately knew that he +was the Tisroc. The least of the jewels with which he was covered was worth +more than all the clothes and weapons of the Narnian lords put together: but he +was so fat and such a mass of frills and pleats and bobbles and buttons and +tassels and talismans that Aravis couldn’t help thinking the Narnian fashions (at +any rate for men) looked nicer. After him came a tall young man with a feathered +and jewelled turban on his head and an ivory-sheathed scimitar at his side. He +seemed very excited and his eyes and teeth flashed fiercely in the candlelight. +Last of all came a little hump-backed, wizened old man in whom she recognized +with a shudder the new Grand Vizier and her own betrothed husband, Ahoshta +Tarkaan himself. + +As soon as all three had entered the room and the door was shut, the Tisroc +seated himself on the divan with a sigh of contentment, the young man took his +place, standing before him, and the Grand Vizier got down on his knees and +elbows and laid his face flat on the carpet. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +IN THE HOUSE OF THE TISROC + +“OH-my-father-and-oh-the-delight-of-my-eyes,” began the young man, +muttering the words very quickly and sulkily and not at all as if the Tisroc were +the delight of his eyes. “May you live for ever, but you have utterly destroyed +me. If you had given me the swiftest of the galleys at sunrise when I first saw +that the ship of the accursed barbarians was gone from her place I would perhaps +have overtaken them. But you persuaded me to send first and see if they had not +merely moved round the point into better anchorage. And now the whole day has +been wasted. And they are gone - gone - out of my reach! The false jade, the-” +and here he added a great many descriptions of Queen Susan which would not +look at all nice in print. For of course this young man was Prince Rabadash and +of course the false jade was Susan of Narnia. + +“Compose yourself, O my son,” said the Tisroc. “For the departure of guests +makes a wound that is easily healed in the heart of a judicious host.” + +“But I want her,” cried the Prince. “I must have her. I shah die if I do not get +her- false, proud, black-hearted daughter of a dog that she is! I cannot sleep and +my food has no savour and my eyes are darkened because of her beauty. I must +have the barbarian queen.” + +“How well it was said by a gifted poet,” observed the Vizier, raising his face +(in a somewhat dusty condition) from the carpet, “that deep draughts from the +fountain of reason are desirable in order to extinguish the fire of youthful love.” + +This seemed to exasperate the Prince. “Dog,” he shouted, directing a series +of well-aimed kicks at the hindquarters of the Vizier, “do not dare to quote the +poets to me. I have had maxims and verses flung at me all day and I can endure +them no more.” I am afraid Aravis did not feel at ah sorry for the Vizier. + +The Tisroc was apparently sunk in thought, but when, after a long pause, he +noticed what was happening, he said tranquilly: + +“My son, by ah means desist from kicking the venerable and enlightened +Vizier: for as a costly jewel retains its value even if hidden in a dung-hill, so old +age and discretion are to be respected even in the vile persons of our subjects. +Desist therefore, and tell us what you desire and propose.” + +“I desire and propose, O my father,” said Rabadash, “that you immediately +call out your invincible armies and invade the thrice-accursed land of Narnia and +waste it with fire and sword and add it to your illimitable empire, killing their +High King and all of his blood except the queen Susan. For I must have her as + + + +my wife, though she shall learn a sharp lesson first.” + +“Understand, O my son,” said the Tisroc, “that no words you can speak will +move me to open war against Narnia.” + +“If you were not my father, O ever-living Tisroc, ” said the Prince, grinding +his teeth, “I should say that was the word of a coward.” + +“And if you were not my son, O most inflammable Rabadash,” replied his +father, “your life would be short and your death slow when you had said it.” +(The cool, placid voice in which he spoke these words made Aravis’s blood run +cold.) + +“But why, O my father,” said the Prince - this time in a much more respectful +voice, “why should we think twice about punishing Narnia any more than about +hanging an idle slave or sending a worn-out horse to be made into dog’smeat? It +is not the fourth size of one of your least provinces. A thousand spears could +conquer it in five weeks. It is an unseemly blot on the skirts of your empire.” + +“Most undoubtedly,” said the Tisroc. “These little barbarian countries that +call themselves free (which is as much as to say, idle, disordered, and +unprofitable) are hateful to the gods and to all persons of discernment.” + +“Then why have we suffered such a land as Narnia to remain thus long +unsubdued?” + +“Know, O enlightened Prince,” said the Grand Vizier, “that until the year in +which your exalted father began his salutary and unending reign, the land of +Narnia was covered with ice and snow and was moreover ruled by a most +powerful enchantress.” + +“This I know very well, O loquacious Vizier,” answered the Prince. “But I +know also that the enchantress is dead. And the ice and snow have vanished, so +that Narnia is now wholesome, fruitful, and delicious.” + +“And this change, O most learned Prince, has doubtless been brought to pass +by the powerful incantations of those wicked persons who now call themselves +kings and queens of Narnia.” + +“I am rather of the opinion,” said Rabadash, “that it has come about by the +alteration of the stars and the operation of natural causes.” + +“All this,” said the Tisroc, “is a question for the disputations of learned men. +I will never believe that so great an alteration, and the killing of the old +enchantress, were effected without the aid of strong magic. And such things are +to be expected in that land, which is chiefly inhabited by demons in the shape of +beasts that talk like men, and monsters that are half man and half beast. It is +commonly reported that the High King of Narnia (whom may the gods utterly +reject) is supported by a demon of hideous aspect and irresistible maleficence +who appears in the shape of a Lion. Therefore the attacking of Narnia is a dark + + + +and doubtful enterprise, and I am determined not to put my hand out farther than +I can draw it back.” + +“How blessed is Calormen,” said the Vizier, popping up his face again, “on +whose ruler the gods have been pleased to bestow prudence and circumspection! +Yet as the irrefutable and sapient Tisroc has said it is very grievous to be +constrained to keep our hands off such a dainty dish as Narnia. Gifted was that +poet who said but at this point Ahoshta noticed an impatient movement of the +Prince’s toe and became suddenly silent. + +“It is very grievous,” said the Tisroc in his deep, quiet voice. “Every morning +the sun is darkened in my eyes, and every night my sleep is the less refreshing, +because I remember that Narnia is still free.” + +“O my father,” said Rabadash. “How if I show you a way by which you can +stretch out your arm to take Narnia and yet draw it back unharmed if the attempt +prove unfortunate?” + +“If you can show me that, O Rabadash,” said the Tisroc, “you will be the +best of sons.” + +“Hear then, 0 father. This very night and in this hour I will take but two +hundred horse and ride across the desert. And it shall seem to all men that you +know nothing of my going. On the second morning I shall be at the gates of +King Lune’s castle of Anvard in Archenland. They are at peace with us and +unprepared and I shall take Anvard before they have bestirred themselves. Then +I will ride through the pass above Anvard and down through Narnia to Cair +Paravel. The High King will not be there; when I left them he was already +preparing a raid against the giants on his northern border. I shall find Cair +Paravel, most likely with open gates, and ride in. I shall exercise prudence and +courtesy and spill as little Narnian blood as I can. And what then remains but to +sit there till the Splendour Hyaline puts in, with Queen Susan on board, catch my +strayed bird as she sets foot ashore, swing her into the saddle, and then, ride, +ride, ride back to Anvard?” + +“But is it not probable, O my son,” said the Tisroc, “that at the taking of the +woman either King Edmund or you will lose his life?” + +“They will be a small company,” said Rabadash, “and I will order ten of my +men to disarm and bind him: restraining my vehement desire for his blood so +that there shall be no deadly cause of war between you and the High King.” + +“And how if the Splendour Hyaline is at Cair Paravel before you?” + +“I do not look for that with these winds, O my father.” + +“And lastly, O my resourceful son,” said the Tisroc, “you have made clear +how all this might give you the barbarian woman, but not how it helps me to the +over-throwing of Narnia.” + + + +“O my father, can it have escaped you that though I and my horsemen will +come and go through Narnia like an arrow from a bow, yet we shall have Anvard +for ever? And when you hold Anvard you sit in the very gate of Narnia, and your +garrison in Anvard can be increased by little and little till it is a great host.” + +“It is spoken with understanding and foresight. But how do I draw back my +arm if all this miscarries?” + +“You shall say that I, did it without your knowledge and against your will, +and without your blessing, being constrained by the violence of my love and the +impetuosity of youth.” + +“And how if the High King then demands that we send back the barbarian +woman, his sister?” + +“O my father, be assured that he will not. For though the fancy of a woman +has rejected this marriage, the High King Peter is a man of prudence and +understanding who will in no way wish to lose the high honour and advantage of +being allied to our House and seeing his nephew and grand nephew on the throne +of Calormen.” + +“He will not see that if I live for ever as is no doubt your wish,” said the +Tisroc in an even drier voice than usual. + +“And also, O my father and O the delight of my eyes,” said the Prince, after +a moment of awkward silence, “we shall write letters as if from the Queen to say +that she loves me and has no desire to return to Narnia. For it is well known that +women are as changeable as weathercocks. And even if they do not wholly +believe the letters, they will not dare to come to Tashbaan in arms to fetch her.” + +“O enlightened Vizier,” said the Tisroc, “bestow your wisdom upon us +concerning this strange proposal.” + +“O eternal Tisroc,” answered Ahosta, “the strength of paternal affection is +not unknown to me and I have often heard that sons are in the eyes of their +fathers more precious than carbuncles. How then shall I dare freely to unfold to +you my mind in a matter which may imperil the life of this exalted Prince?” + +“Undoubtedly you will dare,” replied the Tisroc. + +“Because you will find that the dangers of not doing so are at least equally +great.” + +“To hear is to obey,” moaned the wretched man. “Know then, O most +reasonable Tisroc, in the first place, that the danger of the Prince is not altogether +so great as might appear. For the gods have withheld from the barbarians the +light of discretion, as that their poetry is not, like ours, full of choice +apophthegms and useful maxims, but is all of love and war. Therefore nothing +will appear to them more noble and admirable than such a mad enterprise as this +of ow!” For the Prince, at the word “mad”, had kicked him again. + + + +“Desist, O my son,” said the Tisroc. “And you, estimable Vizier, whether he +desists or not, by no means allow the flow of your eloquence to be interrupted. +For nothing is more suitable to persons of gravity and decorum than to endure +minor inconveniences with constancy.” + +“To hear is to obey,” said the Vizier, wriggling himself round a little so as to +get his hinder parts further away from Rabadash’s toe. “Nothing, I say, will seem +as pardonable, if not estimable, in their eyes as this - er - hazardous attempt, +especially because it is undertaken for the love of a woman. Therefore, if the +Prince by misfortune fell into their hands, they would assuredly not kill him. +Nay, it may even be, that though he failed to carry off the queen, yet the sight of +his great valour and of the extremity of his passion might incline her heart to +him.” + +“That is a good point, old babbler,” said Rabadash. “Very good, however it +came into your ugly head.” + +“The praise of my masters is the light of my eyes,” said Ahoshta. “And +secondly, O Tisroc, whose reign must and shall be interminable, I think that with +the aid of the gods it is very likely that Anvard will fall into the Prince’s hands. +And if so, we have Narnia by the throat.” + +There was a long pause and the room became so silent that the two girls +hardly dared to breathe. At last the Tisroc spoke. + +“Go, my son,” he said. “And do as you have said. But expect no help nor +countenance from me. I will not avenge you if you are killed and I will not +deliver you if the barbarians cast you into prison. And if, either in success or +failure, you shed a drop more than you need of Narnian noble blood and open +war arises from it, my favour shall never fall upon you again and your next +brother shall have your place in Calormen. Now go. Be swift, secret, and +fortunate. May the strength of Tash the inexorable, the irresistible be in your +sword and lance.” + +“To hear is to obey,” cried Rabadash, and after kneeling for a moment to kiss +his father’s hands he rushed from the room. Greatly to the disappointment of +Aravis, who was now horribly cramped, the Tisroc and Vizier remained. + +“O Vizier,” said the Tisroc, “is it certain that no living soul knows of this +council we three have held here tonight?” + +“O my master,” said Ahoshta, “it is not possible that any should know. For +that very reason I proposed, and you in your wisdom agreed, that we should +meet here in the Old Palace where no council is ever held and none of the +household has any occasion to come.” + +“It is well,” said the Tisroc. “If any man knew, I would see to it that he died +before an hour had passed. And do you also, O prudent Vizier, forget it. I sponge + + + +away from my own heart and from yours all knowledge of the Prince’s plans. He +is gone without my knowledge or my consent, I know not whither, because of +his violence and the rash and disobedient disposition of youth. No man will be +more astonished than you and I to hear that Anvard is in his hands.” + +“To hear is to obey,” said Ahoshta. + +“That is why you will never think even in your secret heart that I am the +hardest hearted of fathers who thus send my first-born son on an errand so likely +to be his death; pleasing as it must be to you who do not love the Prince. For 1 +see into the bottom of your mind.” + +“O impeccable Tisroc,” said the Vizier. “In comparison with you I love +neither the Prince nor my own life nor bread nor water nor the light of the sun.” + +“Your sentiments,” said the Tisroc, “are elevated and correct. I also love +none of these things in comparison with the glory and strength of my throne. If +the Prince succeeds, we have Archenland, and perhaps hereafter Narnia. If he +fails - I have eighteen other sons and Rabadash, after the manner of the eldest +sons of kings, was beginning to be dangerous. More than five Tisrocs in +Tashbaan have died before their time because their eldest sons, enlightened +princes, grew tired of waiting for their throne. He had better cool his blood +abroad than boil it in inaction here. And now, O excellent Vizier, the excess of +my paternal anxiety inclines me to sleep. Command the musicians to my +chamber. But before you lie down, call back the pardon we wrote for the third +cook. I feel within me the manifest prognostics of indigestion.” + +“To hear is to obey,” said the Grand Vizier. He crawled backwards on all +fours to the door, rose, bowed, and went out. Even then the Tisroc remained +seated in silence on the divan till Aravis almost began to be afraid that he had +dropped asleep. But at last with a great creaking and sighing he heaved up his +enormous body, signed to the slaves to precede him with the lights, and went +out. The door closed behind him, the room was once more totally dark, and the +two girls could breathe freely again. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +ACROSS THE DESERT + +“Hove dreadful! How perfectly dreadful!” whimpered Lasaraleen. “Oh +darling, I am so frightened. I’m shaking all over. Feel me.” + +“Come on,” said Aravis, who was trembling herself. “They’ve gone back to +the new palace. Once we’re out of this room we’re safe enough. But it’s wasted a +terrible time. Get me down to that water-gate as quick as you can.” + +“Darling, how can you?” squeaked Lasaraleen. “I can’t do anything - not +now. My poor nerves! No: we must just lie still a bit and then go back.” + +“Why back?” asked Aravis. + +“Oh, you don’t understand. You’re so unsympathetic,” said Lasaraleen, +beginning to cry. Aravis decided it was no occasion for mercy. + +“Look here!” she said, catching Lasaraleen and giving her a good shake. “If +you say another word about going back, and if you don’t start taking me to that +water-gate at once - do you know what I’ll do? I’ll rush out into that passage and +scream. Then we’ll both be caught.” + +“But we shall both be k-k-killed!” said Lasaraleen. “Didn’t you hear what the +Tisroc (may he live for ever) said?” + +“Yes, and I’d sooner be killed than married to Ahoshta. So come on.” + +“Oh you are unkind,” said Lasaraleen. “And I in such a state!” + +But in the end she had to give in to Aravis. She led the way down the steps +they had already descended, and along another corridor and so finally out into +the open air. They were now in the palace garden which sloped down in terraces +to the city wall. The moon shone brightly. One of the drawbacks about +adventures is that when you come to the most beautiful places you are often too +anxious and hurried to appreciate them; so that Aravis (though she remembered +them years later) had only a vague impression of grey lawns, quietly bubbling +fountains, and the long black shadows of cypress trees. + +When they re”ached the very bottom and the wall rose frowning above them, +Lasaraleen was shaking so that she could not unbolt the gate. Aravis did it. +There, at last, was the river, full of reflected moonlight, and a little landing stage +and a few pleasure boats. + +“Good-bye,” said Aravis, “and thank you. I’m sorry if I’ve been a pig. But +think what I’m flying from!” + +“Oh Aravis darling,” said Lasaraleen. “Won’t you change your mind? Now +that you’ve seen what a very great man Ahoshta is!” + + + +“Great man!” said Aravis. “A hideous grovelling slave who flatters when +he’s kicked but treasures it all up and hopes to get his own back by egging on +that horrible Tisroc to plot his son’s death. Faugh! I’d sooner marry my father’s +scullion than a creature like that.” + +“Oh Aravis, Aravis! How can you say such dreadful things; and about the +Tisroc (may he live for ever) too. It must be right if he’s going to do it!” + +“Good-bye,” said Aravis, “and I thought your dresses lovely. And I think +your house is lovely too. I’m sure you’ll have a lovely life - though it wouldn’t +suit me. Close the door softly behind me.” + +She tore herself away from her friend’s affectionate embraces, stepped into a +punt, cast off, and a moment later was out in midstream with a huge real moon +overhead and a huge reflected moon down, deep down, in the river. The air was +fresh and cool and as she drew near the farther bank she heard the hooting of an +owl. “Ah! That’s better!” thought Aravis. She had always lived in the country +and had hated every minute of her time in Tashbaan. + +When she stepped ashore she found herself in darkness for the rise of the +ground, and the trees, cut off the moonlight. But she managed to find the same +road that Shasta had found, and came just as he had done to the end of. the grass +and the beginning of the sand, and looked (like him) to her left and saw the big, +black Tombs. And now at last, brave girl though she was, her heart quailed. +Supposing the others weren’t there! Supposing the ghouls were! But she stuck +out her chin (and a little bit of her tongue too) and went straight towards them. + +But before she had reached them she saw Bree and Hwin and the groom. + +“You can go back to your mistress now,” said Aravis (quite forgetting that he +couldn’t, until the city gates opened next morning). “Here is money for your +pains.” + +“To hear is to obey,” said the groom, and at once set off at a remarkable +speed in the direction of the city. There was no need to tell him to make haste: he +also had been thinking a good deal about ghouls. + +For the next few seconds Aravis was busy kissing the noses and patting the +necks of Hwin and Bree just as if they were quite ordinary horses. + +“And here comes Shasta! Thanks be to the Lion!” said Bree. + +Aravis looked round, and there, right enough, was Shasta who had come out +of hiding the moment he saw the groom going away. + +“And now,” said Aravis. “There’s not a moment to lose.” And in hasty words +she told them about Rabadash’s expedition. + +“Treacherous hounds!” said Bree, shaking his mane and stamping with his +hoof. “An attack in time of peace, without defiance sent! But we’ll grease his +oats for him. We’ll be there before he is.” + + + +“Can we?” said Aravis, swinging herself into Hwin’s saddle. Shasta wished +he could mount like that. + +“Brooh-hoo!” snorted Bree. “Up you get, Shasta. Can we! And with a good +start too!” + +“He said he was going to start at once,” said Aravis. + +“That’s how humans talk,” said Bree. “But you don’t get a company of two +hundred horse and horsemen watered and victualled and armed and saddled and +started all in a minute. Now: what’s our direction? Due North? + +“No,” said Shasta. “I know about that. I’ve drawn a line. I’ll explain later. +Bear a bit to our left, both you horses. Ah here it is!” + +“Now,” said Bree. “All that about galloping for a day and a night, like in +stories, can’t really be done. It must be walk and trot: but brisk trots and short +walks. And whenever we walk you two humans can slip off and walk too. Now. +Are you ready, Hwin? Off we go. Narnia and the North!” + +At first it was delightful. The night had now been going on for so many +hours that the sand had almost finished giving back all the sun-heat it had +received during the day, and the air was cool, fresh, and clear. Under the +moonlight the sand, in every direction and as far as they could see, gleamed as if +it were smooth water or a great silver tray. Except for the noise of Bree’s and +Hwin’s hoofs there was not a sound to be heard. Shasta would nearly have fallen +asleep if he had not had to dismount and walk every now and then. + +This seemed to last for hours. Then there came a time when there was no +longer any moon. They seemed to ride in the dead darkness for hours and hours. +And after that there came a moment when Shasta noticed that he could see +Bree’s neck and head in front of him a little more clearly than before; and +slowly, very slowly, he began to notice the vast grey flatness on every side. It +looked absolutely dead, like something in a dead world; and Shasta felt quite +terribly tired and noticed that he was getting cold and that his lips were dry. And +all the time the squeak of the leather, the jingle of the bits, and the noise of the +hoofs-not Propputtypropputty as it would be on a hard road, but +Thubbudythubbudy on the dry sand. + +At last, after hours of riding, far away on his right there came a single long +streak of paler grey, low down on the horizon. Then a streak of red. It was the +morning at last, but without a single bird to sing about it. He was glad of the +walking bits now, for he was colder than ever. + +Then suddenly the sun rose and everything changed in a moment. The grey +sand turned yellow and twinkled as if it was strewn with diamonds. On their left +the shadows of Shasta and Hwin and Bree and Aravis, enormously long, raced +beside them. The double peak of Mount Pire, far ahead, flashed in the sunlight + + + +and Shasta saw they were a little out of the course. “A bit left, a bit left,” he sang +out. Best of all, when you looked back, Tashbaan was already small and remote. +The Tombs were quite invisible: swallowed up in that single, jagged-edged +hump which was the city of the Tisroc. Everyone felt better. + +But not for long. Though Tashbaan looked very far away when they first saw +it, it refused to look any further away as they went on. Shasta gave up looking +back at it, for it only gave him the feeling that they were not moving at all. Then +the light became a nuisance. The glare of the sand made his eyes ache: but he +knew he mustn’t shut them. He must screw them up and keep on looking ahead +at Mount Pire and shouting out directions. Then came the heat. He noticed it for +the first time when he had to dismount and walk: as he slipped down to the sand +the heat from it struck up into his face as if from the opening of an oven door. +Next time it was worse. But the third time, as his bare feet touched the sand he +screamed with pain and got one foot back in the stirrup and the other half over +Bree’s back before you could have said knife. + +“Sorry, Bree,” he gasped. “I can’t walk. It burns my feet.” “Of course!” +panted Bree. “Should have thought of that myself. Stay on. Can’t be helped.” + +“It’s all right for you,” said Shasta to Aravis who was walking beside Hwin. +“You’ve got shoes on.” + +Aravis said nothing and looked prim. Let’s hope she didn’t mean to, but she +did. + +On again, trot and walk and trot, jingle-jingle-jingle, squeak-squeak-squeak, +smell of hot horse, smell of hot self, blinding glare, headache. And nothing at all +different for mile after mile. Tashbaan would never look any further away. The +mountains would never look any nearer. You felt this had been going on for +always - jingle-jingle-jingle, squeaksqueak-squeak, smell of hot horse, smell of +hot self. + +Of course one tried all sorts of games with oneself to try to make the time +pass: and of course they were all no good. And one tried very hard not to think +of drinks-iced sherbet in a palace in Tashbaan, clear spring water tinkling with a +dark earthy sound, cold, smooth milk just creamy enough and not too creamy - +and the harder you tried not to think, the more you thought. + +At last there was something different - a mass of rock sticking up out of the +sand about fifty yards long and thirty feet high. It did not cast much shadow, for +the sun was now very high, but it cast a little. Into that shade they crowded. +There they ate some food and drank a little water. It is not easy giving a horse a +drink out of a skin bottle, but Bree and Hwin were clever with their lips. No one +had anything like enough. No one spoke. The Horses were flecked with foam +and their breathing was noisy. The children were pale. + + + +After a very short rest they went on again. Same noises, same smells, same +glare, till at last their shadows began to fall on their right, and then got longer +and longer till they seemed to stretch out to the Eastern end of the world. Very +slowly the sun drew nearer to the Western horizon. And now at last he was down +and, thank goodness, the merciless glare was gone, though the heat coming up +from the sand was still as bad as ever. Four pairs of eyes were looking out +eagerly for any sign of the valley that Sallowpad the Raven had spoken about. +But, mile after mile, there was nothing but level sand. And now the day was +quite definitely done, and most of the stars were out, and still the Horses +thundered on and the children rose and sank in their saddles, miserable with +thirst and weariness. Not till the moon had risen did Shasta - in the strange, +barking voice of someone whose mouth is perfectly dry-shout out: + +“There it is!” + +There was no mistaking it now. Ahead, and a little to their right, there was at +last a slope: a slope downward and hummocks of rock on each side. The Horses +were far too tired to speak but they swung round towards it and in a minute or +two they were entering the gully. At first it was worse in there than it had been +out in the open desert, for there was a breathless stuffiness between the rocky +walls and less moonlight. The slope continued steeply downwards and the rocks +on either hand rose to the height of cliffs. Then they began to meet vegetation - +prickly cactus-like plants and coarse grass of the kind that would prick your +fingers. Soon the horse-hoofs were falling on pebbles and stones instead of sand. +Round every bend of the valley - and it had many bends - they looked eagerly +for water. The Horses were nearly at the end of their strength now, and Hwin, +stumbling and panting; was lagging behind Bree. They were almost in despair +before at last they came to a little muddiness and a tiny trickle of water through +softer and better grass. And the trickle became a brook, and the brook became a +stream with bushes on each side, and the stream became a river and there came +(after more disappointments than I could possibly describe) -a moment when +Shasta, who had been in a kind of doze, suddenly realized that Bree had stopped +and found himself slipping off. Before them a little cataract of water poured into +a broad pool: and both the Horses were already in the pool with their heads +down, drinking, drinking, drinking. “O-o-oh,” said Shasta and plunged in - it +was about up to his knees - and stooped his head right into the cataract. It was +perhaps the loveliest moment in his life. + +It was about ten minutes later when all four of them (the two children wet +nearly all over) came out and began to notice their surroundings. The moon was +now high enough to peep down into the valley. There was soft grass on both +sides of the river, and beyond the grass, trees and bushes sloped up to the bases + + + +of the cliffs. There must have been some wonderful flowering shrubs hidden in +that shadowy undergrowth for the whole glade was full of the coolest and most +delicious smells. And out of the darkest recess among the trees there came a +sound Shasta had never heard beforea nightingale. + +Everyone was much too tired to speak or to eat. The Horses, without waiting +to be unsaddled, lay down at once. So did Aravis and Shasta. + +About ten minutes later the careful Hwin said, “But we mustn’t go to sleep. +We’ve got to keep ahead of that Rabadash.” + +“No,” said Bree very slowly. “Mustn’t go sleep. Just a little rest.” + +Shasta knew (for a moment) that they would all go to sleep if he didn’t get +up and do something about it, and felt that he ought to. In fact he decided that he +would get up and persuade them to go on. But presently; not yet: not just yet... + +Very soon the moon shone and the nightingale sang over two horses and two +human children, all fast asleep. + +It was Aravis who awoke first. The sun was already high in the heavens and +the cool morning hours were already wasted. “It’s my fault,” she said to herself +furiously as she jumped up and began rousing the others. “One wouldn’t expect +Horses to keep awake after a day’s work like that, even if they can talk. And of +course that Boy wouldn’t; he’s had no decent training. But I ought to have +known better.” + +The others were dazed and stupid with the heaviness of their sleep. + +“Neigh-ho - broo-hoo,” said Bree. “Been sleeping in my saddle, eh? I’ll +never do that again. Most uncomfortable-“ + +“Oh come on, come on,” said Aravis. “We’ve lost half the morning already. +There isn’t a moment to spare.” + +“A fellow’s got to have a mouthful of grass,” said Bree. + +I’m afraid we can’t wait,” said Aravis. + +“What’s the terrible hurry?” said Bree. “We’ve crossed the desert, haven’t +we?” + +“But we’re not in Archenland yet,” said Aravis. “And we’ve got to get there +before Rabadash.” + +“Oh, we must be miles ahead of him,” said Bree. “Haven’t we been coming a +shorter way? Didn’t that Raven friend of yours say this was a short cut, Shasta?” + +“He didn’t say anything about shorter,” answered Shasta. “He only said +better, because you got to a river this way. If the oasis is due North of Tashbaan, +then I’m afraid this may be longer.” + +“Well I can’t go on without a snack,” said Bree. “Take my bridle off, +Shasta.” + +“P-please,” said Hwin, very shyly, “I feel just like Bree that I can’t go on. + + + +But when Horses have humans (with spurs and things) on their backs, aren’t they +often made to go on when they’re feeling like this? and then they find they can. I +m-mean - oughtn’t we to be able to do even more, now that we’re free. It’s all for +Narnia.” + +“I think, Ma’am,” said Bree very crushingly, “that I know a little more about +campaigns and forced marches and what a horse can stand than you do.” + +To this Hwin made no answer, being, like most highly bred mares, a very +nervous and gentle person who was easily put down. In reality she was quite +right, and if Bree had had a Tarkaan on his back at that moment to make him go +on, he would have found that he was good for several hours’ hard going. But one +of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when +there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of +forcing yourself. + +So they had to wait while Bree had a snack and a drink, and of course Hwin +and the children had a snack and a drink too. It must have been nearly eleven +o’clock in the morning before they finally got going again. And even then Bree +took things much more gently than yesterday. It was really Hwin, though she +was the weaker and more tired of the two, who set the pace. + +The valley itself, with its brown, cool river, and grass and moss and wild +flowers and rhododendrons, was such a pleasant place that it made you want to +ride slowly. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +THE HERMIT OF THE SOUTHERN MARCH + +AFTER they had ridden for several hours down the valley, it widened out +and they could see what was ahead of them. The river which they had been +following here joined a broader river, wide and turbulent, which flowed from +their left to their right, towards the east. Beyond this new river a delightful +country rose gently in low hills, ridge beyond ridge, to the Northern Mountains +themselves. To the right there were rocky pinnacles, one or two of them with +snow clinging to the ledges. To the left, pine-clad slopes, frowning cliffs, narrow +gorges, and blue peaks stretched away as far as the eye could reach. He could no +longer make out Mount Pire. Straight ahead the mountain range sank to a +wooded saddle which of course must be the pass from Archenland into Narnia. + +“Broo-hoo-hoo, the North, the green North!” neighed Bree: and certainly the +lower hills looked greener and fresher than anything that Aravis and Shasta, with +their southern-bred eyes, had ever imagined. Spirits rose as they clattered down +to the water ’s-meet of the two rivers. + +The eastern-flowing river, which was pouring from the higher mountains at +the western end of the range, was far too swift and too broken with rapids for +them to think of swimming it; but after some casting about, up and down the +bank, they found a place shallow enough to wade. The roar and clatter of water, +the great swirl against the horses’ fetlocks, the cool, stirring air and the darting +dragon-flies, filled Shasta with a strange excitement. + +“Friends, we are in Archenland!” said Bree proudly as he splashed and +churned his way out on the Northern bank. “I think that river we’ve just crossed +is called the Winding Arrow.” + +“I hope we’re in time,” murmured Hwin. + +Then they began going up, slowly and zigzagging a good deal, for the hills +were steep. It was all open park-like country with no roads or houses in sight. +Scattered trees, never thick enough to be a forest, were everywhere. Shasta, who +had lived all his life in an almost tree-less grassland, had never seen so many or +so many kinds. If you had been there you would probably have known (he +didn’t) that he was seeing oaks, beeches, silver birches, rowans, and sweet +chestnuts. Rabbits scurried away in every direction as they advanced, and +presently they saw a whole herd of fallow deer making off among the trees. + +“Isn’t it simply glorious!” said Aravis. + +At the first ridge Shasta turned in the saddle and looked back. There was no + + + +sign of Tashbaan; the desert, unbroken except by the narrow green crack which +they had travelled down, spread to the horizon. + +“Hullo!” he said suddenly. “What’s that!” + +“What’s what?” said Bree, turning round. Hwin and Aravis did the same. + +“That,” said Shasta, pointing. “It looks like smoke. Is it a fire?” + +“Sand-storm, I should say,” said Bree. + +“Not much wind to raise it,” said Aravis. + +“Oh!” exclaimed Hwin. “Look! There are things flashing in it. Look! +They’re helmets - and armour. And it’s moving: moving this way.” + +“By Tash!” said Aravis. “It’s the army. It’s Rabadash.” + +“Oh course it is,” said Hwin. “Just what I was afraid of. Quick! We must get +to Anvard before it.” And without another word she whisked round and began +galloping North. Bree tossed his head and did the same. + +“Come on, Bree, come on,” yelled Aravis over her shoulder. + +The race was very gruelling for the Horses. As they topped each ridge they +found another valley and another ridge beyond it; and though they knew they +were going in more or less the right direction, no one knew how far it was to +Anvard. From the top of the second ridge Shasta looked back again. Instead of a +dust-cloud well out in the desert he now saw a black, moving mass, rather like +ants, on the far bank of the Winding Arrow. They were doubtless looking for a +ford. + +“They’re on the river!” he yelled wildly. + +“Quick! Quick!” shouted Aravis. “We might as well not have come at all if +we don’t reach Anvard in time. Gallop, Bree, gallop. Remember you’re a war- +horse.” + +It was all Shasta could do to prevent himself from shouting out similar +instructions; but he thought, “The poor chap’s doing all he can already,” and held +his tongue. And certainly both Horses were doing, if not all they could, all they +thought they could; which is not quite the same thing. Bree had caught up with +Hwin and they thundered side by side over the turf. It didn’t look as if Hwin +could possibly keep it up much longer. + +At that moment everyone’s feelings were completely altered by a sound from +behind. It was not the sound they had been expecting to hear - the noise of hoofs +and jingling armour, mixed, perhaps, with Calormene battle-cries. Yet Shasta +knew it at once. It was the same snarling roar he had heard that moonlit night +when they first met Aravis and Hwin. Bree knew it too. His eyes gleamed red +and his ears lay flat back on his skull. And Bree now discovered that he had not +really been going as fast - not quite as fast - as he could. Shasta felt the change at +once. Now they were really going all out. In a few seconds they were well ahead + + + +of Hwin. + +“It’s not fair,” thought Shasta. “I did think we’d be safe from lions here!” + +He looked over his shoulder. Everything was only too clear. A huge tawny +creature, its body low to the ground, like a cat streaking across the lawn to a tree +when a strange dog has got into the garden, was behind them. And it was nearer +every second and half second. + +He looked forward again and saw something which he did not take in, or +even think about. Their way was barred by a smooth green wall about ten feet +high. In the middle of that wall there was a gate, open. In the middle of the +gateway stood a tall man dressed, down to his bare feet, in a robe coloured like +autumn leaves, leaning on a straight staff. His beard fell almost to his knees. + +Shasta saw all this in a glance and looked back again. The lion had almost +got Hwin now. It was making snaps at her hind legs, and there was no hope now +in her foamflecked, wide-eyed face. + +“Stop,” bellowed Shasta in Bree’s ear. “Must go back. Must help!” + +Bree always said afterwards that he never heard, or never understood this; +and as he was in general a very truthful horse we must accept his word. + +Shasta slipped his feet out of the stirrups, slid both his legs over the left side, +hesitated for one hideous hundredth of a second, and jumped. It hurt horribly and +nearly winded him; but before he knew how it hurt him he was staggering back +to help Aravis. He had never done anything like this in his life before and hardly +knew why he was doing it now. + +One of the most terrible noises in the world, a horse’s scream, broke from +Hwin’s lips. Aravis was stooping low over Hwin’s neck and seemed to be trying +to draw her sword. And now all three - Aravis, Hwin, and the lion were almost +on top of Shasta. Before they reached him the lion rose on its hind legs, larger +than you would have believed a lion could be, and jabbed at Aravis with its right +paw. Shasta could see all the terrible claws extended. Aravis screamed and +reeled in the saddle. The lion was tearing her shoulders. Shasta, half mad with +horror, managed to lurch towards the brute. He had no weapon, not even a stick +or a stone. He shouted out, idiotically, at the lion as one would at a dog. “Go +home! Go home!” For a fraction of a second he was staring right into its +wideopened, raging mouth. Then, to his utter astonishment, the lion, still on its +hind legs, checked itself suddenly, turned head over heels, picked itself up, and +mshed away. + +Shasta did not for a moment suppose it had gone for good. He turned and +raced for the gate in the green wall which, now for the first time, he remembered +seeing. Hwin, stumbling and nearly fainting, was just entering the gate: Aravis +still kept her seat but her back was covered with blood. + + + +“Come in, my daughter, come in,” the robed and bearded man was saying, +and then “Come in, my son” as Shasta panted up to him. He heard the gate +closed behind him; and the bearded stranger was already helping Aravis off her +horse. + +They were in a wide and perfectly circular enclosure, protected by a high +wall of green turf. A pool of perfectly still water, so full that the water was +almost exactly level with the ground, lay before him. At one end of the pool, +completely overshadowing it with its branches, there grew the hugest and most +beautiful tree that Shasta had ever seen. Beyond the pool was a little low house +of stone roofed with deep and ancient thatch. There was a sound of bleating and +over at the far side of the enclosure there were some goats. The level ground was +completely covered with the finest grass. + +“Are - are - are you,” panted Shasta. “Are you King Lune of Archenland?” + +The old man shook his head. “No,” he replied in a quiet voice, “I am the +Hermit of the Southern March. And now, my son, waste no time on questions, +but obey. This damsel is wounded. Your horses are spent. Rabadash is at this +moment finding a ford over the Winding Arrow. If you run now, without a +moment’s rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.” + +Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And +he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He +had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set +to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was: + +“Where is the King?” + +The Hermit turned and pointed with his staff. “Look,” he said. “There is +another gate, right opposite to the one you entered by. Open it and go straight +ahead: always straight ahead, over level or steep, over smooth or rough, over dry +or wet. I know by my art that you will find King Lune straight ahead. But run, +mn: always run.” + +Shasta nodded his head, ran to the northern gate and disappeared beyond it. +Then the Hermit took Aravis, whom he had all this time been supporting with +his left arm, and half led, half carried her into the house. After a long time he +came out again. + +“Now, cousins,” he said to the Horses. “It is your turn.” + +Without waiting for an answer - and indeed they were too exhausted to speak +- he took the bridles and saddles off both of them. Then he rubbed them both +down, so well that a groom in a King’s stable could not have done it better. + +“There, cousins,” he said, “dismiss it all from your minds and be comforted. +Here is water and there is grass. You shall have a hot mash when I have milked +my other cousins, the goats.” + + + +“Sir,” said Hwin, finding her voice at last, “will the Tarkheena live? Has the +lion killed her?” + +“I who know many present things by my art,” replied the Hermit with a +smile, “have yet little knowledge of things future. Therefore I do not know +whether any man or woman or beast in the whole world will be alive when the +sun sets tonight. But be of good hope. The damsel is likely to live as long as any +of her age.” + +When Aravis came to herself she found that she was lying on her face on a +low bed of extraordinary softness in a cool, bare room with walls of undressed +stone. She couldn’t understand why she had been laid on her face; but when she +tried to turn and felt the hot, burning pains all over her back, she remembered, +and realized why. She couldn’t understand what delightfully springy stuff the +bed was made of, because it was made of heather (which is the best bedding) and +heather was a thing she had never seen or heard of. + +The door opened and the Hermit entered, carrying a large wooden bowl in +his hand. After carefully setting this down, he came to the bedside, and asked: + +“How do you find yourself, my daughter?” + +“My back is very sore, father,” said Aravis, “but there is nothing else wrong +with me.” + +He knelt beside her, laid his hand on her forehead, and felt her pulse. + +“There is no fever,” he said. “You will do well. Indeed there is no reason +why you should not get up tomorrow. But now, drink this.” + +He fetched the wooden bowl and held it to her lips. Aravis couldn’t help +making a face when she tasted it, for goats’ milk is rather a shock when you are +not used to it. But she was very thirsty and managed to drink it all and felt better +when she had finished. + +“Now, my daughter, you may sleep when you wish,” said the Hermit. “For +your wounds are washed and dressed and though they smart they are no more +serious than if they had been the cuts of a whip. It must have been a very strange +lion; for instead-of catching you out of the saddle and getting his teeth into you, +he has only drawn his claws across your back. Ten scratches: sore, but not deep +or dangerous.” + +“I say!” said Aravis. “I have had luck.” + +“Daughter,” said the Hermit, “I have now lived a hundred and nine winters in +this world and have never yet met any such thing as Luck. Them is something +about all this that I do not understand: but if ever we need to know it, you may +be sure that we shall.” + +“And what about Rabadash and his two hundred horse?” asked Aravis. + +“They will not pass this way, I think,” said the Hermit. “They must have + + + +found a ford by now well to the east of us. From there they will try to ride +straight to Anvard.” + +“Poor Shasta!” said Aravis. “Has he far to go? Will he get there first?” + +“There is good hope of it,” said the old man. + +Aravis lay down again (on her side this time) and said, “Have I been asleep +for a long time? It seems to be getting dark.” + +The Hermit was looking out of the only window, which faced north. “This is +not the darkness of night,” he said presently. “The clouds are falling down from +Stormness Head. Our foul weather always comes from there in these parts. There +will be thick fog tonight.” + +Next day, except for her sore back, Aravis felt so well that after breakfast +(which was porridge and cream) the Hermit said she could get up. And of course +she at once went out to speak to the Horses. The weather had changed and the +whole of that green enclosure was filled, like a great green cup, with sunlight. It +was a very peaceful place, lonely and quiet. + +Hwin at once trotted across to Aravis and gave her a horse-kiss. + +“But where’s Bree?” said Aravis when each had asked after the other’s +health and sleep. + +“Over there,” said Hwin, pointing with her nose to the far side of the circle. +“And I wish you’d come and talk to him. There’s something wrong, I can’t get a +word out of him.” + +They strolled across and found Bree lying with his face towards the wall, and +though he must have heard them coming, he never turned his head or spoke a +word. + +“Good morning, Bree,” said Aravis. “How are you this morning?” + +Bree muttered something that no one could hear. + +“The Hermit says that Shasta probably got to King Lune in time,” continued +Aravis, “so it looks as if all our troubles are over. Narnia, at last, Bree!” + +“I shall never see Narnia,” said Bree in a low voice. + +“Aren’t you well, Bree dear?” said Aravis. + +Bree turned round at last, his face mournful as only a horse’s can be. + +“I shall go back to Calormen,” he said. + +“What?” said Aravis. “Back to slavery!” + +“Yes,” said Bree. “Slavery is all I’m fit for. How can I ever show my face +among the free Horses of Narnia? -1 who left a mare and a girl and a boy to be +eaten by lions while I galloped all I could to save my own wretched skin!” + +“We all ran as hard as we could,” said Hwin. + +“Shasta didn’t!” snorted Bree. “At least he ran in the right direction: ran +back. And that is what shames me most of all. I, who called myself a war-horse + + + +and boasted of a hundred fights, to be beaten by a little human boy - a child, a +mere foal, who had never held a sword nor had any good nurture or example in +his life!” + +“I know,” said Aravis. “I felt just the same. Shasta was marvellous. I’m just +as bad as you, Bree. I’ve been snubbing him and looking down on him ever +since you met us and now he turns out to be the best of us all. But I think it +would be better to stay and say we’re sorry than to go back to Calormen.” + +“It’s all very well for you,” said Bree. “You haven’t disgraced yourself. But +I’ve lost everything.” + +“My good Horse,” said the Hermit, who had approached them unnoticed +because his bare feet made so little noise on that sweet, dewy grass. “My good +Horse, you’ve lost nothing but your self-conceit. No, no, cousin. Don’t put back +your ears and shake your mane at me. If you are really so humbled as you +sounded a minute ago, you must learn to listen to sense. You’re not quite the +great Horse you had come to think, from living among poor dumb horses. Of +course you were braver and cleverer than them. You could hardly help being +that. It doesn’t follow that you’ll be anyone very special in Narnia. But as long +as you know you’re nobody special, you’ll be a very decent sort of Horse, on the +whole, and taking one thing with another. And now, if you and my other four- +footed cousin will come round to the kitchen door we’ll see about the other half +of that mash.” + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +THE UNWELCOME FELLOW TRAVELLER + +WHEN Shasta went through the gate he found a slope of grass and a little +heather running up before him to some trees. He had nothing to think about now +and no plans to make: he had only to run, and that was quite enough. His limbs +were shaking, a terrible stitch was beginning in his side, and the sweat that kept +dropping into his eyes blinded them and made them smart. He was unsteady on +his feet too, and more than once he nearly turned his ankle on a loose stone. + +The trees were thicker now than they had yet been and in the more open +spaces there was bracken. The sun had gone in without making it any cooler. It +had become one of those hot, grey days when there seem to be twice as many +flies as usual. Shasta’s face was covered with them; he didn’t even try to shake +them off - he had too much else to do. + +Suddenly he heard a horn - not a great throbbing horn like the horns of +Tashbaan but a merry call, Ti-ro-to-to-ho! Next moment he came out into a wide +glade and found himself in a crowd of people. + +At least, it looked a crowd to him. In reality there were about fifteen or +twenty of them, all gentlemen in green huntingdress, with their horses; some in +the saddle and some standing by their horses’ heads. In the centre someone was +holding the stirrup for a man to mount. And the man he was holding it for was +the jolliest, fat, applecheeked, twinkling eyed King you could imagine. + +As soon as Shasta came in sight this King forgot all about mounting his +horse. He spread out his arms to Shasta, his face lit up, and he cried out in a +great, deep voice that seemed to come from the bottom of his chest: + +“Corin! My son! And on foot, and in rags! What-“ + +“No,” panted Shasta, shaking his head. “Not Prince Corin. I - I - know I’m +like him... saw his Highness in Tashbaan... sent his greetings.” + +The King was staring at Shasta with an extraordinary expression on his face. + +“Are you K-King Lune?” gasped Shasta. And then, without waiting for an +answer, “Lord King - fly - Anvard shut the gates - enemies upon you - Rabadash +and two hundred horse.” + +“Have you assurance of this, boy?” asked one of the other gentlemen. + +“My own eyes,” said Shasta. “I’ve seen them. Raced them all the way from +Tashbaan.” + +“On foot?” said the gentleman, raising his eyebrows a little. + +Horses-with the Hermit,” said Shasta. + + + +“Question him no more; Darrin,” said King Lune. “I see truth in his face. We +must ride for it, gentlemen. A spare horse there, for the boy. You can ride fast, +friend?” + +For answer Shasta put his foot in the stirrup of the horse which had been led +towards him and a moment later he was in the saddle. He had done it a hundred +times with Bree in the last few weeks, and his mounting was very different now +from what it had been on that first night when Bree had said that he climbed up a +horse as if he were climbing a haystack. + +He was pleased to hear the Lord Darrin say to the King, “The boy has a true +horseman’s seat, Sire. I’ll warrant there’s noble blood in him.” + +“His blood, aye, there’s the point,” said the King. And he stared hard at +Shasta again with that curious expression, almost a hungry expression, in his +steady, grey eyes. + +But by now -the whole party was moving off at a brisk canter. Shasta’s seat +was excellent but he was sadly puzzled what to do with his reins, for he had +never touched the reins while he was on Bree’s back. But he looked very +carefully out of the corners of his eyes to see what the others were doing (as +some of us have done at parties when we weren’t quite sure which knife or fork +we were meant to use) and tried to get his fingers right. But he didn’t dare to try +really directing the horse; he trusted it would follow the rest. The horse was of +course an ordinary horse, not a Talking Horse; but it had quite wits enough to +realize that the strange boy on its back had no whip and no spurs and was not +really master of the situation. That was why Shasta soon found himself at the tail +end of the procession. + +Even so, he was going pretty fast. There were no flies now and the air in his +face was delicious. He had got his breath back too. And his errand had +succeeded. For the first time since the arrival at Tashbaan (how long ago it +seemed!) he was beginning to enjoy himself. + +He looked up to see how much nearer the mountain tops had come. To his +disappointment he could not see them at all: only a vague greyness, rolling down +towards them. He had never been in mountain country before and was surprised. +“It’s a cloud,” he said to himself, “a cloud coming down. I see. Up here in the +hills one is really in the sky. I shall see what the inside of a cloud is like. What +fun! I’ve often wondered.” Far away on his left and a little behind him, the sun +was getting ready to set. + +They had come to a rough kind of road by now and were making very good +speed. But Shasta’s horse was still the last of the lot. Once or twice when the +road made a bend (there was now continuous forest on each side of it) he lost +sight of the others for a second or two. + + + +Then they plunged into the fog, or else the fog rolled over them. The world +became grey. Shasta had not realized how cold and wet the inside of a cloud +would be; nor how dark. The grey turned to black with alarming speed. + +Someone at the head of the column winded the horn every now and then, and +each time the sound came from a little farther off. He couldn’t see any of the +others now, but of course he’d be able to as soon as he got round the next bend. +But when he rounded it he still couldn’t see them. In fact he could see nothing at +all. His horse was walking now. “Get on, Horse, get on,” said Shasta. Then came +the horn, very faint. Bree had always told him that he must keep his heels well +turned out, and Shasta had got the idea that something very terrible would +happen if he dug his heels into a horse’s sides. This seemed to him an occasion +for trying it. “Look here, Horse,” he said, “if you don’t buck up, do you know +what I’ll do? I’ll dig my heels into you. I really will.” The horse, however, took +no notice of this threat. So Shasta settled himself firmly in the saddle, gripped +with his knees, clenched his teeth, and punched both the horse’s sides with his +heels as hard as he could. + +The only result was that the horse broke into a kind of pretence of a trot for +five or six paces and then subsided into a walk again. And now it was quite dark +and they seemed to have given up blowing that horn. The only sound was a +steady drip-drip from the branches of the trees. + +“Well, I suppose even a walk will get us somewhere sometime,” said Shasta +to himself. “I only hope I shan’t run into Rabadash and his people.” + +He went on for what seemed a long time, always at a walking pace. He +began to hate that horse, and he was also beginning to feel very hungry. + +Presently he came to a place where the road divided into two. He was just +wondering which led to Anvard when he was startled by a noise from behind +him. It was the noise of trotting horses. “Rabadash!” thought Shasta. He had no +way of guessing which road Rabadash would take. “But if I take one,” said +Shasta to himself, “he may take the other: and if I stay at the cross-roads I’m +sure to be caught.” He dismounted and led his horse as quickly as he could along +the right-hand road. + +The sound of the cavalry grew rapidly nearer and in a minute or two Shasta +realized that they were at the crossroads. He held his breath, waiting to see +which way they would take. + +There came a low word of command “Halt!” then a moment of horsey noises +- nostrils blowing, hoofs pawing, bits being champed, necks being patted. Then a +voice spoke. + +“Attend, all of you,” it said. “We are now within a furlong of the castle. +Remember your orders. Once we are in Narnia, as we should be by sunrise, you + + + +are to kill as little as possible. On this venture you are to regard every drop of +Narnian blood as more precious than a gallon of your own. On this venture, I +say. The gods will send us a happier hour and then you must leave nothing alive +between Cair Paravel and the Western Waste. But we are not yet in Narnia. Here +in Archenland it is another thing. In the assault on this castle of King Lune’s, +nothing matters but speed. Show your mettle. It must be mine within an hour. +And if it is, I give it all to you. I reserve no booty for myself. Kill me every +barbarian male within its walls, down to the child that was born yesterday, and +everything else is yours to divide as you please - the women, the gold, the +jewels, the weapons, and the wine. The man that I see hanging back when we +come to the gates shall be burned alive. In the name of Tash the irresistible, the +inexorable forward!” + +With a great cloppitty-clop the column began to move, and Shasta breathed +again. They had taken the other road. + +Shasta thought they took a long time going past, for though he had been +talking and thinking about “two hundred horse” all day, he had not realized how +many they really were. But at last the sound died away and once more he was +alone amid the drip-drip from the trees. + +He now knew the way to Anvard but of course he could not now go there: +that would only mean running into the arms of Rabadash’s troopers. “What on +earth am I to do?” said Shasta to himself. But he remounted his horse and +continued along the road he had chosen, in the faint hope of finding some +cottage where he might ask for shelter and a meal. He had thought, of course, of +going back to Aravis and Bree and Hwin at the hermitage, but he couldn’t +because by now he had not the least idea of the direction. + +“After all,” said Shasta, “this road is bound to get to somewhere.” + +But that all depends on what you mean by somewhere. The road kept on +getting to somewhere in the sense that it got to more and more trees, all dark and +dripping, and to colder and colder air. And strange, icy winds kept blowing the +mist past him though they never blew it away. If he had been used to mountain +country he would have realized that this meant he was now very high up - +perhaps right at the top of the pass. But Shasta knew nothing about mountains. + +“I do think,” said Shasta, “that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever +lived in the whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me. Those +Narnian lords and ladies got safe away from Tashbaan; I was left behind. Aravis +and Bree and Hwin are all as snug as anything with that old Hermit: of course I +was the one who was sent on. King Lune and his people must have got safely +into the castle and shut the gates long before Rabadash arrived, but I get left +out.” + + + +And being very tired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for +himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks. + +What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that +someone or somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could +see nothing. And the Thing (or Person) was going so quietly that he could hardly +hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing. His invisible companion +seemed to breathe on a very large scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was +a very large creature. And he had come to notice this breathing so gradually that +he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock. + +It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in +these Northern countries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had +something to cry about, he stopped crying. + +The Thing (unless it was a Person) went on beside him so very quietly that +Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it. But just as he was becoming quite +sure of it, there suddenly came a deep, rich sigh out of the darkness beside him. +That couldn’t be imagination! Anyway, he had felt the hot breath of that sigh on +his chilly left hand. + +If the horse had been any good - or if he had known how to get any good out +of the horse - he would have risked everything on a breakaway and a wild +gallop. But he knew he couldn’t make that horse gallop. So he went on at a +walking pace and the unseen companion walked and breathed beside him. At last +he could bear it no longer. + +“Who are you?” he said, scarcely above a whisper. + +“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing. Its voice was +not loud, but very large and deep. + +“Are you- are you a giant?” asked Shasta. + +“You might call me a giant,” said the Large Voice. “But I am not like the +creatures you call giants.” + +“I can’t see you at all,” said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even +more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, “You’re +not - not something dead, are you? Oh please - please do go away. What harm +have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!” + +Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. +“There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.” + +Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never +known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the +fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by +lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and +about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the + + + +desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they +were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. +And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat. + +“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice. + +“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta. + +“There was only one lion,” said the Voice. + +“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the +first night, and-“ + +“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.” + +“How do you know?” + +“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the +Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the +cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove +the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new +strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And +I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a +child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, +to receive you.” + +“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?” + +“It was I” + +“But what for?” + +“Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one +any story but his own.” + +“Who are you?” asked Shasta. + +“Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and +again “Myself”, loud and clear and gay: and then the third time “Myself”, +whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all +round you as if the leaves rustled with it. + +Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would +eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of +trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too. + +The mist was turning from black to grey and from grey to white. This must +have begun to happen some time ago, but while he had been talking to the Thing +he had not been noticing anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a +shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. Somewhere ahead he could hear +birds singing. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and +ears and head of his horse quite easily now. A golden light fell on them from the +left. He thought it was the sun. + +He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The + + + +horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion +that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful. + +Luckily Shasta had lived all his life too far south in Calormen to have heard +the tales that were whispered in Tashbaan about a dreadful Narnian demon that +appeared in the form of a lion. And of course he knew none of the true stories +about Aslan, the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, the King above +all High Kings in Narnia. But after one glance at the Lion’s face he slipped out +of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn’t say anything but then he didn’t want +to say anything, and he knew he needn’t say anything. + +The High King above all kings stooped towards him. Its mane, and some +strange and solemn perfume that hung about the mane, was all round him. It +touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted his face and their eyes met. Then +instantly the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the Lion +rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and +disappeared. He was alone with the horse on a grassy hillside under a blue sky. +And there were birds singing. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +SHASTA IN NARNIA + +“WAS it all a dream?” wondered Shasta. But it couldn’t have been a dream +for there in the grass before him he saw the deep, large print of the Lion’s front +right paw. It took one’s breath away to think of the weight that could make a +footprint like that. But there was something more remarkable than the size about +it. As he looked at it, water had already filled the bottom of it. Soon it was full to +the brim, and then overflowing, and a little stream was running downhill, past +him, over the grass. + +Shasta stooped and drank - a very long drink - and then dipped his face in +and splashed his head. It was extremely cold, and clear as glass, and refreshed +him very much. After that he stood up, shaking the water out of his ears and +flinging the wet hair back from his forehead, and began to take stock of his +surroundings. + +Apparently it was still very early morning. The sun had only just risen, and it +had risen out of the forests which he saw low down and far away on his right. +The country j which he was looking at was absolutely new to him. It was t a +green valley-land dotted with trees through which he caught the gleam of a river +that wound away roughly to the North-West. On the far side of the valley there +were high and even rocky hills, but they were lower than the mountains he had +seen yesterday. Then he began to guess where he was. He turned and looked +behind him and saw that the slope on which he was standing belonged to a range +of far higher mountains. + +“I see,” said Shasta to himself. “Those are the big mountains between +Archenland and Narnia. I was on the°. other side of them yesterday. I must have +come through the pass in the night. What luck that I hit it! - at least it wasn’t luck +at all really, it was Him. And now I’m in Narnia.” + +He turned and unsaddled his horse and took off its bridle - “Though you are a +perfectly horrid horse,” he said. It took no notice of this remark and immediately +began eating grass. That horse had a very low opinion of Shasta. + +“I wish I could eat grass!” thought Shasta. “It’s no good going back to +Anvard, it’ll all be besieged. I’d better get lower down into the valley and see if I +can get anything to eat.” + +So he went on downhill (the thick dew was cruelly cold to his bare feet) till +he came into a wood. There was a kind of track running through it and he had +not followed this for many minutes when he heard a thick and rather wheezy + + + +voice saying to him. + +“Good morning, neighbour.” + +Shasta looked round eagerly to find the speaker and presently saw a small, +prickly person with a dark face who had just come out from among the trees. At +least, it was small for a person but very big indeed for a hedgehog, which was +what it was. + +“Good morning,” said Shasta. “But I’m not a neighbour. In fact I’m a +stranger in these parts.” + +“Ah?” said the Hedgehog inquiringly. + +“I’ve come over the mountains - from Archenland, you know.” + +“Ha, Archenland,” said the Hedgehog. “That’s a terrible long way. Never +been there myself.” + +“And I think, perhaps,” said Shasta, “someone ought to be told that there’s an +army of savage Calormenes attacking Anvard at this very moment.” + +“You don’t say so!” answered the Hedgehog. “Well, think of that. And they +do say that Calormen is hundreds and thousands of miles away, right at the +world’s end, across a great sea of sand.” + +“It’s not nearly as far as you think,” said Shasta. “And oughtn’t something to +be done about this attack on Anvard? Oughtn’t your High King to be told?” + +“Certain sure, something ought to be done about it,” said the Hedgehog. “But +you see I’m just on my way to bed for a good day’s sleep. Hullo, neighbour!” + +The last words were addressed to an immense biscuitcoloured rabbit whose +head had just popped up from somewhere beside the path. The Hedgehog +immediately told the Rabbit what it had just learned from Shasta. The Rabbit +agreed that this was very remarkable news and that somebody ought to tell +someone about it with a view to doing something. + +And so it went on. Every few minutes they were joined by other creatures, +some from the branches overhead and some from little underground houses at +their feet, till the party consisted of five rabbits, a squirrel, two magpies, a goat- +foot faun, and a mouse, who all talked at the same time and all agreed with the +Hedgehog. For the truth was that in that golden age when the Witch and the +Winter had gone and Peter the High King ruled at Cair Paravel, the smaller +woodland people of Narnia were so safe and happy that they were getting a little +careless. + +Presently, however, two more practical people arrived in the little wood. One +was a Red Dwarf whose name appeared to be Duffle. The other was a stag, a +beautiful lordly creature with wide liquid eyes, dappled flanks and legs so thin +and graceful that they looked as if you could break them with two fingers. + +“Lion alive!” roared the Dwarf as soon as he had heard the news. “And if + + + +that’s so, why are we all standing still, chattering? Enemies at Anvard! News +must be sent to Cair Paravel at once. The army must be called out. Narnia must +go to the aid of King Lune.” + +“Ah!” said the Hedgehog. “But you won’t find the High King at the Cair. +He’s away to the North trouncing those giants. And talking of giants, +neighbours, that puts me in mind -“ + +“Who’ll take our message?” interrupted the Dwarf. “Anyone here got more +speed than me?” + +“I’ve got speed,” said the Stag. “What’s my message? How many +Calormenes?” + +“Two hundred: under Prince Rabadash. And But the Stag was already +away - all four legs off the ground at once, and in a moment its white stern had +disappeared among the remoter trees. + +“Wonder where he’s going,” said a Rabbit. “He won’t find the High King at +Cair Paravel, you know.” + +“He’ll find Queen Lucy,” said Duffle. “And then hullo! What’s wrong with +the Human? It looks pretty green. Why, I do believe it’s quite faint. Perhaps it’s +mortal hungry. When did you last have a meal, youngster?” + +“Yesterday morning,” said Shasta weakly. + +“Come on, then, come on,” said the Dwarf, at once throwing his thick little +arms round Shasta’s waist to support him. “Why, neighbours, we ought all to be +ashamed of ourselves! You come with me, lad. Breakfast! Better than talking.” + +With a great deal’ of bustle, muttering reproaches to itself, the Dwarf half led +and half supported Shasta at a great speed further into the wood and a little +downhill. It was a longer walk than Shasta wanted at that moment and his legs +had begun to feel very shaky before they came out from the trees on to bare +hillside. There they found a little house with a smoking chimney and an open +door, and as they came to the doorway Duffle called out, + +“Hey, brothers! A visitor for breakfast.” + +And immediately, mixed with a sizzling sound, there came to Shasta a +simply delightful smell. It was one he had never smelled in his life before, but I +hope you have. It was, in fact, the smell of bacon and eggs and mushrooms all +frying in a pan. + +“Mind your head, lad,” said Duffle a moment too late, for Shasta had already +bashed his forehead against the low lintel of the door. “Now,” continued the +Dwarf, “sit you down. The table’s a bit low for you, but then the stool’s low too. +That’s right. And here’s porridge - and here’s a jug of cream - and here’s a +spoon.” + +By the time Shasta had finished his porridge, the Dwarf’s two brothers + + + +(whose names were Rogin and Bricklethumb) were putting the dish of bacon and +eggs and mushrooms, and the coffee pot and the hot milk, and the toast, on the +table. + +It was all new and wonderful to Shasta for Calormene food is quite different. +He didn’t even know what the slices of brown stuff were, for he had never seen +toast before. He didn’t know what the yellow soft thing they smeared on the +toast was, because in Calormen you nearly always get oil instead of butter. And +the house itself was quite different from the dark, frowsty, fish-smelling but of +Arsheesh and from the pillared and carpeted halls in the palaces of Tashbaan. +The roof was very low, and everything was made of wood, and there was a +cuckoo-clock and a red-and-white checked table-cloth and a bowl of wild +flowers and little curtains on the thick-paned windows. It was also rather +troublesome having to use dwarf cups and plates and knives and forks. This +meant that helpings were very small, but then there were a great many helpings, +so that Shasta’s plate or cup was being filled every moment, and every moment +the Dwarfs themselves were saying, “Butter please”, or “Another cup of coffee,” +or “I’d like a few more mushrooms,” or “What about frying another egg or so?” +And when at last they had all eaten as much as they possibly could the three +Dwarfs drew lots for who would do the washing-up, and Rogin was the unlucky +one. Then Duffle and Bricklethumb took Shasta outside to a bench which ran +against the cottage wall, and they all stretched out their legs and gave a great +sigh of contentment and the two Dwarfs lit their pipes. The dew was off the +grass now and the sun was warm; indeed, if there hadn’t been a light breeze, it +would have been too hot. + +“Now, Stranger,” said Duffle, “I’ll show you the lie of the land. You can see +nearly all South Narnia from here, and we’re rather proud of the view. Right +away on your left, beyond those near hills, you can just see the Western +Mountains. And that round hill away on your right is called the Hill of the Stone +Table. Just beyond -“ + +But at that moment he was interrupted by a snore from Shasta who, what +with his night’s journey and his excellent breakfast, had gone fast asleep. The +kindly Dwarfs, as soon as they noticed this, began making signs to each other +not to wake him, and indeed did so much whispering and nodding and getting up +and -tiptoeing away that they certainly would have waked him if he had been +less tired. + +He slept pretty well -nearly all day but woke up in time for supper. The beds +in that house were all too small for him but they made him a fine bed of heather +on the floor, and he never stirred nor dreamed all night. Next morning they had +just finished breakfast when they heard a shrill, exciting sound from outside. + + + +“Trumpets!” said all the Dwarfs, as they and Shasta all came running out. + +The trumpets sounded again: a new noise to Shasta, not huge and solemn like +the horns of Tashbaan nor gay and merry like King Lune’s hunting horn, but +clear and sharp and valiant. The noise was coming from the woods to the East, +and soon there was a noise of horse-hoofs mixed with it. A moment later the +head of the column came into sight. + +First came the Lord Peridan on a bay horse carrying the great banner of +Narnia - a red lion on a green ground. Shasta knew him at once. Then came three +people riding abreast, two on great chargers and one on a pony. The two on the +chargers were King Edmund and a fair-haired lady with a very merry face who +wore a helmet and a mail shirt and carried a bow across her shoulder and a +quiver full of arrows at her side. (’’The Queen Lucy,” whispered Duffle.) But the +one on the pony was Corin. After that came the main body of the army: men on +ordinary horses, men on Talking Horses (who didn’t mind being ridden on +proper occasions, as when Narnia went to war), centaurs, stern, hard-bitten +bears, great Talking Dogs, and last of all six giants. For there are good giants in +Narnia. But though he knew they were on the right side Shasta at first could +hardly bear to look at them; there are some things that take a lot of getting used +to. + +Just as the King and Queen reached the cottage and the Dwarfs began +making low bows to them, King Edmund called out, + +“Now, friends! Time for a halt and a morsel!” and at once there was a great +bustle of people dismounting and haversacks being opened and conversation +beginning when Corm came running up to Shasta and seized both his hands and +cried, + +“What! You here! So you got through all right? I am glad. Now we shall +have some sport. And isn’t it luck! We only got into harbour at Cair Paravel +yesterday morning and the very first person who met us was Chervy the Stag +with all this news of an attack on Anvard. Don’t you think -“ + +“Who is your Highness’s friend?” said King Edmund who had just got off his +horse. + +“Don’t you see, Sire?” said Corin. “It’s my double: the boy you mistook me +for at Tashbaan.” + +“Why, so he is your double,” exclaimed Queen Lucy. “As like as two twins. +This is a marvellous thing.” + +“Please, your Majesty,” said Shasta to King Edmund, “I was no traitor, really +I wasn’t. And I couldn’t help hearing your plans. But I’d never have dreamed of +telling them to your enemies.” + +“I know now that you were no traitor, boy,” said King Edmund, laying his + + + +hand on Shasta’s head. “But if you would not be taken for one, another time try +not to hear what’s meant for other ears. But all’s well.” + +After that there was so much bustle and talk and coming and going that +Shasta for a few minutes lost sight of Corin and Edmund and Lucy. But Corin +was the sort of boy whom one is sure to hear of pretty soon and it wasn’t very +long before Shasta heard King Edmund saying in a loud voice: + +“By the Lion’s Mane, prince, this is too much! Will your Highness never be +better? You are more of a heart’s-scald than our whole army together! I’d as lief +have a regiment of hornets in my command as you.” + +Shasta wormed his way through the crowd and there saw Edmund, looking +very angry indeed, Corin looking a little ashamed of himself, and a strange +Dwarf sitting on the ground making faces. A couple of fauns had apparently just +been helping it out of its armour. + +“If I had but my cordial with me,” Queen Lucy was saying, “I could soon +mend this. But the High King has so strictly charged me not to carry it +commonly to the wars and to keep it only for great extremities! ” + +What had happened was this. As soon as Corin had spoken to Shasta, Corin’s +elbow had been plucked by a Dwarf in the army called Thornbut. + +“What is it, Thornbut?” Corin had said. + +“Your Royal Highness,” said Thornbut, drawing him aside, “our march today +will bring us through the pass and right to your royal father’s castle. We may be +in battle before night.” + +“I know,” said Corin. “Isn’t it splendid!” + +“Splendid or not,” said Thornbut, “I have the strictest orders from King +Edmund to see to it that your Highness is not in the fight. You will be allowed to +see it, and that’s treat enough for your Highness’s little years.” + +“Oh what nonsense!” Corin burst out. “Of course I’m going to fight. Why, +the Queen Lucy’s going to be with the archers.” + +“The Queen’s grace will do as she pleases,” said Thornbut. “But you are in +my charge. Either I must have your solemn and princely word that you’ll keep +your pony beside mine - not half a neck ahead - till I give your Highness leave to +depart: or else - it is his Majesty’s word - we must go with our wrists tied +together like two prisoners.” + +“I’ll knock you down if you try to bind me,” said Corm. + +“I’d like to see your Highness do it,” said the Dwarf. + +That was quite enough for a boy like Corin and in a second he and the Dwarf +were at it hammer and tongs. It would have been an even match for, though +Corin had longer arms and more height, the Dwarf was older and tougher. But it +was never fought out (that’s the worst of fights on a rough hillside) for by very + + + +bad luck Thornbut trod on a loose stone, came flat down on his nose, and found +when he tried to get up that he had sprained his ankle: a real excruciating sprain +which would keep him from walking or riding for at least a fortnight. + +“See what your Highness has done,” said King Edmund. “Deprived us of a +proved warrior on the very edge of battle.” + +“I’ll take his place, Sire,” said Corin. + +“Pshaw,” said Edmund. “No one doubts your courage. But a boy in battle is a +danger only to his own side.” + +At that moment the King was called away to attend to something else, and +Corin, after apologizing handsomely to the Dwarf, rushed up to Shasta and +whispered, + +“Quick. There’s a spare pony now, and the Dwarf’s armour. Put it on before +anyone notices.” + +“What for?” said Shasta. + +“Why, so that you and I can fight in the battle of course! Don’t you want to?” + +“Oh - ah, yes, of course,” said Shasta. But he hadn’t been thinking of doing +so at all, and began to get a most uncomfortable prickly feeling in his spine. + +“That’s right,” said Corin. “Over your head. Now the sword-belt. But we +must ride near the tail of the column and keep as quiet as mice. Once the battle +begins everyone will be far too busy to notice us.” + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +THE FIGHT AT ANVARD + +By about eleven o’clock the whole company was once more on the march, +riding westward with the mountains on their left. Corin and Shasta rode right at +the rear with the Giants immediately in front of them. Lucy and Edmund and +Peridan were busy with their plans for the battle and though Lucy once said, +“But where is his goosecap Highness?” Edmund only replied, “Not in the front, +and that’s good news enough. Leave well alone.” + +Shasta told Corin most of his adventures and explained that he had learned +all his riding from a horse and didn’t really know how to use the reins. Corin +instructed him in this, besides telling him all about their secret sailing from +Tashbaan. + +“And where is the Queen Susan?” + +“At Cair Paravel,” said Corin. “She’s not like Lucy, you know, who’s as good +as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy. Queen Susan is more like an ordinary +grown-up lady. She doesn’t ride to the wars, though she is an excellent archer.” + +The hillside path which they were following became narrower all the time +and the drop on their right hand became steeper. At last they were going in single +file along the edge of a precipice and Shasta shuddered to think that he had done +the same last night without knowing it. “But of course,” he thought, “I was quite +safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all +the time.” + +Then the path went left and south away from the cliff and there were thick +woods on both sides of it and they went steeply up and up into the pass. There +would have been a splendid view from the top if it were open ground but among +all those trees you could see nothing - only, every now and then, some huge +pinnacle of rock above the tree-tops, and an eagle or two wheeling high up in the +blue air. + +“They smell battle,” said Corin, pointing at the birds. “They know we’re +preparing a feed for them.” + +Shasta didn’t like this at all. + +When they had crossed the neck of the pass and come a good deal lower they +reached more open ground and from here Shasta could see all Archenland, blue +and hazy, spread out below him and even (he thought) a hint of the desert +beyond it. But the sun, which had perhaps two hours or so to go before it set, +was in his eyes and he couldn’t make things out distinctly. + + + +Here the army halted and spread out in a line, and there was a great deal of +rearranging. A whole detachment of very dangerous-looking Talking Beasts +whom Shasta had not noticed before and who were mostly of the cat kind +(leopards, panthers, and the like) went padding and growling to take up their +positions on the left. The giants were ordered to the right, and before going there +they all took off something they had been carrying on their backs and sat down +for a moment. Then Shasta saw that what they had been carrying and were now +putting on were pairs of boots: horrid, heavy, spiked boots which came up to +their knees. Then they sloped their huge clubs over their shoulders and marched +to their battle position. The archers, with Queen Lucy, fell to the rear and you +could first see them bending their bows and then hear the twangtwang as they +tested the strings. And wherever you looked you could see people tightening +girths, putting on helmets, drawing swords, and throwing cloaks to the ground. +There was hardly any talking now. It was very solemn and very dreadful. “I’m in +for it now -1 really am in for it now,” thought Shasta. Then there came noises far +ahead: the sound of many men shouting and a steady thud-thud-thud + +“Battering ram,” whispered Corin. “They’re battering the gate.” + +Even Corin looked quite serious now. + +“Why doesn’t King Edmund get on?” he said. “I can’ stand this waiting +about. Chilly too.” + +Shasta nodded: hoping he didn’t look as frightened as felt. + +The trumpet at last! On the move now - now trotting the banner streaming +out in the wind. They had topped low ridge now, and below them the whole +scene sudden opened out; a little, many-towered castle with its gate towards +them. No moat, unfortunately, but of course the gate shut and the portcullis +down. On the walls they could see, like little white dots, the faces of the +defenders. Down below, about fifty of the Calormenes, dismounted, were +steadily swinging a great tree trunk against the gate. But at once the scene +changed. The main bulk of Rabadash’s men had been on foot ready to assault the +gate. But now he had seen the Narnians sweeping down from the ridge. There is +no doubt those Calormenes are wonderfully trained. It seemed to Shasta only a +second before a whole line of the enemy were on horseback again, wheeling +round to meet them, swinging towards them. + +And now a gallop. The ground between the two armies grew less every +moment. Faster, faster. All swords out now, all shields up to the nose, all prayers +said, all teeth clenched. Shasta was dreadfully frightened. But it suddenly came +into his head, “If you funk this, you’ll funk every battle all your life. Now or +never.” + +But when at last the two lines met he had really very littler idea of what + + + +happened. There was a frightful confusion'; and an appalling noise. His sword +was knocked clean out of his hand pretty soon. And he’d got the reins tangled +somehow. Then he found himself slipping. Then a spear came straight at him and +as he ducked to avoid it he rolled right off his horse, bashed his left knuckles +terribly against someone else’s armour, and then - But it is no use trying to +describe the battle from Shasta’s point of view; he understood too little of the +fight in general and even of his own part in it. The best way I can tell you what +really happened is to take you some miles away to where the Hermit of the +Southern March sat gazing into the smooth pool beneath the spreading tree, with +Bree and Hwin and Aravis beside him. + +For it was in this pool that the Hermit looked when he wanted to know what +was going on in the world outside the green walls of his hermitage. There, as in a +mirror, he could see, at certain times, what was going on in the streets of cities +far farther south than Tashbaan, or what ships were putting into Redhaven in the +remote Seven Isles, or what robbers or wild beasts stirred in the great Western +forests between Lantern Waste and Telmar. And all this day he had hardly left +his pool, even to eat or drink, for he knew that great events were on foot in +Archenland. Aravis and the Horses gazed into it too. They could see it was a +magic pool: instead of reflecting the tree and the sky it revealed cloudy and +coloured shapes moving, always moving, in its depths. But they could see +nothing clearly. The Hermit could and from time to time he told them what he +saw. A little while before Shasta rode into his first battle, the Hermit had begun +speaking like this: + +“I see one - two - three eagles wheeling in the gap by Stormness Head. One +is the oldest of all the eagles. He would not be out unless battle was at hand. I +see him wheel to and fro, peering down sometimes at Anvard and sometimes to +the east, behind Stormness. Ah - I see now what Rabadash and his men have +been so busy at all day. They have felled and lopped a great tree and they are +now coming out of the woods carrying it as a ram. They have learned something +from the failure of last night’s assult. He would have been wiser if he had set his +men to making ladders: but it takes too long and he is impatient. Fool that he is! +He ought to have ridden back to Tashbaan as soon as the first attack failed, for +his whole plan depended on speed and surprise. Now they are bringing their ram +into position. King Lune’s men are shooting hard from the walls. Five +Calormenes have fallen: but not many will. They have their shields above their +heads. Rabadash is giving his orders now. With him are his most trusted lords, +fierce Tarkaans from the eastern provinces. I can see their faces. There is +Corradin of Castle Tormunt, and Azrooh, and Chlamash, and Ilgamuth of the +twisted lip, and a tall Tarkaan with a crimson beard + + + +“By the Mane, my old master Anradin!” said Bree. + +“S-s-sly” said Aravis. + +“Now the ram has started. If I could hear as well as see, what a noise that +would make! Stroke after stroke: and no gate can stand it for ever. But wait! +Something up by Stormness has scared the birds. They’re coming out in masses. +And wait again ... I can’t see yet. . . ah! Now I can. The whole ridge, up on the +east, is black with horsemen. If only the wind would catch that standard and +spread it out. They’re over the ridge now, whoever they are. Aha! I’ve seen the +banner now. Narnia, Narnia! It’s the red lion. They’re in full career down the hill +now. I can see King Edmund. There’s a woman behind among the archers. Oh! + +“What is it?” asked Hwin breathlessly. + +“All his Cats are dashing out from the left of the line.” + +“Cats?” said Aravis. + +“Great cats, leopards and such,” said the Hermit impatiently. “I see, I see. +The Cats are coming round in a circle to get at the horses of the dismounted +men. A good stroke. The Calormene horses are mad with terror already. Now the +Cats are in among them. But Rabadash has reformed his line and has a hundred +men in the saddle. They’re riding to meet the Narnians. There’s only a hundred +yards between the two lines now. Only fifty. I can see King Edmund, I can see +the Lord Peridan. There are two mere children in the Narnian line. What can the +King be about to let them into battle? Only ten yards - the lines have met. The +Giants on the Narnian right are doing wonders . . . but one’s down . . . shot +through the eye, I suppose. The centre’s all in a muddle. I can see more on the +left. There are the two boys again. Lion alive! one is Prince Corm. The other, +like him as two peas. It’s your little Shasta. Corm is fighting like a man. He’s +killed a Calormene. I 'can see a bit of the centre now. Rabadash and Edmund +almost met then, but the press has separated them -“ + +“What about Shasta?” said Aravis. + +“Oh the fool!” groaned the Hermit. “Poor, brave little fool. He knows +nothing about this work. He’s making no use at all of his shield. His whole side’s +exposed. He hasn’t the faintest idea what to do with his sword. Oh, he’s +remembered it now. He’s waving it wildly about . . . nearly cut his own pony’s +head off, and he will in a moment if he’s not careful. It’s been knocked out of his +hand now. It’s mere murder sending a child into the battle; he can’t live five +minutes. Duck you fool - oh, he’s down.” + +“Killed?” asked three voices breathlessly. + +“How can I tell?” said the Hermit. “The Cats have done their work. All the +riderless horses are dead or escaped now: no retreat for the Calormenes on them. + + + +Now the Cats are turning back into the main battle. They’re leaping on the rams- +men. The ram is down. Oh, good! good! The gates are opening from the inside: +there’s going to be a sortie. The first three are out. It’s King Lune in the middle: +the brothers Dar and Darrin on each side of him. Behind them are Tran and Shar +and Cole with his brother Colin. There are ten - twenty - nearly thirty of them +out by now. The Calormen line is being forced back upon them. King Edmund is +dealing marvellous strokes. He’s just slashed Corradin’s head off. Lots of +Calormenes have thrown down their arms and are running for the woods. Those +that remain are hard pressed. The Giants are closing in on the right - Cats on the +left - King Lune from their rear. The Calormenes are a little knot now, fighting +back to back. Your Tarkaan’s down, Bree. Lune and Azrooh are fighting hand to +hand; the King looks like winning - the King is keeping it up well - the King has +won. Azrooh’s down. King Edmund’s down - no, he’s up again: he’s at it with +Rabadash. They’re fighting in the very gate of the castle. Several Calormenes +have surrendered. Darrin has killed Ilgamuth. I can’t see what’s happened to +Rabadash. I think he’s dead, leaning against the castle wall, but I don’t know. +Chlamash and King Edmund are still fighting but the battle is over everywhere +else. Chlamash has surrendered. The battle is over. The Calormenes are utterly +defeated.” + +When Shasta fell off his horse he gave himself up for lost. But horses, even +in battle, tread on human beings very much less than you would suppose. After a +very horrible ten minutes or so Shasta realized suddenly that there were no +longer any horses stamping about in the immediate neighbourhood and that the +noise (for there were still a good many noises going on) was no longer that of a +battle. He sat up and stared about him. Even he, little as he knew of battles, +could soon see that the Archenlanders and Narnians had won. The only living +Calormenes he could see were prisoners, the castle gates were wide open, and +King Lune and King Edmund were shaking hands across the battering ram. +From the circle of lords and warriors around them there arose a sound of +breathless and excited, but obviously cheerful conversation. And then, suddenly, +it all united and swelled into a great roar of laughter. + +Shasta, picked himself up, feeling uncommonly stiff, and ran towards the +sound to see what the joke was. A very curious sight met his eyes. The +unfortunate Rabadash appeared to be suspended from the castle walls. His feet, +which were about two feet from the ground, were kicking wildly. His chain-shirt +was somehow hitched up so that it was horribly tight under the arms and came +half way over his face. In fact he looked just as a man looks if you catch him in +the very act of getting into a stiff shirt that is a little too small for him. As far as +could be made out afterwards (and you may be sure the story was well talked + + + +over for many a day) what happened was something like this. Early in the battle +one of the Giants had made an unsuccessful stamp at Rabadash with his spiked +boot: unsuccessful because it didn’t crush Rabadash, which was what the Giant +had intended, but not quite useless because one of the spikes tore the chain mail, +just as you or I might tear an ordinary shirt. So Rabadash, by the time he +encountered Edmund at the gate, had a hole in the back of his hauberk. And +when Edmund pressed him back nearer and nearer to the wall, he jumped up on +a mounting block and stood there raining down blows on Edmund from above. +But then, finding that this position, by raising him above the heads of everyone +else, made him a mark for every arrow from the Narnian bows, he decided to +jump down again. And he meant to look and sound - no doubt for a moment he +did look and sound - very grand and very dreadful as he jumped, crying, “The +bolt of Tash falls from above.” But he had to jump sideways because the crowd +in front of him left him no landing place in that direction. And then, in the +neatest way you could wish, the tear in the back of his hauberk caught on a hook +in the wall. (Ages ago this hook had had a ring in it for tying horses to.) And +there he found himself, like a piece of washing hung up to dry, with everyone +laughing at him. + +“Let me down, Edmund,” howled Rabadash. “Let me down and fight me like +a king and a man; or if you are too great a coward to do that, kill me at once.” + +“Certainly,” began King Edmund, but King Lune interrupted. + +“By your Majesty’s good leave,” said King Lune to Edmund. “Not so.” Then +turning to Rabadash he said, “Your royal Highness, if you had given that +challenge a week ago, I’ll answer for it there was no one in King Edmund’s +dominion, from the High King down to the smallest Talking Mouse, who would +have refused it. But by attacking our castle of Anvard in time of peace without +defiance sent, you have proved yourself no knight, but a traitor, and one rather to +be whipped by the hangman than to be suffered to cross swords with any person +of honour. Take him down, bind him, and carry him within till our pleasure is +further known.” + +Strong hands wrenched Rabadash’s sword from him and he was carried away +into the castle, shouting, threatening, cursing, and even crying. For though he +could have faced torture he couldn’t bear being made ridiculous. In Tashbaan +everyone had always taken him seriously. + +At that moment Corin ran up to Shasta, seized his hand and started dragging +him towards King Lune. “Here he is, Father, here he is,” cried Corin. + +“Aye, and here thou art, at last,” said the King in a very gruff voice. “And +bast been in the battle, clean contrary to your obedience. A boy to break a +father’s heart! At your age a rod to your breech were fitter than a sword in your + + + +fist, ha!” But everyone, including Corin, could see that the King was very proud +of him. + +“Chide him no more, Sire, if it please you,” said Lord Darrin. “His Highness +would not be your son if he did not inherit your conditions. It would grieve your +Majesty more if he had to be reproved for the opposite fault.” + +“Well, well,” grumbled the King. “We’ll pass it over for this time. And now + +55 C + +What came next surprised Shasta as much as anything that had ever +happened to him in his life. He found himself suddenly embraced inn bear-like +hug by King Lune and kissed on both cheeks. Then the King set him down again +and said, “Stand here together, boys, and let all the court see you. Hold up your +heads. Now, gentlemen, look on them both. Has any man any doubts?” + +And still Shasta could not understand why everyone stared at him and at +Corin nor what all the cheering was about. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +HOW BREE BECAME A WISER HORSE + +WE must now return to Aravis and the Horses. The Hermit, watching his +pool, was able to tell them that Shasta was not killed or even seriously wounded, +for he saw him get up and saw how affectionately he was greeted by King Lune. +But as he could only see, not hear, he did not know what anyone was saying and, +once the fighting had stopped and the talking had begun, it was not worth while +looking in the pool any longer. + +Next morning, while the Hermit was indoors, the three of them discussed +what they should do next. + +“Eve had enough of this,” said Hwin. “The Hermit has been very good to us +and I’m very much obliged to him I’m sure. But I’m getting as fat as a pet pony, +eating all day and getting no exercise. Let’s go on to Narnia.” + +“Oh not today, Ma’am,” said Bree. “I wouldn’t hurry things. Some other day, +don’t you think?” + +“We must see Shasta first and say good-bye to him - and - and apologize,” +said Aravis. + +“Exactly!” said Bree with great enthusiasm. “Just what I was going to say.” + +“Oh, of course,” said Hwin. “I expect he is in Anvard. Naturally we’d look in +on him and say good-bye. But that’s on our way. And why shouldn’t we start at +once? After all, I thought it was Narnia we all wanted to get to?” + +“I suppose so,” said Aravis. She was beginning to wonder what exactly she +would do when she got there and was feeling a little lonely. + +“Of course, of course,” said Bree hastily. “But there’s no need to rush things, +if you know what I mean.” + +“No, I don’t know what you mean,” said Hwin. “Why don’t you want to +go?” + +“M-m-m, broo-hoo,” muttered Bree. “Well, don’t you see, Ma’am - it’s an +important occasion - returning to one’s country - entering society - the best +society - it is so essential to make a good impression - not perhaps looking quite +ourselves, yet, eh?” + +Hwin broke out into a horse-laugh. “It’s your tail, Bree! I see it all now. You +want to wait till your tail’s grown again! And we don’t even know if tails are +worn long in Narnia. Really, Bree, you’re as vain as that Tarkheena in +Tashbaan!” + +“You are silly, Bree,” said Aravis. + + + +“By the Lion’s Mane, Tarkheena, I’m nothing of the sort,” said Bree +indignantly. “I have a proper respect for myself and for my fellow horses, that’s +all.” + +“Bree,” said Aravis, who was not very interested in the cut of his tail, “I’ve +been wanting to ask you something for a long time. Why do you keep on +swearing By the Lion and By the Lion’s Mane? I thought you hated lions.” + +“So I do,” answered Bree. “But when I speak of the Lion of course I mean +Aslan, the great deliverer of Narnia who drove away the Witch and the Winter. +All Narnians swear by him.” + +“But is he a lion?” + +“No, no, of course not,” said Bree in a rather shocked voice. + +“All the stories about him in Tashbaan say he is,” replied Aravis. “And if he +isn’t a lion why do you call him a lion?” + +“Well, you’d hardly understand that at your age,” said Bree. “And I was only +a little foal when I left so I don’t quite fully understand it myself.” + +(Bree was standing with his back to the green wall while he said this, and the +other two were facing him. He was talking in rather a superior tone with his eyes +half shut; that was why he didn’t see the changed expression in the faces of +Hwin and Aravis. They had good reason to have open mouths and staring eyes; +because while Bree spoke they saw an enormous lion leap up from outside and +balance itself on the top of the green wall; only it was a brighter yellow and it +was bigger and more beautiful and more alarming than any lion they had ever +seen. And at once it jumped down inside the wall and began approaching Bree +from behind. It made no noise at all. And Hwin and Aravis couldn’t make any +noise themselves, no more than if they were frozen.) + +“No doubt,” continued Bree, “when they speak of him as a Lion they only +mean he’s as strong as a lion or (to our enemies, of course) as fierce as a lion. Or +something of that kind. Even a little girl like you, Aravis, must see that it would +be quite absurd to suppose he is a real lion. Indeed it would be disrespectful. If +he was a lion he’d have to be a Beast just like the rest of us. Why!” (and here +Bree began to laugh) “If he was a lion he’d have four paws, and a tail, and +Whiskers! . . . Aie, ooh, hoo-hoo! Help!” + +For just as he said the word Whiskers one of Aslan’s had actually tickled his +ear. Bree shot away like an arrow to the other side of the enclosure and there +turned; the wall was too high for him to jump and he could fly no farther. Aravis +and Hwin both started back. There was about a second of intense silence. + +Then Hwin, though shaking all over, gave a strange little neigh, and trotted +across to the Lion. + +“Please,” she said, “you’re so beautiful. You may eat me if you like. I’d + + + +sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else.” + +“Dearest daughter,” said Aslan, planting a lion’s kiss on her twitching, velvet +nose, “I knew you would not be long in coming to me. Joy shall be yours.” + +Then he lifted his head and spoke in a louder voice. + +“Now, Bree,” he said, “you poor, proud frightened Horse, draw near. Nearer +still, my son. Do not dare not to dare. Touch me. Smell me. Here are my paws, +here is my tail, these are my whiskers. I am a true Beast.” + +“Aslan,” said Bree in a shaken voice, “I’m afraid I must be rather a fool.” + +“Happy the Horse who knows that while he is still young. Or the Human +either. Draw near, Aravis my daughter. See! My paws are velveted. You will not +be torn this time.” + +“This time, sir?” said Aravis. + +“It was I who wounded you,” said Aslan. “I am the only lion you met in all +your journeyings. Do you know why I tore you?” + +“No, sir.” + +“The scratches on your back, tear for tear, throb for throb, blood for blood, +were equal to the stripes laid on the back of your stepmother’s slave because of +the drugged sleep you cast upon her. You needed to know what it felt like.” + +“Yes, sir. Please-“ + +“Ask on, my dear,” said Aslan. + +“Will any more harm come to her by what I did?” + +“Child,” said the Lion, “I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told +any story but their own.” Then he shook his head and spoke in a lighter voice. + +“Be merry, little ones,” he said. “We shah meet soon again. But before that +you will have another visitor.” Then in one bound he reached the top of the wall +and vanished from their sight. + +Strange to say, they felt no inclination to talk to one another about him after +he had gone. They ah moved slowly away to different parts of the quiet grass +and there paced to and fro, each alone, thinking. + +About half an hour later the two Horses were summoned to the back of the +house to eat something nice that the Hermit had got ready for them and Aravis, +still walking and thinking, was startled by the harsh sound of a trumpet outside +the gate. + +“Who is there?” asked Aravis. + +“His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Archenland,” said a voice from outside. + +Aravis undid the door and opened it, drawing back a little way to let the +strangers in. + +Two soldiers with halberds came first and took their stand at each side of the +entry. Then followed a herald, and the trumpeter. + + + +“His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Archenland desires an audience of the +Lady Aravis,” said the Herald. Then he and the trumpeter drew aside and bowed +and the soldiers saluted and the Prince himself came in. All his attendants +withdrew and closed the gate behind them. + +The Prince bowed, and a very clumsy bow for a Prince it was. Aravis +curtsied in the Calormene style (which is not at all like ours) and did it very well +because, of course, she had been taught how. Then she looked up and saw what +sort of person this Prince was. + +She saw a mere boy. He was bare-headed and his fair hair was encircled with +a very thin band of gold, hardly thicker than a wire. His upper tunic was of white +cambric, as fine as a handkerchief, so that the bright red tunic beneath it showed +through. His left hand, which rested on his enamelled sword hilt, was bandaged. + +Aravis looked twice at his face before she gasped and said, “Why! It’s +Shasta!” + +Shasta all at once turned very red and began speaking very quickly. “Look +here, Aravis,” he said, “I do hope you won’t think I’m got up like this (and the +trumpeter and all) to try to impress you or make out that I’m different or any rot +of that sort. Because I’d far rather have come in my old clothes, but they’re burnt +now, and my father said -“ + +“Your father?” said Aravis. + +“Apparently King Lune is my father,” said Shasta. “I might really have +guessed it. Corin being so like me. We were twins, you see. Oh, and my name +isn’t Shasta, it’s Cor.” + +“Cor is a nicer name than Shasta,” said Aravis. + +“Brothers’ names run like that in Archenland,” said Shasta (or Prince Cor as +we must now call him). “Like Dar and Darrin, Cole and Colin and so on.” + +“Shasta -1 mean Cor,” said Aravis. “No, shut up. There’s something I’ve got +to say at once. I’m sorry I’ve been such a pig. But I did change before I knew +you were a Prince, honestly I did: when you went back, and faced the Lion.” + +“It wasn’t really going to kill you at all, that Lion,” said Cor. + +“I know,” said Aravis, nodding. Both were still and solemn for a moment as +each saw that the other knew about Aslan. + +Suddenly Aravis remembered Cor’s bandaged hand. “I say!” she cried, “I +forgot! You’ve been in a battle. Is that a wound?” + +“A mere scratch,” said Cor, using for the first time a rather lordly tone. But a +moment later he burst out laughing and said, “If you want to know the truth, it +isn’t a proper wound at all. I only took the skin off my knuckles just as any +clumsy fool might do without going near a battle.” + +“Still you were in the battle,” said Aravis. “It must have been wonderful.” + + + +“It wasn’t at all like what I thought,” said Cor. + +“But Sha - Cor, I mean - you haven’t told me anything yet about King Lune +and how he found out who you were.” + +“Well, let’s sit down,” said Cor. “For it’s rather a long story. And by the way, +Father’s an absolute brick. I’d be just as pleased - or very nearly - at finding he’s +my father even if he wasn’t a king. Even though Education and all sorts of +horrible things are going to happen to me. But you want the story. Well, Corin +and I were twins. And about a week after we were both born, apparently, they +took us to a wise old Centaur in Narnia to be blessed or something. Now this +Centaur was a prophet as a good many Centaurs are. Perhaps you haven’t seen +any Centaurs yet? There were some in the battle yesterday. Most remarkable +people, but I can’t say I feel quite at home with them yet. I say, Aravis, there are +going to be a lot of things to get used to in these Northern countries.” + +“Yes, there are,” said Aravis. “But get on with the story.” + +“Well, as soon as he saw Corin and me, it seems this Centaur looked at me +and said, A day will come when that boy will save Archenland from the +deadliest danger in which ever she lay. So of course my Father and Mother were +very pleased. But there was someone present who wasn’t. This was a chap called +the Lord Bar who had been Father’s Lord Chancellor. And apparently he’d done +something wrong - bezzling or some word like that -1 didn’t understand that part +very well - and Father had had to dismiss him. But nothing else was done to him +and he was allowed to go on living in Archenland. But he must have been as bad +as he could be, for it came out afterwards he had been in the pay of the Tisroc +and had sent a lot of secret information to Tashbaan. So as soon as he heard I +was going to save Archenland from a great danger he decided I must be put out +of the way. Well, he succeeded in kidnapping me (I don’t exactly know how) and +rode away down the Winding Arrow to the coast. He’d had everything prepared +and there was a ship manned with his own followers lying ready for him and he +put out to sea with me on board. But Father got wind of it, though not quite in +time, and was after him as quickly as he could. The Lord Bar was already at sea +when Father reached the coast, but not out of sight. And Father was embarked in +one of his own warships within twenty minutes. + +“It must have been a wonderful chase. They were six days following Bar’s +galleon and brought her to battle on the seventh. It was a great sea-fight (I heard +a lot about it yesterday evening) from ten o’clock in the morning till sunset. Our +people took the ship in the end. But I wasn’t there. The Lord Bar himself had +been killed in the battle. But one of his men said that, early that morning, as soon +as he saw he was certain to be overhauled, Bar had given me to one of his +knights and sent us both away in the ship’s boat. And that boat was never seen + + + +again. But of course that was the same boat that Aslan (he seems to be at the +back of all the stories) pushed ashore at the right place for Arsheesh to pick me +up. I wish I knew that knight’s name, for he must have kept me alive and starved +himself to do it.” + +“I suppose Aslan would say that was part of someone else’s story,” said +Aravis. + +“I was forgetting that,” said Cor. + +“And I wonder how the prophecy will work out,” said Aravis, “and what the +great danger is that you’re to save Archenland from.” + +“Well,” said Cor rather awkwardly, “they seem to think I’ve done it already.” + +Aravis clapped her hands. “Why, of course!” she said. “How stupid I am. +And how wonderful! Archenland can never be in much greater danger than it +was when Rabadash had crossed the Arrow with his two hundred horse and you +hadn’t yet got through with your message. Don’t you feel proud?” + +“I think I feel a bit scared,” said Cor. + +“And you’ll be living at Anvard now,” said Aravis rather wistfully. + +“Oh!” said Cor, “I’d nearly forgotten what I came about. Father wants you to +come and live with us. He says there’s been no lady in the court (they call it the +court, I don’t know why) since Mother died. Do, Aravis. You’ll like Father - and +Corin. They’re not like me; they’ve been properly brought up. You needn’t be +afraid that -“ + +“Oh stop it,” said Aravis, “or we’ll have a real fight. Of course I’ll come.” + +“Now let’s go and see the Horses,” said Cor. + +There was a great and joyous meeting between Bree and Cor, and Bree, who +was still in a rather subdued frame of mind, agreed to set out for Anvard at once: +he and Hwin would cross into Narnia on the following day. All four bade an +affectionate farewell to the Hermit and promised that they would soon visit him +again. By about the middle of the morning they were on their way. The Horses +had expected that Aravis and Cor would ride, but Cor explained that except in +war, where everyone must do what he can do best, no one in Narnia or +Archenland ever dreamed of mounting a Talking Horse. + +This reminded poor Bree again of how little he knew about Narnian customs +and what dreadful mistakes he might make. So while Hwin strolled along in a +happy dream, Bree got more nervous and more self-conscious with every step he +took. + +“Buck up, Bree,” said Cor. “It’s far worse for me than for you. You aren’t +going to be educated. I shall be learning reading and writing and heraldry and +dancing and history and music while you’ll be galloping and rolling on the hills +of Narnia to your heart’s content.” + + + +“But that’s just the point,” groaned Bree. “Do Talking Horses roll? +Supposing they don’t? I can’t bear to give it up. What do you think, Hwin?” + +“I’m going to roll anyway,” said Hwin. “I don’t suppose any of them will +care two lumps of sugar whether you roll or not.” + +“Are we near that castle?” said Bree to Cor. + +“Round the next bend,” said the Prince. + +“Well,” said Bree, “I’m going to have a good one now: it may be the last. +Wait for me a minute.” + +It was five minutes before he rose again, blowing hard and covered with bits +of bracken. + +“Now I’m ready,” he said in a voice of profound gloom. “Lead on, Prince +Cor, Narnia and the North.” + +But he looked more like a horse going to a funeral than a long-lost captive +returning to home and freedom. + + + +Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +RABADASH THE RIDICULOUS + +THE next turn of the road- brought them out from among the trees and there, +across green lawns, sheltered from the north wind by the high wooded ridge at +its back, they saw the castle of Anvard. It was very old and built of a warm, +reddish-brown stone. + +Before they had reached the gate King Lune came out to meet them, not +looking at all like Aravis’s idea of a king and wearing the oldest of old clothes; +for he had just come from making a round of the kennels with his Huntsman and +had only stopped for a moment to wash his doggy hands. But the bow with +which he greeted Aravis as he took her hand would have been stately enough for +an Emperor. + +“Little lady,” he said, “we bid you very heartily welcome. If my dear wife +were still alive we could make you better cheer but could not do it with a better +will. And I am sorry that you have had misfortunes and been driven from your +father’s house, which cannot but be a grief to you. My son Cor has told me about +your adventures together and all your valour.” + +“It was he who did all that, Sir,” said Aravis. “Why, he rushed at a lion to +save me.” + +“Eh, what’s that?” said King Lune, his face brightening. “I haven’t heard that +part of the story.” + +Then Aravis told it. And Cor, who had very much wanted the story to be +known, though he felt he couldn’t tell it himself, didn’t enjoy it so much as he +had expected, and indeed felt rather foolish. But his father enjoyed it very much +indeed and in the course of the next few weeks told it to so many people that Cor +wished it had never happened. + +Then the King turned to Hwin and Bree and was just as polite to them as to +Aravis, and asked them a lot of questions about their families and where they +had lived in Narnia before they had been captured. The Horses were rather +tongue-tied for they weren’t yet used to being talked to as equals by Humans +grown-up Humans, that is. They didn’t mind Aravis and Cor. + +Presently Queen Lucy came out from the castle and joined them and King +Lune said to Aravis, “My dear, here is a loving friend of our house, and she has +been seeing that your apartments are put to rights for you better than I could +have done it.” + +“You’d like to come and see them, wouldn’t you?” said Lucy, kissing Aravis. + + + +They liked each other at once and soon went away together to talk about +Aravis’s bedroom and Aravis’s boudoir and about getting clothes for her, and all +the sort of things girls do talk about on such an occasion. + +After lunch, which they had on the terrace (it was cold birds and cold game +pie and wine and bread and cheese), King Lune ruffled up his brow and heaved a +sigh and said, “Heigh-ho! We have still that sorry creature Rabadash on our +hands, my friends, and must needs resolve what to do with him.” + +Lucy was sitting on the King’s right and Aravis on his left. King Edmund sat +at one end of the table and the Lord Darrin faced him at the other. Dar and +Peridan and Cor and Corin were on the same side as the King. + +“Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head,” said +Peridan. “Such an assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins.” + +“It is very true,” said Edmund. “But even a traitor may mend. I have known +one that did.” And he looked very thoughtful. + +“To kill this Rabadash would go near to raising war with the Tisroc,” said +Darrin. + +“A fig for the Tisroc,” said King Lune. “His strength is in numbers and +numbers will never cross the desert. But I have no stomach for killing men (even +traitors) in cold blood. To have cut his throat in the battle would have eased my +heart mightily, but this is a different thing.” + +“By my counsel,” said Lucy, “your Majesty shall give him another trial. Let +him go free on strait promise of fair dealing in the future. It may be that he will +keep his word.” + +“Maybe Apes will grow honest, Sister,” said Edmund. “But, by the Lion, if +he breaks it again, may it be in such time and place that any of us could swap off +his head in clean battle.” + +“It shall be tried,” said the King: and then to one of the attendants, “Send for +the prisoner, friend.” + +Rabadash was brought before them in chains. To look at him anyone would +have supposed that he had passed the night in a noisome dungeon without food +or water; but in reality he had been shut up in quite a comfortable room and +provided with an excellent supper. But as he was sulking far too furiously to +touch the supper and had spent the whole night stamping and roaring and +cursing, he naturally did not now look his best. + +“Your royal Highness needs not to be told,” said King Lune, “that by the law +of nations as well as by all reasons of prudent policy, we have as good right to +your head as ever one mortal man had against another. Nevertheless, in +consideration of your youth and the ill nurture, devoid of all gentilesse and +courtesy, which you have doubtless had in the land of slaves and tyrants, we are + + + +disposed to set you free, unharmed, on these conditions: first, that-“ + +“Curse you for a barbarian dog!” spluttered Rabadash. “Do you think I will +even hear your conditions? Faugh! You talk very largely of nurture and I know +not what. It’s easy, to a man in chains, ha! Take off these vile bonds, give me a +sword, and let any of you who dares then debate with me.” + +Nearly all the lords sprang to their feet, and Corin shouted: + +“Father! Can I box him? Please.” + +“Peace! Your Majesties! My Lords!” said King Lune. “Have we no more +gravity among us than to be so chafed by the taunt of a pajock? Sit down, Corin, +or shaft leave the table. I ask your Highness again, to hear our conditions.” + +“I hear no conditions from barbarians and sorcerers,” said Rabadash. “Not +one of you dare touch a hair of my head. Every insult you have heaped on me +shall be paid with oceans of Narnian and Archenlandish blood. Terrible shall the +vengeance of the Tisroc be: even now. But kill me, and the burnings and +torturings in these northern lands shall become a tale to frighten the world a +thousand years hence. Beware! Beware! Beware! The bolt of Tash falls from +above!” + +“Does it ever get caught on a hook half-way?” asked Corin. + +“Shame, Corin,” said the King. “Never taunt a man save when he is stronger +than you: then, as you please.” + +“Oh you foolish Rabadash,” sighed Lucy. + +Next moment Cor wondered why everyone at the table had risen and was +standing perfectly still. Of course he did the same himself. And then he saw the +reason. Aslan was among them though no one had seen him coming. Rabadash +started as the immense shape of the Lion paced softly in between him and his +accusers. + +“Rabadash,” said Aslan. “Take heed. Your doom is very near, but you may +still avoid it. Forget your pride (what have you to be proud of?) and your anger +(who has done you wrong?) and accept the mercy of these good kings.” + +Then Rabadash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth into a horrible, long +mirthless grin like a shark, and wagged his ears up and down (anyone can learn +how to do this if they take the trouble). He had always found this very effective +in Calormen. The bravest had trembled when he made these faces, and ordinary +people had fallen to the floor, and sensitive people had often fainted. But what +Rabadash hadn’t realized is that it is very easy to frighten people who know you +can have them boiled alive the moment you give the word. The grimaces didn’t +look at all alarming in Archenland; indeed Lucy only thought Rabadash was +going to be sick. + +“Demon! Demon! Demon!” shrieked the Prince. “I know you. You are the + + + +foul fiend of Narnia. You are the enemy of the gods. Learn who I am, horrible +phantasm. I am descended from Tash, the inexorable, the irresistible, the curse of +Tash is upon you. Lightning in the shape of scorpions shall be rained on you. +The mountains of Narnia shall be ground into dust. The-“ + +“Have a care, Rabadash,” said Aslan quietly. “The doom is nearer now: it is +at the door: it has lifted the latch.” + +“Let the skies fall,” shrieked Rabadash. “Let the earth gape! Let blood and +fire obliterate the world! But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my +palace by her hair the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the -“ + +“The hour has struck,” said Aslan: and Rabadash saw, to his supreme horror, +that everyone had begun to laugh. + +They couldn’t help it. Rabadash had been wagging his ears all the time and +as soon as Aslan said, “The hour has struck!” the ears began to change. They +grew longer and more pointed and soon were covered with grey hair. And while +everyone was wondering where they had seen ears like that before, Rabadash’s +face began to change too. It grew longer, and thicker at the top and larger eyed, +and the nose sank back into the face (or else the face swelled out and became all +nose) and there was hair all over it. And his arms grew longer and came down in +front of him till his hands were resting on the ground: only they weren’t hands, +now, they were hoofs. And he was standing on all fours, and his clothes +disappeared, and everyone laughed louder and louder (because they couldn’t +help it) for now what had been Rabadash was, simply and unmistakably, a +donkey. The terrible thing was that his human speech lasted just a moment +longer than his human shape, so that when he realized the change that was +coming over him, he screamed out: + +“Oh, not a Donkey! Mercy! If it were even a horse - e’en - a hor - eeh - auh, +eeh-auh.” And so the words died away into a donkey’s bray. + +“Now hear me, Rabadash,” said Aslan. “Justice shall be mixed with mercy. +You shall not always be an Ass.” + +At this of course the Donkey twitched its ears forward and that also was so +funny that everybody laughed all the more. They tried not to, but they tried in +vain. + +“You have appealed to Tash,” said Aslan. “And in the temple of Tash you +shall be healed. You must stand before the altar of Tash in Tashbaan at the great +Autumn Feast this year and there, in the sight of all Tashbaan, your ass’s shape +will fall from you and all men will know you for Prince Rabadash. But as long +as you live, if ever you go more than ten miles away from the great temple in +Tashbaan you shall instantly become again as you now are. And from that +second change there will be no return.” + + + +There was a short silence and then they all stirred and looked at one another +as if they were waking from sleep. Aslan was gone. But there was a brightness in +the air and on the grass, and a joy in their hearts, which assured them that he had +been no dream: and anyway, there was the donkey in front of them. + +King Lune was the kindest-hearted of men and on seeing his enemy in this +regrettable condition he forgot all his anger. + +“Your royal Highness,” he said. “I am most truly sorry that things have come +to this extremity. Your Highness will bear witness that it was none of our doing. +And of course we shall be delighted to provide your Highness with shipping +back to Tashbaan for the - er - treatment which Aslan has prescribed. You shall +have every comfort which your Highness’s situation allows: the best of the +cattleboats - the freshest carrots and thistles + +But a deafening bray from the Donkey and a well-aimed kick at one of the +guards made it clear that these kindly offers were ungratefully received. + +And here, to get him out of the way, I’d better finish off the story of +Rabadash. He (or it) was duly sent back by boat to Tashbaan and brought into +the temple of Tash at the great Autumn Festival, and then he became a man +again. But of course four or five thousand people had seen the transformation +and the affair could not possibly be hushed up. And after the old Tisroc’s death +when Rabadash became Tisroc in his place he turned out the most peaceable +Tisroc Calormen had ever known. This was because, not daring to go more than +ten miles from Tashbaan, he could never go on a war himself: and he didn’t want +his Tarkaans to win fame in the wars at his expense, for that is the way Tisrocs +get overthrown. But though his reasons were selfish, it made things much more +comfortable for all the smaller countries round Calormen. His own people never +forgot that he had been a donkey. During his reign, and to his face, he was called +Rabadash the Peacemaker, but after his death and behind his back he was called +Rabadash the Ridiculous, and if you look him up in a good History of Calormen +(try the local library) you will find him under that name. And to this day in +Calormene schools, if you do anything unusually stupid, you are very likely to +be called “a second Rabadash”. + +Meanwhile at Anvard everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of +before the real fun began, which was a grand feast held that evening on the lawn +before the castle, with dozens of lanterns to help the moonlight. And the wine +flowed and tales were told and jokes were cracked, and then silence was made +and the King’s poet with two fiddlers stepped out into the middle of the circle. +Aravis and Cor prepared themselves to be bored, for the only poetry they knew +was the Calormene kind, and you know now what that was like. But at the very +first scrape of the fiddles a rocket seemed to go up inside their heads, and the + + + +poet sang the great old lay of Fair Olvin and how he fought the Giant Pire and +turned him into stone (and that is the origin of Mount Pire - it was a two-headed +Giant) and won the Lady Liln for his bride; and when it was over they wished it +was going to begin again. And though Bree couldn’t sing he told the story of the +fight at Zalindreh. And Lucy told again (they had all, except Aravis and Cor, +heard it many times but they all wanted it again) the tale of the Wardrobe and +how she and King Edmund and Queen Susan and Peter the High King had first +come into Narnia. + +And presently, as was certain to happen sooner or later, King Lune said if +was time for young people to be in bed. “And tomorrow, Cor,” he added, “shalt +come over all the castle with me and see the estres and mark all its strength and +weakness: for it will be thine to guard when I’m gone.” + +“But Corin will be the King then, Father,” said Cor. + +“Nay, lad,” said King Lune, “thou art my heir. The crown comes to thee.” + +“But I don’t want it,” said Cor. “I’d far rather-“ + +‘“Tis no question what thou wantest, Cor, nor I either. ‘Tis in the course of +law.” + +“But if we’re twins we must be the same age.” + +“Nay,” said the King with a laugh. “One must come first. Art Corin’s elder +by full twenty minutes. And his better too, let’s hope, though that’s no great +mastery.” And he looked at Corin with a twinkle in his eyes. + +“But, Father, couldn’t you make whichever you like to be the next King?” + +“No. The king’s under the law, for it’s the law makes him a king. Hast no +more power to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post.” + +“Oh dear,” said Cor. “I don’t want to at all. And Corin -1 am most dreadfully +sorry. I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your +kingdom.” + +“Hurrah! Hurrah!” said Corin. “I shan’t have to be King. I shan’t have to be +King. I’ll always be a prince. It’s princes have all the fun.” + +“And that’s truer than thy brother knows, Cor,” said King Lune. “For this is +what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every +desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land (as must be now and then +in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than +any man in your land.” + +When the two boys were going upstairs to bed Cor again asked Corin if +nothing could be done about it. And Corin said: + +“If you say another word about it, I’ll - I’ll knock you down.” + +It would be nice to end the story by saying that after that the two brothers +never disagreed about anything again, but I am afraid it would not be true. In + + + +reality they quarrelled and fought just about as often as any other two boys +would, and all their fights ended (if they didn’t begin) with Cor getting knocked +down. For though, when they had both grown up and become swordsmen, Cor +was the more dangerous man in battle, neither he nor anyone else in the North +Countries could ever equal Corin as a boxer. That was how he got his name of +Corin Thunder-Fist; and how he performed his great exploit against the Lapsed +Bear of Stormness, which was really a Talking Bear but had gone back to Wild +Bear habits. Corm climbed up to its lair on the Narnian side of Stormness one +winter day when the snow was on the hills and boxed it without a time-keeper +for thirty-three rounds. And at the end it couldn’t see out of its eyes and became +a reformed character. + +Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid, even fights) with Cor, but +they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they +were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to +go on doing it more conveniently. And after King Lune’s death they made a +good King and Queen of Archenland and Ram the Great, the most famous of all +the kings of Archenland, was their son. Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great +age in Narnia and both got married but not to one another. And there weren’t +many months in which one or both of them didn’t come trotting over the pass to +visit their friends at Anvard. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +THE WRONG DOOR + +This is a story about something that happened long ago when your +grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the +comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began. + +In those days Mr Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the +Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road. In those days, if you +were a boy you had to wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and schools were +usually nastier than now. But meals were nicer; and as for sweets, I won’t tell +you how cheap and good they were, because it would only make your mouth +water in vain. And in those days there lived in London a girl called Polly +Plummer. + +She lived in one of a long row of houses which were all joined together. One +morning she was out in the back garden when a boy scrambled up from the +garden next door and put his face over the wall. Polly was very surprised +because up till now there had never been any children in that house, but only Mr +Ketterley and Miss Ketterley, a brother and sister, old bachelor and old maid, +living together. So she looked up, full of curiosity. The face of the strange boy +was very grubby. It could hardly have been grubbier if he had first rubbed his +hands in the earth, and then had a good cry, and then dried his face with his +hands. As a matter of fact, this was very nearly what he had been doing. + +“Hullo,” said Polly. + +“Hullo,” said the boy. “What’s your name?” + +“Polly,” said Polly. “What’s yours?” + +“Digory,” said the boy. + +“I say, what a funny name!” said Polly. + +“It isn’t half so funny as Polly,” said Digory. + +“Yes it is,” said Polly. + +“No, it isn’t,” said Digory. + +“At any rate I do wash my face,” said Polly, “Which is what you need to do; +especially after and then she stopped. She had been going to say “After +you’ve been blubbing,” but she thought that wouldn’t be polite. + +“Alright, I have then,” said Digory in a much louder voice, like a boy who +was so miserable that he didn’t care who knew he had been crying. “And so +would you,” he went on, “if you’d lived all your life in the country and had a +pony, and a river at the bottom of the garden, and then been brought to live in a + + + +beastly Hole like this.” + +“London isn’t a Hole,” said Polly indignantly. But the boy was too wound up +to take any notice of her, and he went on “And if your father was away in India - +and you had to come and live with an Aunt and an Uncle who’s mad (who would +like that?) - and if the reason was that they were looking after your Mother - and +if your Mother was ill and was going to - going to - die.” Then his face went the +wrong sort of shape as it does if you’re trying to keep back your tears. + +“I didn’t know. I’m sorry,” said Polly humbly. And then, because she hardly +knew what to say, and also to turn Digory’s mind to cheerful subjects, she asked: + +“Is Mr Ketterley really mad?” + +“Well either he’s mad,” said Digory, “or there’s some other mystery. He has a +study on the top floor and Aunt Letty says I must never go up there. Well, that +looks fishy to begin with. And then there’s another thing. Whenever he tries to +say anything to me at meal times - he never even tries to talk to her - she always +shuts him up. She says, “Don’t worry the boy, Andrew” or “I’m sure Digory +doesn’t want to hear about that” or else “Now, Digory, wouldn’t you like to go +out and play in the garden?” + +“What sort of things does he try to say?” + +“I don’t know. He never gets far enough. But there’s more than that. One +night - it was last night in fact - as I was going past the foot of the attic-stairs on +my way to bed (and I don’t much care for going past them either) I’m sure I +heard a yell.” + +“Perhaps he keeps a mad wife shut up there.” + +“Yes, I’ve thought of that.” + +“Or perhaps he’s a coiner.” + +“Or he might have been a pirate, like the man at the beginning of Treasure +Island, and be always hiding from his old shipmates.” + +“How exciting!” said Polly, “I never knew your house was so interesting.” . + +“You may think it interesting,” said Digory. “But you wouldn’t like it if you +had to sleep there. How would you like to lie awake listening for Uncle +Andrew’s step to come creeping along the passage to your room? And he has +such awful eyes.” + +That was how Polly and Digory got to know one another: and as it was just +the beginning of the summer holidays and neither of them was going to the sea +that year, they met nearly every day. + +Their adventures began chiefly because it was one of the wettest and coldest +summers there had been for years. That drove them to do indoor things: you +might say, indoor exploration. It is wonderful how much exploring you can do +with a stump of candle in a big house, or in a row of houses. Polly had + + + +discovered long ago that if you opened a certain little door in the box-room attic +of her house you would find the cistern and a dark place behind it which you +could get into by a little careful climbing. The dark place was like a long tunnel +with brick wall on one side and sloping roof on the other. In the roof there were +little chunks of light between the slates. There was no floor in this tunnel: you +had to step from rafter to rafter, and between them there was only plaster. If you +stepped on this you would find yourself falling through the ceiling of the room +below. Polly had used the bit of the tunnel just beside the cistern as a smugglers’ +cave. She had brought up bits of old packing cases and the seats of broken +kitchen chairs, and things of that sort, and spread them across from rafter to +rafter so as to make a bit of floor. Here she kept a cash-box containing various +treasures, and a story she was writing and usually a few apples. She had often +dmnk a quiet bottle of ginger-beer in there: the old bottles made it look more like +a smugglers’ cave. + +Digory quite liked the cave (she wouldn’t let him see the story) but he was +more interested in exploring. + +“Look here,” he said. “How long does this tunnel go on for? I mean, does it +stop where your house ends?” + +“No,” said Polly. “The walls don’t go out to the roof. It goes on. I don’t know +how far.” + +“Then we could get the length of the whole row of houses.” + +“So we could,” said Polly, “And oh, I say!” + +“What?” + +“We could get into the other houses.” + +“Yes, and get taken up for burglars! No thanks.” + +“Don’t be so jolly clever. I was thinking of the house beyond yours.” , + +“What about it?” + +“Why, it’s the empty one. Daddy says it’s always been empty since we came +here.” + +“I suppose we ought to have a look at it then,” said Digory. He was a good +deal more excited than you’d have thought from the way he spoke. For of course +he was thinking, just as you would have been, of all the reasons why the house +might have been empty so long. So was Polly. Neither of them said the word +“haunted”. And both felt that once the thing had been suggested, it would be +feeble not to do it. + +“Shall we go and try it now?” said Digory. + +“Alright,” said Polly. + +“Don’t if you’d rather not,” said Digory. + +“I’m game if you are,” said she. + + + +“How are we to know we’re in the next house but one?” They decided they +would have to go out into the boxroom and walk across it taking steps as long as +the steps from one rafter to the next. That would give them an idea of how many +rafters went to a room. Then they would allow about four more for the passage +between the two attics in Polly’s house, and then the same number for the maid’s +bedroom as for the box-room. That would give them the length of the house. +When they had done that distance twice they would be at the end of Digory’s +house; any door they came to after that would let them into an attic of the empty +house. + +“But I don’t expect it’s really empty at all,” said Digory. + +“What do you expect?” + +“I expect someone lives there in secret, only coming in and out at night, with +a dark lantern. We shall probably discover a gang of desperate criminals and get +a reward. It’s all rot to say a house would be empty all those years unless there +was some mystery.” + +“Daddy thought it must be the drains,” said Polly. + +“Pooh! Grown-ups are always thinking of uninteresting explanations,” said +Digory. Now that they were talking by daylight in the attic instead of by +candlelight in the Smugglers’ Cave it seemed much less likely that the empty +house would be haunted. + +When they had measured the attic they had to get a pencil and do a sum. +They both got different answers to it at first, and even when they agreed I am not +sure they got it right. They were in a hurry to start on the exploration. + +“We mustn’t make a sound,” said Polly as they climbed in again behind the +cistern. Because it was such an important occasion they took a candle each +(Polly had a good store of them in her cave). + +It was very dark and dusty and draughty and they stepped from rafter to +rafter without a word except when they whispered to one another, “We’re +opposite your attic now” or “this must be halfway through our house”. And +neither of them stumbled and the candles didn’t go out, and at last they came +where they could see a little door in the brick wall on their right. There was no +bolt or handle on this side of it, of course, for the door had been made for getting +in, not for getting out; but there was a catch (as there often is on the inside of a +cupboard door) which they felt sure they would be able to turn. + +“Shall I?” said Digory. + +“I’m game if you are,” said Polly, just as she had said before. Both felt that it +was becoming very serious, but neither would draw back. Digory pushed round +the catch with some difficultly. The door swung open and the sudden daylight +made them blink. Then, with a great shock, they saw that they were looking, not + + + +into a deserted attic, but into a furnished room. But it seemed empty enough. It +was dead silent. Polly’s curiosity got the better of her. She blew out her candle +and stepped out into the strange room, making no more noise than a mouse. + +It was shaped, of course, like an attic, but furnished as a sitting-room. Every +bit of the walls was lined with shelves and every bit of the shelves was full of +books. A fire was burning in the grate (you remember that it was a very cold wet +summer that year) and in front of the fire-place with its back towards them was a +high-backed armchair. Between the chair and Polly, and filling most of the +middle of the room, was a big table piled with all sorts of things printed books, +and books of the sort you write in, and ink bottles and pens and sealing-wax and +a microscope. But what she noticed first was a bright red wooden tray with a +number of rings on it. They were in pairs - a yellow one and a green one +together, then a little space, and then another yellow one and another green one. +They were no bigger than ordinary rings, and no one could help noticing them +because they were so bright. They were the most beautiful shiny little things you +can imagine. If Polly had been a very little younger she would have wanted to +put one in her mouth. + +The room was so quiet that you noticed the ticking of the clock at once. And +yet, as she now found, it was not absolutely quiet either. There was a faint - a +very, very faint - humming sound. If Hoovers had been invented in those days +Polly would have thought it was the sound of a Hoover being worked a long way +off - several rooms away and several floors below. But it was a nicer sound than +that, a more musical tone: only so faint that you could hardly hear it. + +“It’s alright; there’s no one here,” said Polly over her shoulder to Digory. She +was speaking above a whisper now. And Digory came out, blinking and looking +extremely dirty - as indeed Polly was too. + +“This is no good,” he said. “It’s not an empty house at all. We’d better bunk +before anyone comes.” + +“What do you think those are?” said Polly, pointing at the coloured rings.’ + +“Oh come on,” said Digory. “The sooner-“ + +He never finished what he was going to say for at that moment something +happened. The high-backed chair in front of the fire moved suddenly and there +rose up out of it - like a pantomime demon coming up out of a trapdoor the +alarming form of Uncle Andrew. They were not in the empty house at all; they +were in Digory’s house and in the forbidden study! Both children said “O-o-oh” +and realized their terrible mistake. They felt they ought to have known all along +that they hadn’t gone nearly far enough. + +Uncle Andrew was tall and very thin. He had a long clean-shaven face with a +sharply-pointed nose and extremely bright eyes and a great tousled mop of grey + + + +hair. + +Digory was quite speechless, for Uncle Andrew looked a thousand times +more alarming than he had ever looked before. Polly was not so frightened yet; +but she soon was. For the very first thing Uncle Andrew did was to walk across +to the door of the room, shut it, and turn the key in the lock. Then he turned +round, fixed the children with his bright eyes, and smiled, showing all his teeth. + +“There!” he said. “Now my fool of a sister can’t get at you!” + +It was dreadfully unlike anything a grown-up would be expected to do. +Polly’s heart came into her mouth, and she and Digory started backing towards +the little door they had come in by. Uncle Andrew was too quick for them. He +got behind them and shut that door too and stood in front of it. Then he rubbed +his hands and made his knuckles crack. He had very long, beautifully white, +fingers. + +“I am delighted to see you,” he said. “Two children are just what I wanted.” + +“Please, Mr Ketterley,” said Polly. “It’s nearly my dinner time and I’ve got to +go home. Will you let us out, please?” + +“Not just yet,” said Uncle Andrew. “This is too good an opportunity to miss. +I wanted two children. You see, I’m in the middle of a great experiment. I’ve +tried it on a guinea-pig and it seemed to work. But then a guinea-pig can’t tell +you anything. And you can’t explain to it how to come back.” + +“Look here, Uncle Andrew,” said Digory, “it really is dinner time and they’ll +be looking for us in a moment. You must let us out.” + +“Must?” said Uncle Andrew. + +Digory and Polly glanced at one another. They dared not say anything, but +the glances meant “Isn’t this dreadful?” and “We must humour him.” + +“If you let us go for our dinner now,” said Polly, “we could come back after +dinner.” + +“Ah, but how do I know that you would?” said Uncle Andrew with a +cunning smile. Then he seemed to change his mind. + +“Well, well,” he said, “if you really must go, I suppose you must. I can’t +expect two youngsters like you to find it much fun talking to an old buffer like +me.” He sighed and went on. “You’ve no idea how lonely I sometimes am. But +no matter. Go to your dinner. But I must give you a present before you go. It’s +not every day that I see a little girl in my dingy old study; especially, if I may say +so, such a very attractive young lady as yourself.” + +Polly began to think he might not really be mad after all. + +“Wouldn’t you like a ring, my dear?” said Uncle Andrew to Polly. + +“Do you mean one of those yellow or green ones?” said Polly. “How +lovely!” " + + + +“Not a green one,” said Uncle Andrew. “I’m afraid I can’t give the green +ones away. But I’d be delighted to give you any of the yellow ones: with my +love. Come and try one on.” + +Polly had now quite got over her fright and felt sure that the old gentleman +was not mad; and there was certainly something strangely attractive about those +bright rings. She moved over to the tray. + +“Why! I declare,” she said. “That humming noise gets louder here. It’s +almost as if the rings were making it.” + +“What a funny fancy, my dear,” said Uncle Andrew with a laugh. It sounded +a very natural laugh, but Digory had seen an eager, almost a greedy, look on his +face. + +“Polly! Don’t be a fool!” he shouted. “Don’t touch them.” + +It was too late. Exactly as he spoke, Polly’s hand went out to touch one of the +rings. And immediately, without a flash or a noise or a warning of any sort, there +was no Polly. Digory and his Uncle were alone in the room. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +DIGORY AND HIS UNCLE + +IT was so sudden, and so horribly unlike anything that had ever happened to +Digory even in a nightmare, that he let out a scream. Instantly Uncle Andrew’s +hand was over his mouth. “None of that!” he hissed in Digory’s ear. “If you start +making a noise your Mother’ll hear it. And you know what a fright might do to +her.” + +As Digory said afterwards, the horrible meanness of getting at a chap in that +way, almost made him sick. But of course he didn’t scream again. + +“That’s better,” said Uncle Andrew. “Perhaps you couldn’t help it. It is a +shock when you first see someone vanish. Why, it gave even me a turn when the +guinea-pig did it the other night.” + +“Was that when you yelled?” asked Digory. + +“Oh, you heard that, did you? I hope you haven’t been spying on me?” + +“No, I haven’t,” said Digory indignantly. “But what’s happened to Polly?” + +“Congratulate me, my dear boy,” said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. +“My experiment has succeeded. The little girl’s gone - vanished - right out of the +world.” + +“What have you done to her?” + +“Sent her to - well - to another place.” + +“What do you mean?” asked Digory. + +Uncle Andrew sat down and said, “Well, I’ll tell you all about it. Have you +ever heard of old Mrs Lefay?” + +“Wasn’t she a great-aunt or something?” said Digory. + +“Not exactly,” said Uncle Andrew. “She was my godmother. That’s her, +there, on the wall.” + +Digory looked and saw a faded photograph: it showed the face of an old +woman in a bonnet. And he could now remember that he had once seen a photo +of the same face in an old drawer, at home, in the country. He had asked his +Mother who it was and Mother had not seemed to want to talk about the subject +much. It was not at all a nice face, Digory thought, though of course with those +early photographs one could never really tell. + +“Was there - wasn’t there - something wrong about her, Uncle Andrew?” he +asked. + +“Well,” said Uncle Andrew with a chuckle, “it depends what you call wrong. +People are so narrow-minded. She certainly got very queer in later life. Did very + + + +unwise things. That was why they shut her up.” + +“In an asylum, do you mean?” + +“Oh no, no, no,” said Uncle Andrew in a shocked voice. “Nothing of that +sort. Only in prison.” + +“I say!” said Digory. “What had she done?” + +“Ah, poor woman,” said Uncle Andrew. “She had been very unwise. There +were a good many different things. We needn’t go into all that. She was always +very kind to me.” + +“But look here, what has all this got to do with Polly? I do wish you’d -“ + +“All in good time, my boy,” said Uncle Andrew. “They let old Mrs Lefay out +before she died and I was one of the very few people whom she would allow to +see her in her last illness. She had got to dislike ordinary, ignorant people, you +understand. I do myself. But she and I were interested in the same sort of things. +It was only a few days before her death that she told me to go to an old bureau in +her house and open a secret drawer and bring her a little box that I would find +there. The moment I picked up that box I could tell by the pricking in my fingers +that I held some great secret in my hands. She gave it me and made me promise +that as soon as she was dead I would burn it, unopened, with certain ceremonies. +That promise I did not keep.” + +“Well, then, it was jolly rotten of you,” said Digory. + +“Rotten?” said Uncle Andrew with a puzzled look. + +“Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: +most right and proper, I’m sure, and I’m very glad you have been taught to do it. +But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they +may be for little boys - and servants - and women - and even people in general, +can’t possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and +sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from +common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a +high and lonely destiny.” + +As he said this he sighed and looked so grave and noble and mysterious that +for a second Digory really thought he was saying something rather fine. But then +he remembered the ugly look he had seen on his Uncle’s face the moment before +Polly had vanished: and all at once he saw through Uncle Andrew’s grand +words. “All it means,” he said to himself, “Is that he thinks he can do anything +he likes to get anything he wants.” + +“Of course,” said Uncle Andrew, “I didn’t dare to open the box for a long +time, for I knew it might contain something highly dangerous. For my +godmother was a very remarkable woman. The truth is, she was one of the last +mortals in this country who had fairy blood in her. (She said there had been two + + + +others in her time. One was a duchess and the other was a charwoman.) In fact, +Digory, you are now talking to the last man (possibly) who really had a fairy +godmother. There! That’ll be something for you to remember when you are an +old man yourself.” + +“I bet she was a bad fairy,” thought Digory; and added out loud. “But what +about Polly?” + +“How you do harp on that!” said Uncle Andrew. “As if that was what +mattered! My first task was of course to study the box itself. It was very ancient. +And I knew enough even then to know that it wasn’t Greek, or Old Egyptian, or +Babylonian, or Hittite, or Chinese. It was older than any of those nations. Ah - +that was a great day when I at last found out the truth. The box was Atlantean; it +came from the lost island of Atlantis. That meant it was centuries older than any +of the stone-age things they dig up in Europe. And it wasn’t a rough, cmde thing +like them either. For in the very dawn of time Atlantis was already a great city +with palaces and temples and learned men.” + +He paused for a moment as if he expected Digory to say something. But +Digory was disliking his Uncle more every minute, so he said nothing. + +“Meanwhile,” continued Uncle Andrew, “I was learning a good deal in other +ways (it wouldn’t be proper to explain them to a child) about Magic in general. +That meant that I came to have a fair idea what sort of things might be in the +box. By various tests I narrowed down the possibilities. I had to get to know +some - well, some devilish queer people, and go through some very disagreeable +experiences. That was what turned my head grey. One doesn’t become a +magician for nothing. My health broke down in the end. But I got better. And at +last I actually knew.” + +Although there was not really the least chance of anyone overhearing them, +he leaned forward and almost whispered as he said: + +“The Atlantean box contained something that had been brought from another +world when our world was only just beginning.” + +“What?” asked Digory, who was now interested in spite of himself. + +“Only dust,” said Uncle Andrew. “Fine, dry dust. Nothing much to look at. +Not much to show for a lifetime of toil, you might say. Ah, but when I looked at +that dust (I took jolly good care not to touch it) and thought that every grain had +once been in another world -1 don’t mean another planet, you know; they’re part +of our world and you could get to them if you went far enough - but a really +Other World - another Nature another universe - somewhere you would never +reach even if you travelled through the space of this universe for ever and ever - +a world that could be reached only by Magic - well!” Here Uncle Andrew +mbbed his hands till his knuckles cracked like fireworks. + + + +“I knew,” he went on, “that if only you could get it into the right form, that +dust would draw you back to the place it had come from. But the difficulty was +to get it into the right form. My earlier experiments were all failures. I tried them +on guinea-pigs. Some of them only died. Some exploded like little bombs + +“It was a jolly cruel thing to do,” said Digory who had once had a guinea-pig +of his own. + +“How you do keep getting off the point!” said Uncle Andrew. “That’s what +the creatures were for. I’d bought them myself. Let me see - where was I? Ah +yes. At last I succeeded in making the rings: the yellow rings. But now a new +difficulty arose. I was pretty sure, now, that a yellow ring would send any +creature that touched it into the Other Pace. But what would be the good of that +if I couldn’t get them back to tell me what they had found there?” + +“And what about them?” said Digory. “A nice mess they’d be in if they +couldn’t get back!” + +“You will keep on looking at everything from the wrong point of view,” said +Uncle Andrew with a look of impatience. “Can’t you understand that the thing is +a great experiment? The whole point of sending anyone into the Other Place is +that I want to find out what it’s like.” + +“Well why didn’t you go yourself then?” + +Digory had hardly ever seen anyone so surprised and offended as his Uncle +did at this simple question. “Me? Me?” he exclaimed. “The boy must be mad! A +man at my time of life, and in my state of health, to risk the shock and the +dangers of being flung suddenly into a different universe? I never heard anything +so preposterous in my life! Do you realize what you’re saying? Think what +Another World means - you might meet anything anything.” + +“And I suppose you’ve sent Polly into it then,” said Digory. His cheeks were +flaming with anger now. “And all I can say,” he added, “even if you are my +Uncle - is that you’ve behaved like a coward, sending a girl to a place you’re +afraid to go to yourself.” + +“Silence, sir!” said Uncle Andrew, bringing his hand down on the table. “I +will not be talked to like that by a little, dirty, schoolboy. You don’t understand. I +am the great scholar, the magician, the adept, who is doing the experiment. Of +course I need subjects to do it on. Bless my soul, you’ll be telling me next that I +ought to have asked the guinea-pigs’ permission before I used them! No great +wisdom can be reached without sacrifice. But the idea of my going myself is +ridiculous. It’s like asking a general to fight as a common soldier. Supposing I +got killed, what would become of my life’s work?” + +“Oh, do stop jawing,” said Digory. “Are you going to bring Polly back?” + +“I was going to tell you, when you so rudely interrupted me,” said Uncle + + + +Andrew, “that I did at last find out a way of doing the return journey. The green +rings draw you back.” + +“But Polly hasn’t got a green ring.” + +“No ” said Uncle Andrew with a + +cruel smile. + +“Then she can’t get back,” shouted Digory. “And it’s exactly the same as if +you’d murdered her. + +“She can get back,” said Uncle Andrew, “if someone else will go after her, +wearing a yellow ring himself and taking two green rings, one to bring himself +back and one to bring her back.” + +And now of course Digory saw the trap in which he was caught: and he +stared at Uncle Andrew, saying nothing, with his mouth wide open. His cheeks +had gone very pale. + +“I hope,” said Uncle Andrew presently in a very high and mighty voice, just +as if he were a perfect Uncle who had given one a handsome tip and some good +advice, “I hope, Digory, you are not given to showing the white feather. I should +be very sorry to think that anyone of our family had not enough honour and +chivalry to go to the aid of - er - a lady in distress.” + +“Oh shut up!” said Digory. “If you had any honour and all that, you’d be +going yourself. But I know you won’t. Alright. I see I’ve got to go. But you are a +beast. I suppose you planned the whole thing, so that she’d go without knowing +it and then I’d have to go after her.” + +“Of course,” said Uncle Andrew with his hateful smile. + +“Very well. I’ll go. But there’s one thing I jolly well mean to say first. I +didn’t believe in Magic till today. I see now it’s real. Well if it is, I suppose all +the old fairy tales are more or less true. And you’re simply a wicked, cruel +magician like the ones in the stories. Well, I’ve never read a story in which +people of that sort weren’t paid out in the end, and I bet you will be. And serve +you right.” + +Of all the things Digory had said this was the first that really went home. +Uncle Andrew started and there came over his face a look of such horror that, +beast though he was, you could almost feel sorry for him. But a second later he +smoothed it all away and said with a rather forced laugh, “Well, well, I suppose +that is a natural thing for a child to think - brought up among women, as you +have been. Old wives’ tales, eh? I don’t think you need worry about my danger, +Digory. Wouldn’t it be better to worry about the danger of your little friend? +She’s been gone some time. If there are any dangers Over There - well, it would +be a pity to arrive a moment too late.” + +“A lot you care,” said Digory fiercely. “But I’m sick of this jaw. What have I + + + +got to do?” + +“You really must learn to control that temper of yours, my boy,” said Uncle +Andrew coolly. “Otherwise you’ll grow up like your Aunt Letty. Now. Attend to +me.” + +He got up, put on a pair of gloves, and walked over to the tray that contained +the rings. + +“They only work,” he said, “if they’re actually touching your skin. Wearing +gloves, I can pick them up - like this - and nothing happens. If you carried one in +your pocket nothing would happen: but of course you’d have to be careful not to +put your hand in your pocket and touch it by accident. The moment you touch a +yellow ring, you vanish out of this world. When you are in the Other Place I +expect - of course this hasn’t been tested yet, but I expect - that the moment you +touch a green ring you vanish out of that world and -1 expect - reappear in this. +Now. I take these two greens and drop them into your right-hand pocket. +Remember very carefully which pocket the greens are in. G for green and R for +right. G.R. you see: which are the first two letters of green. One for you and one +for the little girl. And now you pick up a yellow one for yourself. I should put it +on on your finger - if I were you. There’ll be less chance of dropping it.” + +Digory had almost picked up the yellow ring when he suddenly checked +himself. + +“Look here,” he said. “What about Mother? Supposing she asks where I +am?” + +“The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll be back,” said Uncle Andrew +cheerfully. + +“But you don’t really know whether I can get back.” + +Uncle Andrew shrugged his shoulders, walked across to the door, unlocked +it, threw it open, and said: + +“Oh very’ well then. Just as you please. Go down and have your dinner. +Leave the little girl to be eaten by wild animals or drowned or starved in +Otherworld or lost there for good, if that’s what you prefer. It’s all one to me. +Perhaps before tea time you’d better drop in on Mrs Plummer and explain that +she’ll never see her daughter again; because you were afraid to put on a ring.” + +“By gum,” said Digory, “don’t I just wish I was big enough to punch your +head!” + +Then he buttoned up his coat, took a deep breath, and picked up the ring. +And he thought then, as he always thought afterwards too, that he could not +decently have done anything else. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +THE WOOD BETWEEN THE WORLDS + +UNCLE ANDREW and his study vanished instantly. Then, for a moment, +everything became muddled. The next thing Digory knew was that there was a +soft green light coming down on him from above, and darkness below. He didn’t +seem to be standing on anything, or sitting, or lying. Nothing appeared to be +touching him. “I believe I’m in water,” said Digory. “Or under water.” This +frightened him for a second, but almost at once he could feel that he was rushing +upwards. Then his head suddenly came out into the air and, he found himself +scrambling ashore, out on to smooth grassy ground at the edge of a pool. + +As he rose to his feet he noticed that he was neither dripping nor panting for +breath as anyone would expect after being under water. His clothes were +perfectly dry. He was standing by the edge of a small pool - not more than ten +feet from side to side in a wood. The trees grew close together and were so leafy +that he could get no glimpse of the sky. All the light was green light that came +through the leaves: but there must have been a very strong sun overhead, for this +green daylight was bright and warm. It was the quietest wood you could possibly +imagine. There were no birds, no insects, no animals, and no wind. You could +almost feel the trees growing. The pool he had just got out of was not the only +pool. There were dozens of others - a pool every few yards as far as his eyes +could reach. You could almost feel the trees drinking the water up with their +roots. This wood was very much alive. When he tried to describe it afterwards + +Digory always said, “It was a rich place: as rich as plumcake.” + +The strangest thing was that, almost before he had looked about him, Digory +had half forgotten how he had come there. At any rate, he was certainly not +thinking about Polly, or Uncle Andrew, or even his Mother. He was not in the +least frightened, or excited, or curious. If anyone had asked him “Where did you +come from?” he would probably have said, “I’ve always been here.” That was +what it felt like - as if one had always been in that place and never been bored +although nothing had ever happened. As he said long afterwards, “It’s not the +sort of place where things happen. The trees go on growing, that’s all.” + +After Digory had looked at the wood for a long time he noticed that there +was a girl lying on her back at the foot of a tree a few yards away. Her eyes were +nearly shut but not quite, as if she were just between sleeping and waking. So he +looked at her for a long time and said nothing. And at last she opened her eyes +and looked at him for a long time and she also said nothing. Then she spoke, in a + + + +dreamy, contented sort of voice. + +“I think I’ve seen you before,” she said. + +“I rather think so too,” said Digory. “Have you been here long?” + +“Oh, always,” said the girl. “At least -1 don’t know a very long time.” + +“So have I,” said Digory. + +“No you haven’t, said she. “I’ve just seen you come up out of that pool.” + +“Yes, I suppose I did,” said Digory with a puzzled air, “I’d forgotten.” + +Then for quite a long time neither said any more. + +“Look here,” said the girl presently, “I wonder did we ever really meet +before? I had a sort of idea - a sort of picture in my head - of a boy and a girl, +like us - living somewhere quite different - and doing all sorts of things. Perhaps +it was only a dream.” + +“I’ve had that same dream, I think,” said Digory. “About a boy and a girl, +living next door - and something about crawling among rafters. I remember the +girl had a dirty face.” + +“Aren’t you getting it mixed? In my dream it was the boy who had the dirty +face.” + +“I can’t remember the boy’s face,” said Digory: and then added, “Hullo! +What’s that?” + +“Why! it’s a guinea-pig,” said the girl. And it was - a fat guinea-pig, nosing +about in the grass. But round the middle of the guinea-pig there ran a tape, and, +tied on to it by the tape, was a bright yellow ring. + +“Look! look,” cried Digory, “The ring! And look! You’ve got one on your +finger. And so have I.” + +The girl now sat up, really interested at last. They stared very hard at one +another, trying to remember. And then, at exactly the same moment, she shouted +out “Mr Ketterley” and he shouted out “Uncle Andrew”, and they knew who +they were and began to remember the whole story. After a few minutes hard +talking they had got it straight. Digory explained how beastly Uncle Andrew had +been. + +“What do we do now?” said Polly. “Take the guineapig and go home?” + +“There’s no hurry,” said Digory with a huge yawn. + +“I think there is,” said Polly. “This place is too quiet. It’s so - so dreamy. +You’re almost asleep. If we once give in to it we shall just lie down and drowse +for ever and ever.” + +“It’s very nice here,” said Digory. + +“Yes, it is,” said Polly. + +“But we’ve got to get back.” She stood up and began to go cautiously +towards the guinea-pig. But then she changed her mind. + + + +“We might as well leave the guinea-pig,” she said. “It’s perfectly happy here, +and your uncle will only do something horrid to it if we take it home.” + +“I bet he would,” answered Digory. “Look at the way he’s treated us. By the +way, how do we get home?” + +“Go back into the pool, I expect.” + +They came and stood together at the edge looking down into the smooth +water. It was full of the reflection of the green, leafy branches; they made it look +very deep. + +“We haven’t any bathing things,” said Polly. + +“We shan’t need them, silly,” said Digory. “We’re going in with our clothes +on. Don’t you remember it didn’t wet us on the way up?” + +“Can you swim?” + +“A bit. Can you?” + +“Well - not much.” + +“I don’t think we shall need to swim,” said Digory “We want to go down, +don’t we?” + +Neither of them much liked the idea of jumping into that pool, but neither +said so to the other. They took hands and said “One - Two - Three - Go” and +jumped. There was a great splash and of course they closed their eyes. But when +they opened them again they found they were still standing, hand in hand, in the +green wood, and hardly up to their ankles in water. The pool was apparently only +a couple of inches deep. They splashed back on to the dry ground. + +“What on earth’s gone wrong?” said Polly in a frightened voice; but not quite +so frightened as you might expect, because it is hard to feel really frightened in +that wood. The place is too peaceful. + +“Oh! I know,” said Digory, “Of course it won’t work. We’re still wearing our +yellow rings. They’re for the outward journey, you know. The green ones take +you home. We must change rings. Have you got pockets? Good. Put your yellow +ring in your left. I’ve got two greens. Here’s one for you.” + +They put on their green rings and came back to the pool. But before they +tried another jump Digory gave a long “O-ooh!” + +“What’s the matter?” said Polly. + +“I’ve just had a really wonderful idea,” said Digory. “What are all the other +pools?” + +“How do you mean?” + +“Why, if awe can get back to our own world by jumping into this pool, +mightn’t we get somewhere else by jumping into one of the others? Supposing +there was a world at the bottom of every pool.” + +“But I thought we were already in your Uncle Andrew’s Other World or + + + +Other Place or whatever he called it. Didn’t you say + +“Oh bother Uncle Andrew,” interrupted Digory. “I don’t believe he knows +anything about it. He never had the pluck to come here himself. He only talked +of one Other World. But suppose there were dozens?” + +“You mean, this wood might be only one of them?” + +“No, I don’t believe this wood is a world at all. I think it’s just a sort of in- +between place.” + +Polly looked puzzled. “Don’t you see?” said Digory. “No, do listen. Think of +our tunnel under the slates at home. It isn’t a room in any of the houses. In a +way, it isn’t really part of any of the houses. But once you’re in the tunnel you +can go along it and come into any of the houses in the row. Mightn’t this wood +be the same? - a place that isn’t in any of the worlds, but once you’ve found that +place you can get into them all.” + +“Well, even if you can began Polly, but Digory went on as if he hadn’t +heard her. + +“And of course that explains everything,” he said. “That’s why it is so quiet +and sleepy here. Nothing ever happens here. Like at home. It’s in the houses that +people talk, and do things, and have meals. Nothing goes on in the inbetween +places, behind the walls and above the ceilings and under the floor, or in our own +tunnel. But when you come out of our tunnel you may find yourself in any +house. I think we can get out of this place into jolly well Anywhere! We don’t +need to jump back into the same pool we came up by. Or not just yet.” + +“The Wood between the Worlds,” said Polly dreamily. “It sounds rather +nice.” + +“Come on,” said Digory. “Which pool shall we try?” + +“Look here,” said Polly, “I’m not going to try any new pool till we’ve made +sure that we can get back by the old one. We’re not even sure if it’ll work yet.” + +“Yes,” said Digory. “And get caught by Uncle Andrew and have our rings +taken away before we’ve had any fun. No thanks.” + +“Couldn’t we just go part of the way down into our own pool,” said Polly. +“Just to see if it works. Then if it does, we’ll change rings and come up again +before we’re really back in Mr Ketterley’s study.” + +“Can we go part of the way down?” + +“Well, it took time coming up. I suppose it’ll take a little time going back.” + +Digory made rather a fuss about agreeing to this, but he had to in the end +because Polly absolutely refused to do any exploring in new worlds until she had +made sure about getting back to the old one. She was quite as brave as he about +some dangers (wasps, for instance) but she was not so interested in finding out +things nobody had ever heard of before; for Digory was the sort of person who + + + +wants to know everything, and when he grew up he became the famous +Professor Kirke who comes into other books. + +After a good deal of arguing they agreed to put on their green rings (’’Green +for safety,” said Digory, “so you can’t help remembering which is which”) and +hold hands and jump. But as soon as they seemed to be getting back to Uncle +Andrew’s study, or even to their own world, Polly was to shout “Change” and +they would slip off their greens and put on their yellows. Digory wanted to be +the one who shouted “Change” but Polly wouldn’t agree. + +They put on the green rings, took hands, and once more shouted “One -Two - +Three - Go”. This time it worked. It is very hard to tell you what it felt like, for +everything happened so quickly. At first there were bright lights moving about in +a black sky; Digory always thinks these were stars and even swears that he saw +Jupiter quite close -close enough to see its moon. But almost at once there were +rows and rows of roofs and chimney pots about them, and they could see St +Paul’s and knew they were looking at London. But you could see through the +walls of all the houses. Then they could see Uncle Andrew, very vague and +shadowy, but getting clearer and more solid-looking all the time, just as if he +were coming into focus. But before he became quite real Polly shouted +“Change”, and they did change, and our world faded away like a dream, and the +green light above grew stronger and stronger, till their heads came out of the +pool and they scrambled ashore. And there was the wood all about them, as +green and bright and still as ever. The whole thing had taken less than a minute. + +“There!” said Digory. “That’s alright. Now for the adventure. Any pool will +do. Come on. Let’s try that one.” + +“Stop!” said Polly- “Aren’t we going to mark this pool?” + +They stared at each other and turned quite white as they realized the dreadful +thing that Digory had just been going to do. For there were any number of pools +in the wood, and the pools were all alike and the trees were all alike, so that if +they had once left behind the pool that led to our own world without making +some sort of landmark, the chances would have been a hundred to one against +their ever finding it again. + +Digory’s hand was shaking as he opened his penknife and cut out a long strip +of turf on the bank of the pool. The soil (which smelled nice) was of a rich +reddish brown and showed up well against the green. “It’s a good thing one of us +has some sense,” said Polly. + +“Well don’t keep on gassing about it,” said Digory. “Come along, I want to +see what’s in one of the other pools.” And Polly gave him a pretty sharp answer +and he said something even nastier in reply. The quarrel lasted for several +minutes but it would be dull to write it all down. Let us skip on to the moment at + + + +which they stood with beating hearts and rather scared faces on the edge of the +unknown pool with their yellow rings on and held hands and once more said +“One - Two - Three - Go!” + +Splash! Once again it hadn’t worked. This pool, too, appeared to be only a +puddle. Instead of reaching a new world they only got their feet wet and +splashed their legs for the second time that morning (if it was a morning: it +seems to be always the same time in the Wood between the Worlds). + +“Blast and botheration!” exclaimed Digory. “What’s gone wrong now? +We’ve put our yellow rings on all right. He said yellow for the outward journey.” + +Now the truth was that Uncle Andrew, who knew nothing about the Wood +between the Worlds, had quite a wrong idea about the rings. The yellow ones +weren’t “outward” rings and the green ones weren’t “homeward” rings; at least, +not in the way he thought. The stuff of which both were made had all come from +the wood. The stuff in the yellow rings had the power of drawing you into the +wood; it was stuff that wanted to get back to its own place, the in-between place. +But the stuff in the green rings is stuff that is trying to get out of its own place: +so that a green ring would take you out of the wood into a world. Uncle Andrew, +you see, was working with things he did not really understand; most magicians +are. Of course Digory did not realize the truth quite clearly either, or not till later. +But when they had talked it over, they decided to try their green rings on the new +pool, just to see what happened. + +“I’m game if you are,” said Polly. But she really said this because, in her +heart of hearts, she now felt sure that neither kind of ring was going to work at +all in the new pool, and so there was nothing worse to be afraid of than another +splash. I am not quite sure that Digory had not the same feeling. At any rate, +when they had both put on their greens and come back to the edge of the water, +and taken hands again, they were certainly a good deal more cheerful and less +solemn than they had been the first time. + +“One - Two - Three - Go!” said Digory. And they jumped. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +THE BELL AND THE HAMMER + +THERE was no doubt about the Magic this time. Down and down they +rushed, first through darkness and then through a mass of vague and whirling +shapes which might have been almost anything. It grew lighter. Then suddenly +they felt that they were standing on something solid. A moment later everything +came into focus and they were able to look about them. + +“What a queer place!” said Digory. + +“I don’t like it,” said Polly with something like a shudder. + +What they noticed first was the light. It wasn’t like sunlight, and it wasn’t +like electric light, or lamps, or candles, or any other light they had ever seen. It +was a dull, rather red light, not at ah cheerful. It was steady and did not flicker. +They were standing on a flat paved surface and buildings rose ah around them. +There was no roof overhead; they were in a sort of courtyard. The sky was +extraordinarily dark - a blue that was almost black. When you had seen that sky +you wondered that there should be any light at all. + +“It’s very funny weather here,” said Digory. “I wonder if we’ve arrived just +in time for a thunderstorm; or an eclipse.” + +“I don’t like it,” said Polly. + +Both of them, without quite knowing why, were talking in whispers. And +though there was no reason why they should still go on holding hands after their +jump, they didn’t let go. + +The walls rose very high ah round that courtyard. They had many great +windows in them, windows without glass, through which you saw nothing but +black darkness. Lower down there were great pillared arches, yawning blackly +like the mouths of railway tunnels. It was rather cold. + +The stone of which everything was built seemed to be red, but that might +only be because of the curious light. It was obviously very old. Many of the flat +stones that paved the courtyard had cracks across them. None of them fitted +closely together and the sharp corners were all worn off. One of the arched +doorways was half filled up with rubble. The two children kept on turning round +and round to look at the different sides of the courtyard. One reason was that +they were afraid of somebody - or something - looking out of those windows at +them when their backs were turned. + +“Do you think anyone lives here?” said Digory at last, still in a whisper. + +“No,” said Polly. “It’s ah in ruins. We haven’t heard a sound since we came.” + + + +“Let’s stand still and listen for a bit,” suggested Digory. + +They stood still and listened, but all they could hear was the thump-thump of +their own hearts. This place was at least as quiet as the Wood between the +Worlds. But it was a different kind of quietness. The silence of the Wood had +been rich and warm (you could almost hear the trees growing) and full of life: +this was a dead, cold, empty silence. You couldn’t imagine anything growing in +it. + +“Let’s go home,” said Polly. + +“But we haven’t seen anything yet,” said Digory. “Now we’re here, we +simply must have a look round.” + +“I’m sure there’s nothing at all interesting here.” + +“There’s not much point in finding a magic ring that lets you into other +worlds if you’re afraid to look at them when you’ve got there.” + +“Who’s talking about being afraid?” said Polly, letting go of Digory’s hand. + +“I only thought you didn’t seem very keen on exploring this place.” + +“I’ll go anywhere you go.” + +“We can get away the moment we want to,” said Digory. “Let’s take off our +green rings and put them in our right-hand pockets. All we’ve got to do is to +remember that our yellow are in our left-hand pockets. You can keep your hand +as near your pocket as you like, but don’t put it in or you’ll touch your yellow +and vanish.” + +They did this and went quietly up to one of the big arched doorways which +led into the inside of the building. And when they stood on the threshold and +could look in, they saw it was not so dark inside as they had thought at first. It +led into a vast, shadowy hall which appeared to be empty; but on the far side +there was a row of pillars with arches between them and through those arches +there streamed in some more of the same tired-looking light. They crossed the +hall, walking very carefully for fear of holes in the floor or of anything lying +about that they might trip over. It seemed a long walk. When they had reached +the other side they came out through the arches and found themselves in another +and larger courtyard. + +“That doesn’t look very safe,” said Polly, pointing at a place where the wall +bulged outward and looked as if it were ready to fall over into the courtyard. In +one place a pillar was missing between two arches and the bit that came down to +where the top of the pillar ought to have been hung there with nothing to support +it. Clearly, the place had been deserted for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of +years. + +“If it’s lasted till now, I suppose it’ll last a bit longer,” said Digory. “But we +must be very quiet. You know a noise sometimes brings things down - like an + + + +avalanche in the Alps.” + +They went on out of that courtyard into another doorway, and up a great +flight of steps and through vast rooms that opened out of one another till you +were dizzy with the mere size of the place. Every now and then they thought +they were going to get out into the open and see what sort of country lay around +the enormous palace. But each time they only got into another courtyard. They +must have been magnificent places when people were still living there. In one +there had once been a fountain. A great stone monster with wide-spread wings +stood with its mouth open and you could still see a bit of piping at the back of its +mouth, out of which the water used to pour. Under it was a wide stone basin to +hold the water; but it was as dry as a bone. In other places there were the dry +sticks of some sort of climbing plant which had wound itself round the pillars +and helped to pull some of them down. But it had died long ago. And there were +no ants or spiders or any of the other living things you expect to see in a ruin; +and where the dry earth showed between the broken flagstones there was no +grass or moss. + +It was all so dreary and all so much the same that even Digory was thinking +they had better put on their yellow rings and get back to the warm, green, living +forest of the In-between place, when they came to two huge doors of some metal +that might possibly be gold. One stood a little ajar. So of course they went to +look in. Both started back and drew a long breath: for here at last was something +worth seeing. + +For a second they thought the room was full of people - hundreds of people, +all seated, and all perfectly still. Polly and Digory, as you may guess, stood +perfectly still themselves for a good long time, looking in. But presently they +decided that what they were looking at could not be real people. There was not a +movement nor the sound of a breath among them all. They were like the most +wonderful waxworks you ever saw. + +This time Polly took the lead. There was something in this room which +interested her more than it interested Digory: all the figures were wearing +magnificent clothes. If you were interested in clothes at all, you could hardly +help going in to see them closer. And the blaze of their colours made this room +look, not exactly cheerful, but at any rate rich and majestic after all the dust and +emptiness of the others. It had more windows, too, and was a good deal lighter. + +I can hardly describe the clothes. The figures were all robed and had crowns +on their heads. Their robes were of crimson and silvery grey and deep purple and +vivid green: and there were patterns, and pictures of flowers and strange beasts, +in needlework all over them. Precious stones of astonishing size and brightness +stared from their crowns and hung in chains round their necks and peeped out + + + +from all the places where anything was fastened. + +“Why haven’t these clothes all rotted away long ago?” asked Polly. + +“Magic,” whispered Digory. “Can’t you feel it? I bet this whole room is just +stiff with enchantments. I could feel it the moment we came in.” + +“Any one of these dresses would cost hundreds of pounds,” said Polly. + +But Digory was more interested in the faces, and indeed these were well +worth looking at. The people sat in their stone chairs on each side of the room +and the floor was left free down the middle. You could walk down and look at +the faces in turn. + +“They were nice people, I think,” said Digory. + +Polly nodded. All the faces they could see were certainly nice. Both the men +and women looked kind and wise, and they seemed to come of a handsome race. +But after the children had gone a few steps down the room they came to faces +that looked a little different. These were very solemn faces. You felt you would +have to mind your P’s and Q’s, if you ever met living people who looked like +that. When they had gone a little further, they found themselves among faces +they didn’t like: this was about the middle of the room. The faces here looked +very strong and proud and happy, but they looked cruel. A little further on they +looked crueller. Further on again, they were still cruel but they no longer looked +happy. They were even despairing faces: as if the people they belonged to had +done dreadful things and also suffered dreadful things. The last figure of all was +the most interesting - a woman even more richly dressed than the others, very +tall (but every figure in that room was taller than the people of our world), with a +look of such fierceness and pride that it took your breath away. Yet she was +beautiful too. Years afterwards when he was an old man, Digory said he had +never in all his life known a woman so beautiful. It is only fair to add that Polly +always said she couldn’t see anything specially beautiful about her. + +This woman, as I said, was the last: but there were plenty of empty chairs +beyond her, as if the room had been intended for a much larger collection of +images. + +“I do wish we knew the story that’s behind all this,” said Digory. “Let’s go +back and look at that table sort of thing in the middle of the room.” + +The thing in the middle of the room was not exactly a table. It was a square +pillar about four feet high and on it there rose a little golden arch from which +there hung a little golden bell; and beside this there lay a little golden hammer to +hit the bell with. + +“I wonder... I wonder... I wonder...” said Digory. + +“There seems to be something written here,” said Polly, stooping down and +looking at the side of the pillar. + + + +“By gum, so there is,” said Digory. “But of course we shan’t be able to read +it.” + +“Shan’t we? I’m not so sure,” said Polly. + +They both looked at it hard and, as you might have expected, the letters cut +in the stone were strange. But now a great wonder happened: for, as they looked, +though the shape of the strange letters never altered, they found that they could +understand them. If only Digory had remembered what he himself had said a few +minutes ago, that this was an enchanted room, he might have guessed that the +enchantment was beginning to work. But he was too wild with curiosity to think +about that. He was longing more and more to know what was written on the +pillar. And very soon they both knew. What it said was something like this - at +least this is the sense of it though the poetry, when you read it there, was better: + +Make your choice, adventurous Stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, +Or wonder, till it drives you mad, What would have followed if you had. + +“No fear!” said Polly. “We don’t want any danger.” + +“Oh but don’t you see it’s no good!” said Digory. “We can’t get out of it now. +We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck +the bell. I’m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that. No +fear!” + +“Don’t be so silly,” said Polly. “As if anyone would! What does it matter +what would have happened?” + +“I expect anyone who’s come as far as this is bound to go on wondering till it +sends him dotty. That’s the Magic of it, you see. I can feel it beginning to work +on me already.” + +“Well I don’t,” said Polly crossly. “And I don’t believe you do either. You’re +just putting it on.” + +“That’s all you know,” said Digory. “It’s because you’re a girl. Girls never +want to know anything but gossip and rot about people getting engaged.” + +“You looked exactly like your Uncle when you said that,” said Polly. + +“Why can’t you keep to the point?” said Digory. “What we’re talking about +is -“ + +“How exactly like a man!” said Polly in a very grownup voice; but she added +hastily, in her real voice, “And don’t say I’m just like a woman, or you’ll be a +beastly copy-cat.” + +“I should never dream of calling a kid like you a woman,” said Digory +loftily. + +“Oh, I’m a kid, am I?” said Polly who was now in a real rage. “Well you +needn’t be bothered by having a kid with you any longer then. I’m off. I’ve had +enough of this place. And I’ve had enough of you too - you beastly, stuck-up, + + + +obstinate pig!” + +“None of that!” said Digory in a voice even nastier than he meant it to be; for +he saw Polly’s hand moving to her pocket to get hold of her yellow ring. I can’t +excuse what he did next except by saying that he was very sorry for it afterwards +(and so were a good many other people). Before Polly’s hand reached her +pocket, he grabbed her wrist, leaning across with his back against her chest. +Then, keeping her other arm out of the way with his other elbow, he leaned +forward, picked up the hammer, and struck the golden bell a light, smart tap. +Then he let her go and they fell apart staring at each other and breathing hard. +Polly was just beginning to cry, not with fear, and not even because he had hurt +her wrist quite badly, but with furious anger. Within two seconds, however, they +had something to think about that drove their own quarrels quite out of their +minds. + +As soon as the bell was struck it gave out a note, a sweet note such as you +might have expected, and not very loud. But instead of dying away again, it went +on; and as it went on it grew louder. Before a minute had passed it was twice as +loud as it had been to begin with. It was soon so loud that if the children had +tried to speak (but they weren’t thinking of speaking now - they were just +standing with their mouths open) they would not have heard one another. Very +soon it was so loud that they could not have heard one another even by shouting. +And still it grew: all on one note, a continuous sweet sound, though the +sweetness had something horrible about it, till all the air in that great room was +throbbing with it and they could feel the stone floor trembling under their feet. +Then at last it began to be mixed with another sound, a vague, disastrous noise +which sounded first like the roar of a distant train, and then like the crash of a +falling tree. They heard something like great weights falling. Finally, with a +sudden, msh and thunder, and a shake that nearly flung them off their feet, about +a quarter of the roof at one end of the room fell in, great blocks of masonry fell +all round them, and the walls rocked. The noise of the bell stopped. The clouds +of dust cleared away. Everything became quiet again. + +It was never found out whether the fall of the roof was due to Magic or +whether that unbearably loud sound from the bell just happened to strike the note +which was more than those crumbling walls could stand. + +“There! I hope you’re satisfied now,” panted Polly. + +“Well, it’s all over, anyway,” said Digory. + +And both thought it was; but they had never been more mistaken in their +lives. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +THE DEPLORABLE WORD + +THE children were facing one another across the pillar where the bell hung, +still trembling, though it no longer gave out any note. Suddenly they heard a soft +noise from the end of the room which was still undamaged. They turned quick as +lightning to see what it was. One of the robed figures, the furthest-off one of all, +the woman whom Digory thought so beautiful, was rising from its chair. When +she stood up they realized that she was even taller than they had thought. And +you could see at once, not only from her crown and robes, but from the flash of +her eyes and the curve of her lips, that she was a great queen. She looked round +the room and saw the damage and saw the children, but you could not guess +from her face what she thought of either or whether she was surprised. She came +forward with long, swift strides. + +“Who has awaked me? Who has broken the spell?” she asked. + +“I think it must have been me,” said Digory. + +“You!” said the Queen, laying her hand on his shoulder - a white, beautiful +hand, but Digory could feel that it was strong as steel pincers. “You? But you are +only a child, a common child. Anyone can see at a glance that you have no drop +of royal or noble blood in your veins. How did such as you dare to enter this +house?” + +“We’ve come from another world; by Magic,” said Polly, who thought it was +high time the Queen took some notice of her as well as of Digory. + +“Is this true?” said the Queen, still looking at Digory and not giving Polly +even a glance. + +“Yes, it is,” said he. + +The Queen put her other hand under his chin and forced it up so that she +could see his face better. Digory tried to stare back but he soon had to let his +eyes drop. There was something about hers that overpowered him. + +After she had studied him for well over a minute, she let go of his chin and +said: + +“You are no magician. The mark of it is not on you. You must be only the +servant of a magician. It is on another’s Magic that you have travelled here.” + +“It was my Uncle Andrew,” said Digory. + +At the moment, not in the room itself but from somewhere very close, there +came, first a rumbling, then a creaking, and then a roar of falling masonry, and +the floor shook. + + + +“There is great peril here,” said the Queen. “The whole palace is breaking +up. If we are not out of it in a few minutes we shall be buried under the ruin.” +She spoke as calmly as if she had been merely mentioning the time of day. +“Come,” she added, and held out a hand to each of the children. Polly, who was +disliking the Queen and feeling rather sulky, would not have let her hand be +taken if she could have helped it. But though the Queen spoke so calmly, her +movements were as quick as thought. Before Polly knew what was happening +her left hand had been caught in a hand so much larger and stronger than her +own that she could do nothing about it. + +“This is a terrible woman,” thought Polly. “She’s strong enough to break my +arm with one twist. And now that she’s got my left hand I can’t get at my yellow +ring. If I tried to stretch across and get my right hand into my left pocket I +mightn’t be able to reach it, before she asked me what I was doing. Whatever +happens we mustn’t let her know about the rings. I do hope Digory has the sense +to keep his mouth shut. I wish I could get a word with him alone.” + +The Queen led them out of the Hall of Images into a long corridor and then +through a whole maze of halls and stairs and courtyards. Again and again they +heard parts of the great palace collapsing, sometimes quite close to them. Once a +huge arch came thundering down only a moment after they had passed through +it. The Queen was walking quickly - the children had to trot to keep up with her +but she showed no sign of fear. Digory thought, “She’s wonderfully brave. And +strong. She’s what I call a Queen! I do hope she’s going to tell us the story of +this place.” + +She did tell them certain things as they went along: + +“That is the door to the dungeons,” she would say, or “That passage leads to +the principal torture chambers,” or “This was the old banqueting hall where my +greatgrandfather bade seven hundred nobles to a feast and killed them all before +they had drunk their fill. They had had rebellious thoughts.” + +They came at last into a hall larger and loftier than any they had yet seen. +From its size and from the great doors at the far end, Digory thought that now at +last they must be coming to the main entrance. In this he was quite right. The +doors were dead black, either ebony or some black metal which is not found in +our world. They were fastened with great bars, most of them too high to reach +and all too heavy to lift. He wondered how they would get out. + +The Queen let go of his hand and raised her arm. She drew herself up to her +full height and stood rigid. Then she said something which they couldn’t +understand (but it sounded horrid) and made an action as if she were throwing +something towards the doors. And those high and heavy doors trembled for a +second as if they were made of silk and then crumbled away till there was + + + +nothing left of them but a heap of dust on the threshold. + +“Whew!” whistled Digory. + +“Has your master magician, your uncle, power like mine?” asked the Queen, +firmly seizing Digory’s hand again. “But I shall know later. In the meantime, +remember what you have seen. This is what happens to things, and to people, +who stand in my way.” + +Much more light than they had yet seen in that country was pouring in +through the now empty doorway, and when the Queen led them out through it +they were not surprised to find themselves in the open air. The wind that blew in +their faces was cold, yet somehow stale. They were looking from a high terrace +and there was a great landscape out below them. + +Low down and near the horizon hung a great, red sun, far bigger than our +sun. Digory felt at once that it was also older than ours: a sun near the end of its +life, weary of looking down upon that world. To the left of the sun, and higher +up, there was a single star, big and bright. Those were the only two things to be +seen in the dark sky; they made a dismal group. And on the earth, in every +direction, as far as the eye could reach, there spread a vast city in which there +was no living thing to be seen. And all the temples, towers, palaces, pyramids, +and bridges cast long, disastrous-looking shadows in the light of that withered +sun. Once a great river had flowed through the city, but the water had long since +vanished, and it was now only a wide ditch of grey dust. + +“Look well on that which no eyes will ever see again,” said the Queen. +“Such was Charn, that great city, the city of the King of Kings, the wonder of the +world, perhaps of all worlds. Does your uncle rule any city as great as this, +boy?” + +“No,” said Digory. He was going to explain that Uncle Andrew didn’t rule +any cities, but the Queen went on: + +“It is silent now. But I have stood here when the whole air was full of the +noises of Charn; the trampling of feet, the creaking of wheels, the cracking of the +whips and the groaning of slaves, the thunder of chariots, and the sacrificial +drums beating in the temples. I have stood here (but that was near the end) when +the roar of battle went up from every street and the river of Charn ran red.” She +paused and added, “All in one moment one woman blotted it out for ever.” + +“Who?” said Digory in a faint voice; but he had already guessed the answer. + +“I,” said the Queen. “I, Jadis the last Queen, but the Queen of the World.” + +The two children stood silent, shivering in the cold wind. + +“It was my sister’s fault,” said the Queen. “She drove me to it. May the curse +of all the Powers rest upon her forever! At any moment I was ready to make +peace - yes and to spare her life too, if only she would yield me the throne. But + + + +she would not. Her pride has destroyed the whole world. Even after the war had +begun, there was a solemn promise that neither side would use Magic. But when +she broke her promise, what could I do? Fool! As if she did not know that I had +more Magic than she! She even knew that I had the secret of the Deplorable +Word. Did she think - she was always a weakling - that I would not use it?” + +“What was it?” said Digory. + +“That was the secret of secrets,” said the Queen Jadis. “It had long been +known to the great kings of our race that there was a word which, if spoken with +the proper ceremonies, would destroy all living things except the one who spoke +it. But the ancient kings were weak and softhearted and bound themselves and +all who should come after them with great oaths never even to seek after the +knowledge of that word. But I learned it in a secret place and paid a terrible price +to learn it. I did not use it until she forced me to it. I fought to overcome her by +every other means. I poured out the blood of my armies like water -“ + +“Beast!” muttered Polly. + +“The last great battle,” said the Queen, “raged for three days here in Cham +itself. For three days I looked down upon it from this very spot. I did not use my +power till the last of my soldiers had fallen, and the accursed woman, my sister, +at the head of her rebels was halfway up those great stairs that lead up from the +city to the terrace. Then I waited till we were so close that we could see one +another’s faces. She flashed her horrible, wicked eyes upon me and said, +“Victory.” “Yes,” said I, “Victory, but not yours.” Then I spoke the Deplorable +Word. A moment later I was the only living thing beneath the sun.”, + +“But the people?” gasped Digory. + +“What people, boy?” asked the Queen. + +“All the ordinary people,” said Polly, “who’d never done you any harm. And +the women, and the children, and the animals.” + +“Don’t you understand?” said the Queen (still speaking to Digory). “I was +the Queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my +will?” + +“It was rather hard luck on them, all the same,” said he. + +“I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you +understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong +for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. +The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. +Ours is a high and lonely destiny.” + +Digory suddenly remembered that Uncle Andrew had used exactly the same +words. But they sounded much grander when Queen Jadis said them; perhaps +because Uncle Andrew was not seven feet tall and dazzlingly beautiful. + + + +“And what did you do then?” said Digory. + +“I had already cast strong spells on the hall where the images of my +ancestors sit. And the force of those spells was that I should sleep among them, +like an image myself, and need neither food nor fire, though it were a thousand +years, till one came and struck the bell and awoke me.” + +“Was it the Deplorable Word that made the sun like that?” asked Digory. + +“Like what?” said Jadis + +“So big, so red, and so cold.” + +“It has always been so,” said Jadis. “At least, for hundreds of thousands of +years. Have you a different sort of sun in your world?” + +“Yes, it’s smaller and yellower. And it gives a good deal more heat.” + +The Queen gave a long drawn “A-a-ah!” And Digory saw on her face that +same hungry and greedy look which he had lately seen on Uncle Andrew’s. +“So,” she said, “yours is a younger world.” + +She paused for a moment to look once more at the deserted city - and if she +was sorry for all the evil she had done there, she certainly didn’t show it - and +then said: “Now, let us be going. It is cold here at the end of all a the ages.” + +“Going where?” asked both the children. + +“Where?” repeated Jadis in surprise. “To your world, of course.” + +Polly and Digory looked at each other, aghast. Polly had disliked the Queen +from the first; and even Digory, now that he had heard the story, felt that he had +seen quite as much of her as he wanted. Certainly, she was not at all the sort of +person one would like to take home. And if they did like, they didn’t know how +they could. What they wanted was to get away themselves: but Polly couldn’t +get at her ring and of course Digory couldn’t go without her. Digory got very red +in the face and stammered. + +“Oh - oh - our world. I d-didn’t know you wanted to go there.” + +“What else were you sent here for if not to fetch me?” asked Jadis. + +“I’m sure you wouldn’t like our world at all,” said Digory. “It’s not her sort +of place, is it Polly? It’s very dull; not worth seeing, really.” + +“It will soon be worth seeing when I rule it,” answered the Queen. + +“Oh, but you can’t,” said Digory. “It’s not like that. They wouldn’t let you, +you know.” + +The Queen gave a contemptuous smile. “Many great kings,” she said, +“thought they could stand against the House of Charn. But they all fell, and their +very names are forgotten. Foolish boy! Do you think that I, with my beauty and +my Magic, will not have your whole world at my feet before a year has passed? +Prepare your incantations and take me there at once.” + +“This is perfectly frightful,” said Digory to Polly. + + + +“Perhaps you fear for this Unde of yours,” said Jadis. “But if he honours me +duly, he shall keep his life and his throne. I am not coming to fight against him. +He must be a very great Magician, if he has found how to send you here. Is he +King of your whole world or only of part?” + +“He isn’t King of anywhere,” said Digory. + +“You are lying,” said the Queen. “Does not Magic always go with the royal +blood? Who ever heard of common people being Magicians? I can see the truth +whether you speak it or not. Your Uncle is the great King and the great +Enchanter of your world. And by his art he has seen the shadow of my face, in +some magic mirror or some enchanted pool; and for the love of my beauty he +has made a potent spell which shook your world to its foundations and sent you +across the vast gulf between world and world to ask my favour and to bring me +to him. Answer me: is that not how it was?” + +“Well, not exactly,” said Digory. + +“Not exactly,” shouted Polly. “Why, it’s absolute bosh from beginning to +end.” + +“Minions!” cried the Queen, turning in rage upon Polly and seizing her hair, +at the very top of her head where it hurts most. But in so doing she let go of both +the children’s hands. “Now,” shouted Digory; and “Quick! shouted Polly. They +plunged their left hands into their pockets. They did not even need to put the +rings on. The moment they touched them, the whole of that dreary, world +vanished from their eyes. They were rushing upward and a warm green light was +growing nearer over head. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +THE BEGINNING OF UNCLE ANDREW’S TROUBLES + +“LET go! Let go!” screamed Polly. + +Tm not touching you!” said Digory. + +Then their heads came out of the pool and, once more, the sunny quietness of +the Wood between the Worlds was all about them, and it seemed richer and +warmer and more peaceful than ever after the staleness and ruin of the place they +had just left. I think that, if they had been given the chance, they would again +have forgotten who they were and where they came from and would have lain +down and enjoyed themselves, half asleep, listening to the growing of the trees. +But this time there was something that kept them as wide-awake as possible: for +as soon as they had got out on to the grass, they found that they were not alone. +The Queen, or the Witch (whichever you like to call her) had come up with +them, holding on fast by Polly’s hair. That was why Polly had been shouting out +“Let go!” + +This proved, by the way, another thing about the rings which Uncle Andrew +hadn’t told Digory because he didn’t know it himself. In order to jump from +world to world by one of those rings you don’t need to be wearing or touching it +yourself; it is enough if you are touching someone who is touching it. In that +way they work like a magnet; and everyone knows that if you pick up a pin with +a magnet, any other pin which is touching the first pin will come too. + +Now that you saw her in the wood, Queen Jadis looked different. She was +much paler than she had been; so pale that hardly any of her beauty was left. +And she was stooped and seemed to be finding it hard to breathe, as if the air of +that place stifled her. Neither of the children felt in the least afraid of her now. + +“Let go! Let go of my hair,” said Polly. “What do you mean by it?” + +“Here! Let go of her hair. At once,” said Digory. + +They both turned and struggled with her. They were stronger than she and in +a few seconds they had forced her to let go. She reeled back, panting, and there +was a look of terror in her eyes. + +“Quick, Digory!” said Polly. “Change rings and into’ the home pool.” + +“Help! Help! Mercy!” cried the Witch in a faint voice, staggering after them. +“Take me with you. You cannot, mean to leave me in this horrible place. It is +killing me.” + +“It’s a reason of State,” said Polly spitefully. “Like when you killed all those +people in your own world. Do be quick, Digory.” They had put on their green + + + +rings, but Digory said: + +“Oh bother! What are we to do?” He couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for +the Queen. + +“Oh don’t be such an ass,” said Polly. “Ten to one she’s only shamming. Do +come on.” And then both children plunged into the home pool. “It’s a good thing +we made that mark,” thought Polly. But as they jumped Digory felt that a large +cold finger and thumb had caught him by the ear. And as they sank down and the +confused shapes of our own world began to appear, the grip of that finger and +thumb grew stronger. The Witch was apparently recovering her strength. Digory +struggled and kicked, but it was not of the least use. In a moment they found +themselves in Uncle Andrew’s study; and there was Uncle Andrew himself, +staring at the wonderful creature that Digory had brought back from beyond the +world. + +And well he might stare. Digory and Polly stared too. There was no doubt +that the Witch had got over her faintness; and now that one saw her in our own +world, with ordinary things around her, she fairly took one’s breath away. In +Charn she had been alarming enough: in London, she was terrifying. For one +thing, they had not realized till now how very big she was. “Hardly human” was +what Digory thought when he looked at her; and he may have been right, for +some say there is giantish blood in the royal family of Charn. But even her +height was nothing compared with her beauty, her fierceness, and her wildness. +She looked ten times more alive than most of the people one meets in London. +Uncle Andrew was bowing and rubbing his hands and looking, to tell the truth, +extremely frightened. He seemed a little shrimp of a creature beside the Witch. +And yet, as Polly said after + +wards, there was a sort of likeness between her face and his, something in the +expression. It was the look that all wicked Magicians have, the “Mark” which +Jadis had said she could not find in Digory’s face. One good thing about seeing +the two together was that you would never again be afraid of Uncle Andrew, any +more than you’d be afraid of a worm after you had met a rattlesnake or afraid of +a cow after you had met a mad bull. + +“Pooh!” thought Digory to himself. “Him a Magician! + +Not much. Now she’s the real thing.” + +Uncle Andrew kept on rubbing his hands and bowing. He was trying to say +something very polite, but his mouth had gone all dry so that he could not speak. +His “experiment” with the rings, as he called it, was turning out more successful +than he liked: for though he had dabbled in Magic for years he had always left +all the dangers (as far as one can) to other people. Nothing at all like this had +ever happened to him before. + + + +Then Jadis spoke; not very loud, but there was something in her voice that +made the whole room quiver. + +“Where is the Magician who has called me into this world?” + +“Ah - ah - Madam,” gasped Uncle Andrew, “I am most honoured - highly +gratified - a most unexpected, pleasure - if only I had had the opportunity of +making any preparations -1 -1 -“ + +“Where is the Magician, Fool?” said Jadis. + +“I - I am, ‘Madam. I hope you will excuse any - er -. liberty these naughty +children may have taken. I assure you, there was no intention -“ + +“You?” said the Queen in a still more terrible voice. Then, in one stride, she +crossed the room, seized a great handful of Uncle Andrew’s grey hair and pulled +his head back so that his face looked up into hers. Then she studied his face as +she had studied Digory’s face in the palace of Cham. He blinked and licked his +lips nervously all the time. At last she let him go: so suddenly that he reeled back +against the wall. + +“I see,” she said scornfully, “you are a Magician - of a sort. Stand up, dog, +and don’t sprawl there as if you were speaking to your equals. How do you come +to know Magic? You are not of royal blood, I’ll swear.” + +“Well - ah - not perhaps in the strict sense,” stammered Uncle Andrew. “Not +exactly royal, Ma’am. The Ketterleys are, however, a very old family. An old +Dorsetshire family, Ma’am.” + +“Peace,” said the Witch. “I see what you are. You are a little, peddling +Magician who works by rules and books. There is no real Magic in your blood +and heart. Your kind was made an end of in my world a thousand years ago. But +here I shall allow you to be my servant.” + +“I should be most happy - delighted to be of any service - a p-pleasure, I +assure you.” + +“Peace! You talk far too much. Listen to your first task. I see we are in a +large city. Procure for me at once a chariot or a flying carpet or a well-trained +dragon, or whatever is usual for royal and noble persons in your land. Then bring +me to places where I can get clothes and jewels and slaves fit for my rank. +Tomorrow I will begin the conquest of the world.” + +“I -1 - I’ll go and order a cab at once,” gasped Uncle Andrew. + +“Stop,” said the Witch, just as he reached the door. “Do not dream of +treachery. My eyes can see through walls and into the minds of men. They will +be on you wherever you go. At the first sign of disobedience I will lay such +spells on you that anything you sit down on will feel like red hot iron and +whenever you lie in a bed there will be invisible blocks of ice at your feet. Now + +go.” + + + +The old man went out, looking like a dog with its tail between its legs. + +The children were now afraid that Jadis would have something to say to +them about what had happened in the wood. As it turned out, however, she never +mentioned it either then or afterwards. I think (and Digory thinks too) that her +mind was of a sort which cannot remember that quiet place at all, and however +often you took her there and however long you left her there, she would still +know nothing about it. Now that she was left alone with the children, she took +no notice of either of them. And that was like her too. In Charn she had taken no +notice of Pony (till the very end) because Digory was the one she wanted to +make use of. Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I +expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people +unless they can use them; they are terribly practical. So there was silence in the +room for a minute or two. But you could tell by the way Jadis tapped her foot on +the floor that she was growing impatient. + +Presently she said, as if to herself, “What is the old fool doing? I should have +brought a whip.” She stalked out of the room in pursuit of Uncle Andrew +without one glance at the children. + +“Whew!” said Polly, letting out a long breath of relief. “And now I must get +home. It’s frightfully late. I shall catch it.” + +“Well do, do come back as soon as you can,” said Digory. “This is simply +ghastly, having her here. We must make some sort of plan.” + +“That’s up to your Uncle now,” said Polly. “It was he who started all this +messing about with Magic.” + +“All the same, you will come back, won’t you? Hang it all, you can’t leave +me alone in a scrape like this.” + +“I shall go home by the tunnel,” said Polly rather coldly. “That’ll be the +quickest way. And if you want me to come back, hadn’t you better say you’re +sorry?” + +“Sorry?” exclaimed Digory. “Well now, if that isn’t just like a girl! What +have I done?” + +“Oh nothing of course,” said Polly sarcastically. “Only nearly screwed my +wrist off in that room with all the waxworks, like a cowardly bully. Only struck +the bell with the hammer, like a silly idiot. Only turned back in the wood so that +she had time to catch hold of you before we jumped into our own pool. That’s +all.” + +“Oh,” said Digory, very surprised. “Well, alright, I’ll say I’m sorry. And I +really am sorry about what happened in the waxworks room. There: I’ve said +I’m sorry. And now, do be decent and come back. I shall be in a frightful hole if +you don’t.” + + + +“I don’t see what’s going to happen to you. It’s Mr Ketterley who’s going to +sit on red hot chairs and have ice in his bed, isn’t it?” + +“It isn’t that sort of thing,” said Digory. “What I’m bothered about is Mother. +Suppose that creature went into her room. She might frighten her to death.” + +“Oh, I see,” said Polly in rather a different voice. “Alright. We’ll call it Pax. +I’ll come back - if I can. But I must go now.” And she crawled through the little +door into the tunnel; and that dark place among the rafters which had seemed so +exciting and adventurous a few hours ago, seemed quite tame and homely now. + +We must now go back to Uncle Andrew. His poor old heart went pit-a-pat as +he staggered down the attic stairs and he kept on dabbing at his forehead with a +handkerchief. When he reached his bedroom, which was the floor below, he +locked himself in. And the very first thing he did was to grope in his wardrobe +for a bottle and a wine-glass which he always kept hidden there where Aunt +Letty could not find them. He poured himself out a glassful of some nasty, +grown-up drink and drank it off at one gulp. Then he drew a deep breath. + +“Upon my word,” he said to himself. “I’m dreadfully shaken. Most +upsetting! And at my time of life!” + +He poured out a second glass and drank it too; then he began to change his +clothes. You have never seen such clothes, but I can remember them. He put on a +very high, shiny, stiff collar of the sort that made you hold your chin up all the +time. He put on a white waistcoat with a pattern on it and arranged his gold +watch chain across the front. He put on his best frock-coat, the one he kept for +weddings and funerals. He got out his best tall hat and polished it up. There was +a vase of flowers (put there by Aunt Letty) on his dressing table; he took one and +put it in his buttonhole. He took a clean handkerchief (a lovely one such as you +couldn’t buy today) out of the little lefthand drawer and put a few drops of scent +on it. He took his eye-glass, with the thick black ribbon, and screwed it into his +eye; then he looked at himself in the mirror. + +Children have one kind of silliness, as you know, and grown-ups have +another kind. At this moment Uncle Andrew was beginning to be silly in a very +grown-up way. Now that the Witch was no longer in the same room with him he +was quickly forgetting how she had frightened him and thinking more and more +of her wonderful beauty. He kept on saying to himself, “A dem fine woman, sir, +a dem fine woman. A superb creature.” He had also somehow managed to forget +that it was the children who had got hold of this “superb creature”: he felt as if +he himself by his Magic had called her out of unknown worlds. + +“Andrew, my boy,” he said to himself as he looked in the glass, “you’re a +devilish well preserved fellow for your age. A distinguished-looking man, sir.” + +You see, the foolish old man was actually beginning to imagine the Witch + + + +would fall in love with him. The two drinks probably had something to do with +it, and so had his best clothes. But he was, in any case, as vain as a peacock; that +was why he had become a Magician. + +He unlocked’ the door, went downstairs, sent the housemaid out to fetch a +hansom (everyone had lots of servants in those days) and looked into the +drawingroom. There, as he expected, he found Aunt Letty. She was busily +mending a mattress. It lay on the floor near the window and she was kneeling on +it. + +“Ah, Letitia my dear,” said Uncle Andrew, “I - ah have to go out. Just lend +me five pounds or so, there’s a good gel.” (”Gel” was the way he pronounced +girl.) + +“No, Andrew dear,” said Aunty Letty in her firm, quiet voice, without +looking up from her work. “I’ve told you times without number that I will not +lend you money.” + +“Now pray don’t be troublesome, my dear gel,” said Uncle Andrew. “It’s +most important. You will put me in a deucedly awkward position if you don’t.” + +“Andrew,” said Aunt Letty, looking him straight in the face, “I wonder you +are not ashamed to ask me for money.” + +There was a long, dull story of a grown-up kind behind these words. All you +need to know about it is that Uncle Andrew, what with “managing dear Letty’s +business matters for her”, and never doing any work, and running up large bills +for brandy and cigars (which Aunt Letty had paid again and again) had made her +a good deal poorer than she had been thirty years ago. + +“My dear gel,” said Uncle Andrew, “you don’t understand. I shall have some +quite unexpected expenses today. I have to do a little entertaining. Come now, +don’t be tiresome.” + +“And who, pray, are you going to entertain, Andrew?” asked Aunt Letty. + +“A - a most distinguished visitor has just arrived.” + +“Distinguished fiddlestick!” said Aunt Letty. “There hasn’t been a ring at the +hell for the last hour.” + +At that moment the door was suddenly flung open. Aunt Letty looked round +and saw with amazement that an enormous woman, splendidly dressed, with +bare arms and flashing eyes, stood in the doorway. It was the Witch. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +WHAT HAPPENED AT THE FRONT DOOR + +“Now; slave, how long am I to wait for my chariot?” thundered the Witch. +Uncle Andrew cowered away from her. Now that she was really present, all the +silly thoughts he had had while looking at himself in the glass were oozing out +of him. But Aunt Letty at once got up from her knees and came over to the +centre of the room. + +“And who is this young person, Andrew, may I ask?” said Aunt Letty in icy +tones. + +“Distinguished foreigner - v-very important p-person,” he stammered. + +“Rubbish!” said Aunt Letty, and then, turning to the Witch, “Get out of my +house this moment, you shameless hussy, or I’ll send for the police.” She +thought the Witch must be someone out of a circus and she did not approve of +bare arms. + +“What woman is this?” said Jadis. “Down on your knees, minion, before I +blast you.” + +“No strong language in this house if you please, young woman,” said Aunt +Letty. + +Instantly, as it seemed to Uncle Andrew, the Queen towered up to an even +greater height. Fire flashed from her eyes: she flung out her arm with the same +gesture and the same horrible-sounding words that had lately turned the +palacegates of Cham to dust. But nothing happened except that Aunt Letty, +thinking that those horrible words were meant to be ordinary English, said: + +“I thought as much. The woman is drunk. Drunk! She can’t even speak +clearly.” + +It must have been a terrible moment for the Witch when she suddenly +realized that her power of turning people into dust, which had been quite real in +her own world, was not going to work in ours. But she did not lose her nerve +even for a second. Without wasting a thought on her disappointment, she lunged +forward, caught Aunt Letty round the neck and the knees, raised her high above +her head as if she had been no heavier than a doll, and threw her across the +room. While Aunt Letty was still hurtling through the air, the housemaid (who +was having a beautifully exciting morning) put her head in at the door and said, +“If you please, sir, the ‘ansom’s come.” + +“Lead on, Slave,” said the Witch to Uncle Andrew. He began muttering +something about “regrettable violence must really protest”, but at a single glance + + + +from Jadis he became speechless. She drove him out of the room and out of the +house; and Digory came running down the stairs just in time to see the front door +close behind them. + +“Jiminy!” he said. “She’s loose in London. And with Uncle Andrew. I +wonder what on earth is going to happen now.” + +“Oh, Master Digory,” said the housemaid (who was really having a +wonderful day), “I think Miss Ketterley’s hurt herself somehow.” So they both +mshed into the drawing-room to find out what had happened. + +If Aunt Letty had fallen on bare boards or even on the carpet, I suppose all +her bones would have been broken: but by great good luck she had fallen on the +mattress. Aunt Letty was a very tough old lady: aunts often were in those days. +After she had had some sal volatile and sat still for a few minutes, she said there +was nothing the matter with her except a few bruises. Very soon she was taking +charge of the situation. + +“Sarah,” she said to the housemaid (who had never had such a day before), +“go around to the police station at once and tell them there is a dangerous lunatic +at large. I will take Mrs Kirke’s lunch up myself.” Mrs Kirke was, of course, +Digory’s mother. + +When Mother’s lunch had been seen to, Digory and Aunt Letty had their +own. After that he did some hard thinking. + +The problem was how to get the Witch back to her own world, or at any rate +out of ours, as soon as possible. Whatever happened, she must not be allowed to +go rampaging about the house. Mother must not see her. + +And, if possible, she must not be allowed to go rampaging about London +either. Digory had not been in the drawingroom when she tried to “blast” Aunt +Letty, but he had seen her “blast” the gates at Charn: so he knew her terrible +powers and did not know that she had lost any of them by coming into our +world. And he knew she meant to conquer our world. At the present moment, as +far as he could see, she might be blasting Buckingham Palace or the Houses of +Parliament: and it was almost certain that quite a number of policemen had by +now been reduced to little heaps of dust. And there didn’t seem to be anything he +could do about that. “But the rings seem to work like magnets,” thought Digory. +“If I can only touch her and then slip on my yellow, we shall both go into the +Wood between the Worlds. I wonder will she go all faint again there? Was that +something the place does to her, or was it only the shock of being pulled out of +her own world? But I suppose I’ll have to risk that. And how am I to find the +beast? I don’t suppose Aunt Letty would let me go out, not unless I said where I +was going. And I haven’t got more than twopence. I’d need any amount of +money for buses and trams if I went looking all over London. Anyway, I haven’t + + + +the faintest idea where to look. I wonder if Uncle Andrew is still with her.” + +It seemed in the end that the only thing he could do was to wait and hope that +Uncle Andrew and the Witch would come back. If they did, he must rush out and +get hold of the Witch and put on his yellow Ring before she had a chance to get +into the house. This meant that he must watch the front door like a cat watching +a mouse’s hole; he dared not leave his post for a moment. So he went into the +dining-room and “glued his face” as they say, to the window. It was a bow- +window from which you could see the steps up to the front door and see up and +down the street, so that no one could reach the front door without your knowing. +“I wonder what Polly’s doing?” thought Digory. + +He wondered about this a good deal as the first slow half-hour ticked on. But +you need not wonder, for I am going to tell you. She had got home late for her +dinner, with her shoes and stockings very wet. And when they asked her where +she had been and what on earth she had been doing, she said she had been out +with Digory Kirke. Under further questioning she said she had got her feet wet +in a pool of water, and that the pool was in a wood. Asked where the wood was, +she said she didn’t know. Asked if it was in one of the parks, she said truthfully +enough that she supposed it might be a sort of park. From all of this Polly’s +mother got the idea that Polly had gone off, without telling anyone, to some part +of London she didn’t know, and gone into a strange park and amused herself +jumping into puddles. As a result she was told that she had been very naughty +indeed and that she wouldn’t be allowed to play with “that Kirke boy” any more +if anything of the sort ever happened again. Then she was given dinner with all +the nice parts left out and sent to bed for two solid hours. It was a thing that +happened to one quite often in those days. + +So while Digory was staring out of the dining-room window, Polly was lying +in bed, and both were thinking how terribly slowly the time could go. I think, +myself, I would rather have been in Polly’s position. She had only to wait for the +end of her two hours: but every few minutes Digory would hear a cab or a +baker’s van or a butcher’s boy coming round the corner and think “Here she +comes”, and then find it wasn’t. And in between these false alarms, for what +seemed hours and hours, the clock ticked on and one big fly - high up and far out +of reach buzzed against the window. It was one of those houses that get very +quiet and dull in the afternoon and always seem to smell of mutton. + +During his long watching and waiting one small thing happened which I +shall have to mention because something important came of it later on. A lady +called with some grapes for Digory’s Mother; and as the dining-room door was +open, Digory couldn’t help overhearing Aunt Letty and the lady as they talked in +the hall. + + + +“What lovely grapes!” came Aunt Letty’s voice. “I’m sure if anything could +do her good these would. But poor, dear little Mabel! I’m afraid it would need +fruit from the land of youth to help her now. Nothing in this world will do +much.” Then they both lowered their voices and said a lot more that he could not +hear. + +If he had heard that bit about the land of youth a few days ago he would have +thought Aunt Letty was just talking without meaning anything in particular, the +way grown-ups do, and it wouldn’t have interested him. He almost thought so +now. But suddenly it flashed upon his mind that he now knew (even if Aunt +Letty didn’t) that there really were other worlds and that he himself had been in +one of them. At that rate there might be a real Land of Youth somewhere. There +might be almost anything. There might be fruit in some other world that would +really cure his mother! And oh, oh - Well, you know how it feels if you begin +hoping for something that you want desperately badly; you almost fight against +the hope because it is too good to be true; you’ve been disappointed so often +before. That was how Digory felt. But it was no good trying to throttle this hope. +It might really, really, it just might be true. So many odd things had happened +already. And he had the magic rings. There must be worlds you could get to +through every pool in the wood. He could hunt through them all. And then +Mother well again. Everything right again. He forgot all about watching for the +Witch. His hand was already going into the pocket where he kept the yellow +ring, when all at once he herd a sound of galloping. + +“Hullo! What’s that?” thought Digory. “Fire-engine? I wonder what house is +on fire. Great Scott, it’s coming here. Why, it’s Her.” + +I needn’t tell you who he meant by Her. + +First came the hansom. There was no one in the driver’s seat. On the roof - +not sitting, but standing on the roof swaying with superb balance as it came at +full speed round the corner with one wheel in the air - was Jadis the Queen of +Queens and the Terror of Charn. Her teeth were bared, her eyes shone like fire, +and her long hair streamed out behind her like a comet’s tail. She was flogging +the horse without mercy. Its nostrils were wide and red and its sides were spotted +with foam. It galloped madly up to the front door, missing the lamp-post by an +inch, and then reared up on its hind legs. The hansom crashed into the lamp-post +and shattered into several pieces. The Witch, with a magnificent jump, had +sprung clear just in time and landed on the horse’s back. She settled herself +astride and leaned forward, whispering things in its ear. They must have been +things meant not to quiet it but to madden it. It was on its hind legs again in a +moment, and its neigh was like a scream; it was all hoofs and teeth and eyes and +tossing mane. Only a splendid rider could have stayed on its back. + + + +Before Digory had recovered his breath a good many other things began to +happen. A second hansom dashed up close behind the first: out of it there +jumped a fat man in a frock-coat and a policeman. Then came a third hansom +with two more policemen in it. After it, came about twenty people (mostly +errand boys) on bicycles, all ringing their bells and letting out cheers and cat¬ +calls. Last of all came a crowd of people on foot: all very hot with running, but +obviously enjoying themselves. Windows shot up in all the houses of that street +and a housemaid or a butler appeared at every front door. They wanted to see the +fun. + +Meanwhile an old gentleman had begun to struggle shakily out of the ruins +of the first hansom. Several people rushed forward to help him; but as one pulled +him one way and another another, perhaps he would have got out quite as +quickly on his own. Digory guessed that the old gentleman must be Uncle +Andrew but you couldn’t see his face; his tall hat had been bashed down over it. + +Digory rushed out and joined the crowd. + +“That’s the woman, that’s the woman,” cried the fat man, pointing at Jadis. +“Do your duty, Constable. Hundreds and thousands of pounds’ worth she’s taken +out of my shop. Look at that rope of pearls round her neck. That’s mine. And +she’s given me a black eye too, what’s more.” + +“That she ‘as, guv’nor,” said one of the crowd. “And as lovely a black eye as +I’d wish to see. Beautiful bit of work that must ‘ave been. Gor! ain’t she strong +then!” + +“You ought to put a nice raw beefsteak on it, Mister, that’s what it wants,” +said a butcher’s boy. + +“Now then,” said the most important of the policemen, “what’s all this ‘ere?” + +“I tell you she -” began the fat man, when someone else called out: + +“Don’t let the old cove in the cab get away. ‘E put ‘er up to it.” + +The old gentleman, who was certainly Uncle Andrew, had just succeeded in +standing up and was rubbing his bruises. “Now then,” said the policeman, +turning to him, “What’s all this?” + +“Womfle - pomfy - shomf,” came Uncle Andrew’s voice from inside the hat. + +“None of that now,” said the policeman sternly. “You’ll find this is no +laughing matter. Take that ‘at off, see?” + +This was more easily said than done. But after Uncle Andrew had struggled +in vain with the hat for some time, two other policemen seized it by the brim and +forced it off. + +“Thank you, thank you,” said Uncle Andrew in a faint voice. “Thank you. +Dear me, I’m terribly shaken. If someone could give me a small glass of brandy + + + +“Now you attend to me, if you please,” said the policeman, taking out a very +large note book and a very small pencil. “Are you in charge of that there young +woman?” + +“Look out!” called several voices, and the policeman jumped a step +backwards just in time. The horse had aimed a kick at him which would +probably have killed him. Then the Witch wheeled the horse round so that she +faced the crowd and its hind-legs were on the footpath. She had a long, bright +knife in her hand and had been busily cutting the horse free from the wreck of +the hansom. + +All this time Digory had been trying to get into a position from which he +could touch the Witch. This wasn’t at all easy because, on the side nearest to +him, there were too many people. And in order to get round to the other side he +had to pass between the horse’s hoofs and the railings of the “area” that +surrounded the house; for the Ketterleys’ house had a basement. If you know +anything about horses, and especially if you had seen what a state that horse was +in at the moment, you will realize that this was a ticklish thing to do. Digory +knew lots about horses, but he set his teeth and got ready to make a dash for it as +soon as he saw a favourable moment. + +A red-faced man in a bowler hat had now shouldered his way to the front of +the crowd. + +“Hi! P’leeceman,” he said, “that’s my ‘orse what she’s sitting on, same as it’s +my cab what she’s made matchwood of.” + +“One at a time, please, one at a time,” said the policeman. + +“But there ain’t no time,” said the Cabby. “I know that ‘orse better’n you do. +‘Tain’t an ordinary 'orse. ‘Is father was a hofficer’s charger in the cavalry, ‘e +was. And if the young woman goes on hexcitin’ ‘im, there’ll be murder done. +‘Ere, let me get at him.” + +The policeman was only to glad to have a good reason for standing further +away from the horse. The Cabby took a step nearer, looked up at Jadis, and said +in a not unkindly voice: + +“Now, Missie, let me get at ‘is ‘ead, and just you get off. You’re a Lidy, and +you don’t want all these roughs going for you, do you? You want to go ‘ome and +‘ave a nice cup of tea and a lay down quiet like; then you’ll feel ever so much +better.” At the same time he stretched out his hand towards the horse’s head with +the words, “Steady, Strawberry, old boy. Steady now.” + +Then for the first time the Witch spoke. + +“Dog!” came her cold, clear voice, ringing loud above all the other noises. +“Dog, unhand our royal charger. We are the Empress Jadis.” + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +THE FIGHT AT THE LAMP-POST + +“Ho! Her-ipress, are you? We’ll see about that,” said a voice. Then another +voice said, “Three cheers for the Hempress of Colney ‘Atch” and quite a number +joined in. A flush of colour came into the Witch’s face and she bowed ever so +slightly. But the cheers died away into roars of laughter and she saw that they +had only been making fun of her: A change came over her expression and she +changed the knife to her left hand. Then, without warning, she did a thing that +was dreadful to see. Lightly, easily, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the +world, she stretched up her right arm and wrenched off one of the cross-bars of +the lamp-post. If she had lost some magical powers in our world, she had not lost +her strength; she could break an iron bar as if it were a stick of barleysugar. She +tossed her new weapon up in the air, caught it again, brandished it, and urged the +horse forward. + +“Now’s my chance,” thought Digory. He darted between the horse and the +railings and began going forward. If only the brute would stay still for a moment +he might catch the Witch’s heel. As he rushed, he heard a sickening crash and a +thud. The Witch had brought the bar down on the chief policeman’s helmet: the +man fell like a nine-pin. + +“Quick, Digory. This must be stopped,” said a voice beside him. It was Polly, +who had rushed down the moment she was allowed out of bed. + +“You are a brick,” said Digory. “Hold on to me tight. You’d have to manage +the ring. Yellow, remember. And don’t put it on till I shout.” + +There was a second crash and another policeman crumpled up. There came +an angry roar from the crowd: “Pull her down. Get a few paving-stones. Call out +the Military.” But most of them were getting as far away as they could. The +Cabby, however, obviously the bravest as well as the kindest person present, was +keeping close to the horse, dodging this way and that to avoid the bar, but still +trying to catch Strawberry’s head. + +The crowd booed and bellowed again. A stone whistled over Digory’s head. +Then came the voice of the Witch, clear like a great bell, and sounding as if, for +once, she were almost happy. + +“Scum! You shall pay dearly for this when I have conquered your world. Not +one stone of your city will be left. I will make it as Charn, as Felinda, as Sorlois, +as Bramandin.” + +Digory as last caught her ankle. She kicked back with her heel and hit him in + + + +the mouth. In his pain he lost hold. His lip was cut and his mouth full of blood. +From somewhere very close by came the voice of Uncle Andrew in a sort of +trembling scream. “Madam - my dear young lady - for heaven’s sake - compose +yourself.” Digory made a second grab at her heel, and was again shaken off. +More men were knocked down by the iron bar. He made a third grab: caught the +heel: held on tike grim death, shouting to Polly “Go!” then Oh, thank goodness. +The angry, frightened faces had vanished. The angry, frightened voices were +silenced. All except Uncle Andrew’s. Close beside Digory in the darkness, it was +wailing on “Oh, oh, is this delirium? Is it the end? I can’t bear it. It’s not fair. I +never meant to be a Magician. It’s all a misunderstanding. It’s all my +godmother’s fault; I must protest against this. + +In my state of health too. Avery old Dorsetshire family.” + +“Bother!” thought Digory. “We didn’t want to bring him along. My hat, what +a picnic. Are you there, Polly?” + +“Yes, I’m here. Don’t keep on shoving.” + +“I’m not,” began Digory, but before he could say anything more, their heads +came out into the warm, green sunshine of the wood. And as they stepped out of +the pool Polly cried out: + +“Oh look! We’ve-brought the old horse with us too. And Mr Ketterley. And +the Cabby. This is a pretty kettle of fish!” + +As soon as the Witch saw that she was once more in the wood she turned +pale and bent down till her face touched the mane of the horse. You could see +she felt deadly sick. Uncle Andrew was shivering. But Strawberry, the horse, +shook his head, gave a cheerful whinny, and seemed to feel better. He became +quiet for the first time since Digory had seen him. His ears, which had been laid +flat back on his skull, came into their proper position, and the fire went out of his +eyes. + +“That’s right, old boy,” said the Cabby, slapping Strawberry’s neck. “That’s +better. Take it easy.” + +Strawberry did the most natural thing in the world. Being very thirsty (and +no wonder) he walked slowly across to the nearest pool and stepped into it to +have a drink. Digory was still holding the Witch’s heel and Polly was holding +Digory’s hand. One of the Cabby’s hands was on Strawberry; and Uncle +Andrew, still very shaky, had just grabbed on the Cabby’s other hand. + +“Quick,” said Polly, with a look at Digory. “Greens!” + +So the horse never got his drink. Instead, the whole party found themselves +sinking into darkness. Strawberry neighed; Uncle Andrew whimpered. Digory +said, “That was a bit of luck.” + +There was a short pause. Then Polly said, “Oughtn’t we to be nearly there + + + +now?” + +“We do seem to be somewhere,” said Digory. “At least I’m standing on +something solid.” + +“Why, so am I, now that I come to think of it,” said Polly. “But why’s it so +dark? I say, do you think we got into the wrong Pool?” + +“Perhaps this is Cham,” said Digory. “Only we’ve got back in the middle of +the night.” + +“This is not Charn,” came the Witch’s voice. “This is an empty world. This is +Nothing.” + +And really it was uncommonly like Nothing. There were no stars. It was so +dark that they couldn’t see one another at all and it made no difference whether +you kept your eyes shut or open. Under their feet there was a cool, flat +something which might have been earth, and was certainly not grass or wood. +The air was cold and dry and there was no wind. + +“My doom has come upon me,” said the Witch in a voice of horrible +calmness. + +“Oh don’t say that,” babbled Uncle Andrew. “My dear young lady, pray +don’t say such things. It can’t be as bad as that. Ah - Cabman - my good man - +you don’t happen to have a flask about you? A drop of spirits is just what I +need.” + +“Now then, now then,” came the Cabby’s voice, a good firm, hardy voice. +“Keep cool everyone, that’s what I say. No bones broken, anyone? Good. Well +there’s something to be thankful for straight away, and more than anyone could +expect after falling all that way. Now, if we’ve fallen down some diggings - as it +might be for a new station on the Underground - someone will come and get us +out presently, see! And if we’re dead - which I don’t deny it might be - well, you +got to -remember that worse things ‘appen at sea and a chap’s got to die +sometime. And there ain’t nothing to be afraid of if a chap’s led a decent life. +And if you ask me, I think the best thing we could do to pass the time would be +sing a ‘ymn.” + +And he did. He struck up at once a harvest thanksgiving hymn, all about +crops being “safely gathered in”. It was not very suitable to a place which felt as +if nothing had ever grown there since the beginning of time, but it was the one +he could remember best. He had a fine voice and the children joined in; it was +very cheering. Uncle Andrew and the Witch did not join in. + +Towards the end of the hymn Digory felt someone plucking at his elbow and +from a general smell of brandy and cigars and good clothes he decided that it +must be Uncle Andrew. Uncle Andrew was cautiously pulling him away from +the others. When they had gone a little distance, the old man put his mouth so + + + +close to Digory’s ear that it tickled, and whispered: + +“Now, my boy. Slip on your ring. Let’s be off.” + +But the Witch had very good ears. “Fool!” came her voice and she leaped off +the horse. “Have you forgotten that I can hear men’s thoughts? Let go the boy. If +you attempt treachery I will take such vengeance upon you as never was heard of +in all worlds from the beginning.” + +“And,” added Digory, “if you think I’m such a mean pig as to go off and +leave Polly - and the Cabby - and the horse in a place like this, you’re well +mistaken.” + +“You are a very naughty and impertinent little boy,” said Uncle Andrew. + +“Hush!” said the Cabby. They all listened. + +In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. +It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it +was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. +Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its +lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no +words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most +beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it. The +horse seemed to like it too; he gave the sort of whinney a horse would give if, +after years of being a cab-horse, it found itself back in the old field where it had +played as a foal, and saw someone whom it remembered and loved coming +across the field to bring it a lump of sugar. + +“Gawd!” said the Cabby. “Ain’t it lovely?” + +Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice +was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. +They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery +voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was +blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a +summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next +moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out - single stars, +constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There +were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same +time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite +certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the +First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing. + +“Glory be!” said the Cabby. “I’d ha’ been a better man all my life if I’d +known there were things like this.” + +The Voice on the earth was now louder and more triumphant; but the voices +in the sky, after singing loudly with it for a time, began to get fainter. And now + + + +something else was happening. + +Far away, and down near the horizon, the sky began to turn grey. A light +wind, very fresh, began to stir. The sky, in that one place, grew slowly and +steadily paler. You could see shapes of hills standing up dark against it. All the +time the Voice went on singing. + +There was soon light enough for them to see one another’s faces. The Cabby +and the two children had open mouths and shining eyes; they were drinking in +the sound, and they looked as if it reminded them of something. Uncle Andrew’s +mouth was open too, but not open with joy. He looked more as if his chin had +simply dropped away from the rest of his face. His shoulders were stopped and +his knees shook. He was not liking the Voice. If he could have got away from it +by creeping into a rat’s hole, he would have done so. But the Witch looked as if, +in a way, she understood the music better than any of them. Her mouth was shut, +her lips were pressed together, and her fists were clenched. Ever since the song +began she had felt that this whole world was filled with a Magic different from +hers and stronger. She hated it. She would have smashed that whole world, or all +worlds, to pieces, if it would only stop the singing. The horse stood with its ears +well forward, and twitching. Every now and then it snorted and stamped the +ground. It no longer looked like a tired old cab-horse; you could now well +believe that its father had been in battles. + +The eastern sky changed from white to pink and from pink to gold. The +Voice rose and rose, till all the air was shaking with it. And just as it swelled to +the mightiest and most glorious sound it had yet produced, the sun arose. + +Digory had never seen such a sun. The sun above the ruins of Charn had +looked older than ours: this looked younger. You could imagine that it laughed +for joy as it came up. And as its beams shot across the land the travellers could +see for the first time what sort of place they were in. It was a valley through +which a broad, swift river wound its way, flowing eastward towards the sun. +Southward there were mountains, northward there were lower hills. But it was a +valley of mere earth, rock and water; there was not a tree, not a bush, not a blade +of grass to be seen. The earth was of many colours: they were fresh, hot and +vivid. They made you feel excited; until you saw the Singer himself, and then +you forgot everything else. + +It was a Lion. Huge, shaggy, and bright, it stood facing the risen sun. Its +mouth was wide open in song and it was about three hundred yards away. + +“This is a terrible world,” said the Witch. “We must fly at once. Prepare the +Magic.” + +“I quite agree with you, Madam,” said Uncle Andrew. “A most disagreeable +place. Completely uncivilized. If only I were a younger man and had a gun -“ + + + +“Garn!” said the Cabby. “You don’t think you could shoot ‘im, do you?” + +“And who would” said Polly. + +“Prepare the Magic, old fool,” said Jadis. + +“Certainly, Madam,” said Uncle Andrew cunningly. “I must have both the +children touching me. Put on your homeward ring at once, Digory.” He wanted +to get away without the Witch. + +“Oh, it’s rings, is it?” cried Jadis. She would have had her hands in Digory’s +pocket before you could say knife, but Digory grabbed Polly and shouted out: + +“Take care. If either of you come half an inch nearer, we two will vanish and +you’ll be left here for good. Yes: I have a ring in my pocket that will take Polly +and me home. And look! My hand is just ready. So keep your distance. I’m sorry +about you (he looked at the Cabby) and about the horse, but I can’t help that. As +for you two (he looked at Uncle Andrew and the Queen), you’re both magicians, +so you ought to enjoy living together.” + +“‘Old your noise, everyone,” said the Cabby. “I want to listen to the moosic.” + +For the song had now changed. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +THE FOUNDING OF NARNIA + +THE Eion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new +song. It was softer and more lilting than the song by which he had called up the +stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley +grew green with grass. It spread out from the Eion like a pool. It ran up the sides +of the little hills like a wave. In a few minutes it was creeping up the lower +slopes of the distant mountains, making that young world every moment softer. +The light wind could now be heard ruffling the grass. Soon there were other +things besides grass. The higher slopes grew dark with heather. Patches of +rougher and more bristling green appeared in the valley. Digory did not know +what they were until one began coming up quite close to him. It was a little, +spiky thing that threw out dozens of arms and covered these arms with green and +grew larger at the rate of about an inch every two seconds. There were dozens of +these things all round him now. When they were nearly as tall as himself he saw +what they were. “Trees!” he exclaimed. + +The nuisance of it, as Polly said afterwards, was that you weren’t left in +peace to watch it all. Just as Digory said “Trees!” he had to jump because Uncle +Andrew had sidled up to him again and was going to pick his pocket. It wouldn’t +have done Uncle Andrew much good if he had succeeded, for he was aiming at +the right-hand pocket because he still thought the green rings were “homeward” +rings. But of course Digory didn’t want to lose either. + +“Stop!” cried the Witch. “Stand back. No, further back. If anyone goes +within ten paces of either of the children, I will knock out his brains.” She was +poising in her hand the iron bar that she had torn off the lamp-post, ready to +throw it. Somehow no one doubted that she would be a very good shot. + +“So!” -she said. “You would steal back to your own world with the boy and +leave me here.” + +Uncle Andrew’s temper at last got the better of his fears. “Yes, Ma’am, I +would,” he said. “Most undoubtedly I would. I should be perfectly in my rights. I +have been most shamefully, most abominably treated. I have done my best to +show you such civilities as were in my power. And what has been my reward? +You have robbed - I must repeat the word robbed a highly respectable jeweller. +You have insisted on my entertaining you to an exceedingly expensive, not to +say ostentatious, lunch, though I was obliged to pawn my watch and chain in +order to do so (and let me tell you, Ma’am, that none of our family have been in + + + +the habit of frequenting pawnshops, except my cousin Edward, and he was in the +Yeomanry). During that indigestible meal - I’m feeling the worse for it at this +very moment - your behaviour and conversation attracted the unfavourable +attention of everyone present. I feel I have been publicly disgraced. I shall never +be able to show my face in that restaurant again. You have assaulted the police. +You have stolen + +“Oh stow it, Guv’nor, do stow it,” said the Cabby. “Watchin’ and listenin’s +the thing at present; not talking.” + +There was certainly plenty to watch and to listen to. The tree which Digory +had noticed was now a full-grown beech whose branches swayed gently above +his head. They stood on cool, green grass, sprinkled with daisies and buttercups. +A little way off, along the river bank, willows were growing. On the other side +tangles of flowering currant, lilac, wild rose, and rhododendron closed them in. +The horse was tearing up delicious mouthfuls of new grass. + +All this time the Lion’s song, and his stately prowl, to and fro, backwards +and forwards, was going on. What was rather alarming was that at each turn he +came a little nearer. Polly was finding the song more and more interesting +because she thought she was beginning to see the connection between the music +and the things that were happening. When a line of dark firs sprang up on a ridge +about a hundred yards away she felt that they were connected with a series of +deep, prolonged notes which the Lion had sung a second before. And when he +burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses +suddenly appearing in every direction. Thus, with an unspeakable thrill, she felt +quite certain that all the things were coming (as she said) “out of the Lion’s +head”. When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: +when you looked round you, you saw them. This was so exciting that she had no +time to be afraid. But Digory and the Cabby could not help feeling a bit nervous +as each turn of the Lion’s walk brought him nearer. As for Uncle Andrew, his +teeth were chattering, but his knees were shaking so that he could not run away. + +Suddenly the Witch stepped boldly out towards the Lion. It was coming on, +always singing, with a slow, heavy pace. It was only twelve yards away. She +raised her arm and flung the iron bar straight at its head. + +Nobody, least of all Jadis, could have missed at that range. The bar struck the +Lion fair between the eyes. It glanced off and fell with a thud in the grass. The +Lion came on. Its walk was neither slower nor faster than before; you could not +tell whether it even knew it had been hit. Though its soft pads made no noise, +you could feel the earth shake beneath their weight. + +The Witch shrieked and ran: in a few moments she was out of sight among +the trees. Uncle Andrew turned to do likewise, tripped over a root, and fell flat + + + +on his face in a little brook that ran down to join the river. The children could not +move. They were not even quite sure that they wanted to. The Lion paid no +attention to them. Its huge red mouth was open, but open in song not in a snarl. It +passed by them so close that they could have touched its mane. They were +terribly afraid it would turn and look at them, yet in some queer way they wished +it would. But for all the notice it took of them they might just as well have been +invisible and unsmellable. When it had passed them and gone a few paces +further it turned, passed them again, and continued its march eastward. + +Uncle Andrew, coughing and spluttering, picked himself up. + +“Now, Digory,” he said, “we’ve got rid of that woman, and the brute of a lion +is gone. Give me your hand and put on your ring at once.” + +“Keep off,” said Digory, backing away from him. “Keep clear of him, Polly. +Come over here beside me. Now I warn you, Uncle Andrew, don’t come one +step nearer, we’ll just vanish.” + +“Do what you’re told this minute, sir,” said Uncle Andrew. “You’re an +extremely disobedient, ill-behaved little boy.” + +“No fear,” said Digory. “We want to stay and see what happens. I thought +you wanted to know about other worlds. Don’t you like it now you’re here?” + +“Like it!” exclaimed Uncle Andrew. “Just look at the state I’m in. And it was +my best coat and waistcoat, too.” He certainly was a dreadful sight by now: for +of course, the more dressed up you were to begin with, the worse you look after +you’ve crawled out of a smashed hansoncab and fallen into a muddy brook. “I’m +not saying,” he added, “that this is not a most interesting place. If I were a +younger man, now - perhaps I could get some lively young fellow to come here +first. One of those big-game hunters. Something might be made of this country. +The climate is delightful. I never felt such air. I believe it would have done me +good if - if circumstances had been more favourable. If only we’d had a gun.” + +“Guns be blowed,” said the Cabby. “I think I’ll go and see if I can give +Strawberry a rub down. That horse 'as more sense than some ‘umans as I could +mention.” He walked back to Strawberry and began making the hissing noises +that grooms make. + +“Do you still think that Lion could be killed by a gun?” asked Digory. “He +didn’t mind the iron bar much.” + +“With all her faults,” said Uncle Andrew, “that’s a plucky gel, my boy. It was +a spirited thing to do.” He rubbed his hands and cracked his knuckles, as if he +were once more forgetting how the Witch frightened him whenever she was +really there. + +“It was a wicked thing to do,” said Polly. “What harm had he done her?” + +“Hullo! What’s that?” said Digory. He had darted forward to examine + + + +something only a few yards away. “I say, Polly,” he called back. “Do come and +look.” + +Uncle Andrew came with her; not because he wanted to see but because he +wanted to keep close to the children there might be a chance of stealing their +rings. But when he saw what Digory was looking at, even he began to take an +interest. It was a perfect little model of a lamp-post, about three feet high but +lengthening, and thickening in proportion, as they watched it; in fact growing +just as the trees had grown. + +“It’s alive too -1 mean, it’s lit,” said Digory. And so it was; though of course, +the brightness of the sun made the little flame in the lantern hard to see unless +your shadow fell on it. + +“Remarkable, most remarkable,” muttered Uncle Andrew. “Even I never +dreamt of Magic like this. We’re in a world where everything, even a lamp-post, +comes to life and grows. Now I wonder what sort of seed a lamppost grows +from?” + +“Don’t you see?” said Digory. “This is where the bar fell - the bar she tore +off the lamp-post at home. It sank into the ground and now it’s coming up as a +young lamppost.” (But not so very young now; it was as tall as Digory while he +said this.) + +“That’s it! Stupendous, stupendous,” said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands +harder than ever. “Ho, ho! They laughed at my Magic. That fool of a sister of +mine thinks I’m a lunatic. I wonder what they’ll say now? I have discovered a +world where everything is bursting with life and growth. Columbus, now, they +talk about Columbus. But what was America to this? The commercial +possibilities of this country are unbounded. Bring a few old bits of scrap iron +here, bury 'em, and up they come as brand new railway engines, battleships, +anything you please. They’ll cost nothing, and I can sell 'em at full prices in +England. I shall be a millionaire. And then the climate! I feel years younger +already. I can run it as a health resort. A good sanatorium here might be worth +twenty thousand a year. Of course I shall have to let a few people into the secret. +The first thing is to get that brute shot.” + +“You’re just like the Witch,” said Polly. “All you think of is killing things.” + +“And then as regards oneself,” Uncle Andrew continued, in a happy dream. +“There’s no knowing how long I might live if I settled here. And that’s a big +consideration when a fellow has turned sixty. I shouldn’t be surprised if I never +grew a day older in this country! Stupendous! The land of youth!” + +“Oh!” cried Digory. “The land of youth! Do you think it really is?” For of +course he remembered what Aunt Letty had said to the lady who brought the +grapes, and that sweet hope rushed back upon him. “Uncle Andrew”, he said, + + + +“do you think there’s anything here that would cure Mother?” + +“What are you talking about?” said Uncle Andrew. “This isn’t a chemist’s +shop. But as I was saying -“ + +“You don’t care twopence about her,” said Digory savagely. “I thought you +might; after all, she’s your sister as well as my Mother. Well, no matter. I’m jolly +well going to ask the Lion himself if he can help me.” And he turned and walked +briskly away. Polly waited for a moment and then went after him. + +“Here! Stop! Come back! The boy’s gone mad,” said Uncle Andrew. He +followed the children at a cautious distance behind; for he didn’t want to get too +far away from the green rings or too near the Lion. + +In a few minutes Digory came to the edge of the wood and there he stopped. +The Lion was singing still. But now the song had once more changed. It was +more like what we should call a tune, but it was also far wilder. It made you +want to run and jump and climb. It made you want to shout. It made you want to +msh at other people and either hug them or fight them. It made Digory hot and +red in the face. It had some effect on Uncle Andrew, for Digory could hear him +saying, “A spirited gel, sir. It’s a pity about her temper, but a dem fine woman all +the same, a dem fine woman.” But what the song did to the two humans was +nothing compared with what it was doing to the country. + +Can you imagine a stretch of grassy land bubbling like water in a pot? For +that is really the best description of what was happening. In all directions it was +swelling into humps. They were of very different sizes, some no bigger than +mole-hills, some as big as wheel-barrows, two the size of cottages. And the +humps moved and swelled till they burst, and the crumbled earth poured out of +them, and from each hump there came out an animal. The moles came out just as +you might see a mole come out in England. The dogs came out, barking the +moment their heads were free, and stmggling as you’ve seen them do when they +are getting through a narrow hole in a hedge. The stags were the queerest to +watch, for of course the antlers came up a long time before the rest of them, so at +first Digory thought they were trees. The frogs, who all came up near the river, +went straight into it with a plop-plop and a loud croaking. The panthers, leopards +and things of that sort, sat down at once to wash the loose earth off their hind +quarters and then stood up against the trees to sharpen their front claws. Showers +of birds came out of the trees. Butterflies fluttered. Bees got to work on the +flowers as if they hadn’t a second to lose. But the greatest moment of all was +when the biggest hump broke like a small earthquake and out came the sloping +back, the large, wise head, and the four baggy-trousered legs of an elephant. And +now you could hardly hear the song of the Lion; there was so much cawing, +cooing, crowing, braying, neighing, baying, barking, lowing, bleating, and + + + +trumpeting. + +But though Digory could no longer hear the Lion, he could see it. It was so +big and so bright that he could not take his eyes off it. The other animals did not +appear to be afraid of it. Indeed, at that very moment, Digory heard the sound of +hoofs from behind; a second later the old cab-horse trotted past him and joined +the other beasts. (The air had apparently suited him as well as it had suited Uncle +Andrew. He no longer looked like the poor, old slave he had been in London; he +was picking up his feet and holding his head erect.) And now, for the first time, +the Lion was quite silent. He was going to and fro among the animals. And every +now and then he would go up to two of them (always two at a time) and touch +their noses with his. He would touch two beavers among all the beavers, two +leopards among all the leopards, one stag and one deer among all the deer, and +leave the rest. Some sorts of animal he passed over altogether. But the pairs +which he had touched instantly left their own kinds and followed him. At last he +stood still and all the creatures whom he had touched came and stood in a wide +circle around him. The others whom he had not touched began to wander away. +Their noises faded gradually into the distance. The chosen beasts who remained +were now utterly silent, all with their eyes fixed intently upon the Lion. The cat¬ +like ones gave an occasional twitch of the tail but otherwise all were still. For the +first time that day there was complete silence, except for the noise of running +water. Digory’s heart beat wildly; he knew something very solemn was going to +be done. He had not forgotten about his Mother; but he knew jolly well that, +even for her, he couldn’t interrupt a thing like this. + +The Lion, whose eyes never blinked, stared at the animals as hard as if he +was going to burn them up with his mere stare. And gradually a change came +over them. The smaller ones - the rabbits, moles and such-like grew a good deal +larger. The very big ones - you noticed it most with the elephants - grew a little +smaller. Many animals sat up on their hind legs. Most put their heads on one side +as if they were trying very hard to understand. The Lion opened his mouth, but +no sound came from it; he was breathing out, a long, warm breath; it seemed to +sway all the beasts as the wind sways a line of trees. Far overhead from beyond +the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a pure, cold, difficult +music. Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from +the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children’s +bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: + +“Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be +talking beasts. Be divine waters.” + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +THE FIRST JOKE AND OTHER MATTERS + +IT was of course the Lion’s voice. The children had long felt sure that he +could speak: yet it was a lovely and terrible shock when he did. + +Out of the trees wild people stepped forth, gods and goddesses of the wood; +with them came Fauns and Satyrs and Dwarfs. Out of the river rose the river god +with his Naiad daughters. And all these and all the beasts and birds in their +different voices, low or high or thick or clear, replied: + +“Hail, Aslan. We hear and obey. We are awake. We love. We think. We +speak. We know.” + +“But please, we don’t know very much yet,” said a nosey and snorty kind of +voice. And that really did make the children jump, for it was the cab-horse who +had spoken. + +“Good old Strawberry,” said Polly. “I am glad he was one of the ones picked +out to be a Talking Beast.” And the Cabby, who was now standing beside the +children, said, “Strike me pink. I always did say that ‘oss ‘ad a lot of sense, +though.” + +“Creatures, I give you yourselves,” said the strong, happy voice of Aslan. “I +give to you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the +rivers. I give you the stars and I give you myself. The Dumb Beasts whom I have +not chosen are yours also. Treat them gently and cherish them but do not go back +to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken +and into them you can return. Do not so.” + +“No, Aslan, we won’t, we won’t,” said everyone. But one perky jackdaw +added in a loud voice, “No fear!” and everyone else had finished just before he +said it so that his words came out quite clear in a dead silence; and perhaps you +have found out how awful that can be - say, at a party. The Jackdaw became so +embarrassed that it hid its head under its wings as if it was going to sleep. And +all the other animals began making various queer noises which are their ways of +laughing and which, of course, no one has ever heard in our world. They tried at +first to repress it, but Aslan said: + +“Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and +witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with +speech.” + +So they all let themselves go. And there was such merriment that the +Jackdaw himself plucked up courage again and perched on the cab-horse’s head, + + + +between its ears, clapping its wings, and said: + +“Aslan! Aslan! Have I made the first joke? Will everybody always be told +how I made the first joke?” + +“No, little friend,” said the Lion. “You have not made the first joke; you have +only been the first joke.” Then everyone laughed more than ever; but the +Jackdaw didn’t mind and laughed just as loud till the horse shook its head and +the Jackdaw lost its balance and fell off, but remembered its wings (they were +still new to it) before it reached the ground. + +“And now,” said Aslan, “Narnia is established. We must next take thought +for keeping it safe. I will call some of you to my council. Come hither to me, you +the chief Dwarf, and you the River-god, and you Oak and the Owl, and both the +Ravens and the Bull-Elephant. We must talk together. For though the world is +not five hours old an evil has already entered it.” + +The creatures he had named came forward and he turned away eastward with +them. The others all began talking, saying things like “What did he say had +entered the world? - A Neevil - What’s a Neevil? - No, he didn’t say a Neevil, he +said a weevil - Well, what’s that?” + +“Look here,” said Digory to Polly, “I’ve got to go after him - Aslan, I mean, +the Lion. I must speak to him.” + +“Do you think we can?” said Polly. “I wouldn’t dare.” + +“I’ve got to,” said Digory. “It’s about Mother. If anyone could give me +something that would do her good, it would be him.” + +“I’ll come along with you,” said the Cabby. “I liked the looks of ‘im. And I +don’t reckon these other beasts will go for us. And I want a word with old +Strawberry.” + +So all three of them stepped out boldly - or as boldly as they could - towards +the assembly of animals. The creatures were so busy talking to one another and +making friends that they didn’t notice the three humans until they were very +close; nor did they hear Uncle Andrew, who was standing trembling in his +buttoned boots a good way off and shouting (but by no means at the top of his +voice). + +“Digory! Come back! Come back at once when you’re told. I forbid you to +go a step further.” + +When at last they were right in among the animals, the animals all stopped +talking and stared at them. + +“Well?” said the He-Beaver at last, “what, in the name of Aslan, are these?” + +“Please,” began Digory in rather a breathless voice, when a Rabbit said, +“They’re a kind of large lettuce, that’s my belief.” + +“No, we’re not, honestly we’re not,” said Polly hastily. “We’re not at all nice + + + +to eat.” + +“There!” said the Mole. “They can talk. Who ever heard of a talking +lettuce?” + +“Perhaps they’re the Second joke,” suggested the Jackdaw. + +A Panther, which had been washing its face, stopped for a moment to say, +“Well, if they are, they’re nothing like so good as the first one. At least, 1 don’t +see anything very funny about them.” It yawned and went on with its wash. + +“Oh, please,” said Digory. “I’m in such a hurry. I want to see the Lion.” + +All this time the Cabby had been trying to catch Strawberry’s eye. Now he +did. “Now, Strawberry, old boy,” he said. “You know me. You ain’t going to +stand there and say as you don’t know me.” + +“What’s the Thing talking about, Horse?” said several voices. + +“Well,” said Strawberry very slowly, “I don’t exactly know, I think most of +us don’t know much about any + +thing yet. But I’ve a sort of idea I’ve seen a thing like this before. I’ve a +feeling I lived somewhere else - or was something else - before Aslan woke us +all up a few minutes ago. It’s all very muddled. Like a dream. But there were +things like these three in the dream.” + +“What?” said the Cabby. “Not know me? Me what used to bring you a hot +mash of an evening when you was out of sorts? Me what rubbed you down +proper? Me what never forgot to put your cloth on you if you was standing in the +_ cold? I wouldn’t ‘ave thought it of you, Strawberry.” + +“It does begin to come back,” said the Horse thoughtfully. “Yes. Let me think +now, let me think. Yes, you used to tie a horrid black thing behind me and then +hit me to make me run, and however far I ran this black thing would always be +coming rattle-rattle behind me.” + +“We ‘ad our living to earn, see,” said the Cabby. “Yours the same as mine. +And if there ‘adn’t been no work and no whip there’d ‘ave been no stable, no +hay, no mash, and no oats. For you did get a taste of oats when I could afford +‘em, which no one can deny.” + +“Oats?” said the Horse, pricking up his ears. “Yes, I remember something +about that. Yes, I remember more and more. You were always sitting up +somewhere behind, and I was always running in front, pulling you and the black +thing. I know I did all the work.” + +“Summer, I grant you,” said the Cabby. ” ‘Ot work for you and a cool seat +for me. But what about winter, old boy, when you was keeping yourself warm +and I was sitting up there with my feet like ice and my nose fair pinched off me +with the wind, and my ‘ands that numb I couldn’t ‘ardly ‘old the reins?” + +“It was a hard, cruel country,” said Strawberry. “There was no grass. All hard + + + +stones.” + +“Too true, mate, too true!” said the Cabby. “A ‘ard world it was. I always did +say those paving-stones weren’t fair on any ‘oss. That’s Lunn’on, that is. I didn’t +like it no more than what you did. You were a country ‘oss, and I was a country +man. Used to sing in the choir, I did, down at ‘ome. But there wasn’t a living for +me there.” + +“Oh please, please,” said Digory. “Could we get on? The Lion’s getting +further and further away. And I do want to speak to him so dreadfully badly.” + +“Look ‘ere, Strawberry,” said the Cabby. “This young gen’leman ‘as +something on his mind that he wants to talk to the Lion about; ‘im you call +Aslan. Suppose you was to let ‘im ride on your back (which ‘e’d take it very +kindly) and trot ‘im over to where the Lion is. And me and the little girl will be +following along.” + +“Ride?” said Strawberry. “Oh, I remember now. That means sitting on my +back. I remember there used to be a little one of you two-leggers who used to do +that long ago. He used to have little hard, square lumps of some white stuff that +he gave me. They tasted - oh, wonderful, sweeter than grass.” + +“Ah, that’d be sugar,” said the Cabby. + +“Please, Strawberry,” begged Digory, “do, do let me get up and take me to +Aslan.” + +“Well, I don’t mind,” said the Horse. “Not for once in a way. Up you get.” + +“Good old Strawberry,” said the Cabby. “‘Ere, young ‘un, I’ll give you a +lift.” Digory was soon on Strawberry’s back, and quite comfortable, for he had +ridden bare-back before on his own pony. + +“Now, do gee up, Strawberry,” he said. + +“You don’t happen to have a bit of that white stuff about you, I suppose?” +said the Horse. + +“No. I’m afraid I haven’t,” said Digory. + +“Well, it can’t be helped,” said Strawberry, and off they went. + +At that moment a large Bulldog, who had been sniffing and staring very +hard, said: + +“Look. Isn’t there another of these queer creatures over there, beside the +river, under the trees?” + +Then all the animals looked and saw Uncle Andrew, standing very still +among the rhododendrons and hoping he wouldn’t be noticed. + +“Come on!” said several voices. “Let’s go and find out.” So, while +Strawberry was briskly trotting away with Digory in one direction (and Polly +and the Cabby were following on foot) most of the creatures rushed towards +Uncle Andrew with roars, barks, grunts, and various noises of cheerful interest. + + + +We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like +from Uncle Andrew’s point of view. It had not made at’ all the same impression +on him as on the Cabby and the children. For what you see and hear depends a +good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you +are. + +Ever since the animals had first appeared, Uncle Andrew had been shrinking +further and further back into the thicket. He watched them very hard of course; +but he wasn’t really interested in seeing what they were doing, only in seeing +whether they were going to make a rush at him. Like the Witch, he was +dreadfully practical. He simply didn’t notice that Aslan was choosing one pair +out of every kind of beasts. All he saw, or thought he saw, was a lot of dangerous +wild animals walking vaguely about. And he kept on wondering why the other +animals didn’t run away from the big Lion. + +When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole +point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing, +long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song. +And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he +did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the +singer was a lion (’’only a lion,” as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to +make believe that it wasn’t singing and never had been singing - only roaring as +any lion might in a zoo in our own world. “Of course it can’t really have been +singing,” he thought, “I must have imagined it. I’ve been letting my nerves get +out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?” And the longer and more +beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe +that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make +yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle +Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song. Soon he +couldn’t have heard anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the +Lion spoke and said, “Narnia awake,” he didn’t hear any words: he heard only a +snarl. And when the Beasts spoke in answer, he heard only barkings, growlings, +bayings, and howlings. And when they laughed - well, you can imagine. That +was worse for Uncle Andrew than anything that had happened yet. Such a +horrid, bloodthirsty din of hungry and angry brutes he had never heard in his life. +Then, to his utter rage and horror, he saw the other three humans actually +walking out into the open to meet the animals. + +“The fools!” he said to himself. “Now those brutes will eat the rings along +with the children and I’ll never be able to get home again. What a selfish little +boy that Digory is! And the others are just as bad. If they want to throw away +their own lives, that’s their business. But what about me? They don’t seem to + + + +think of that. No one thinks of me.” + +Finally, when a whole crowd of animals came rushing towards him, he +turned and ran for his life. And now anyone could see that the air of that young +world was really doing the old gentleman good. In London he had been far too +old to mn: now, he ran at a speed which would have made him certain to win the +hundred yards’ race at any Prep school in England. His coattails flying out +behind him were a fine sight. But of course it was no use. Many of the animals +behind him were swift ones; it was the first run they had ever taken in their lives +and they were all longing to use their new muscles. “After him! After him!” they +shouted. “Perhaps he’s that Neevil! Tally-ho! Tantivy! Cut him off! Round him +up! Keep it up! Hurrah!” + +In a very few minutes some of them got ahead of him. They lined up in a row +and barred his way. Others hemmed him in from behind. Wherever he looked he +saw terrors. Antlers of great elks and the huge face of an elephant towered over +him. Heavy, serious-minded bears and boars grunted behind him. Cool-looking +leopards and panthers with sarcastic faces (as he thought) stared at him and +waved their tails. What struck him most of all was the number of open mouths. +The animals had really opened their mouths to pant; he thought they had opened +their mouths to eat him. + +Uncle Andrew stood trembling and swaying this way and that. He had never +liked animals at the best of times, being usually rather afraid of them; and of +course years of doing cruel experiments on animals had made him hate and fear +them far more. + +“Now, sir,” said the Bulldog in his business-like way, “are you animal, +vegetable, or mineral?” That was what it really said; but all Uncle Andrew heard +was “Gr-r-rarrh-ow!” + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +DIGORY AND HIS UNCLE ARE BOTH IN TROUBLE + +You may think the animals were very stupid not to see at once that Uncle +Andrew was the same kind of creature as the two children and the Cabby. But +you must remember that the animals knew nothing about clothes. They thought +that Polly’s frock and Digory’s Norfolk suit and the Cabby’s howlet hat were as +much parts of them as their own fur and feathers. They wouldn’t have known +even that those three were all of the same kind if they hadn’t spoken to them and +if Strawberry had not seemed to think so. And Uncle Andrew was a great deal +taller than the children and a good deal thinner than the Cabby. He was all in +black except for his white waistcoat (not very white by now), and the great grey +mop of his hair (now very wild indeed) didn’t look to them like anything they +had seen in the three other humans. So it was only natural that they should be +puzzled. Worst of all, he didn’t seem to be able to talk. + +He had tried to. When the Bulldog spoke to him (or, as he thought, first +snarled and then growled at him) he held out his shaking hand and gasped “Good +Doggie, then, poor old fellow.” But the beasts could not understand him any +more than he could understand them. They didn’t hear any words: only a vague +sizzling noise. Perhaps it was just as well they didn’t, for no dog that I ever +knew, least of all a Talking Dog of Narnia, likes being called a Good Doggie +then; any more than you would like being called My Little Man. + +Then Uncle Andrew dropped down in a dead faint. + +“There!” said a Warthog, “it’s only a tree. I always thought so.” (Remember, +they had never yet seen a faint or even a fall.) + +The Bulldog, who had been sniffing Uncle Andrew all over, raised its head +and said, “It’s an animal. Certainly an animal. And probably the same kind as +those other ones.” + +“I don’t see that,” said one of the Bears. “An animal wouldn’t just roll over +like that. We’re animals and we don’t roll over. We stand up. Like this.” He rose +to his hind legs, took a step backwards, tripped over a low branch and fell flat on +his back. + +“The Third Joke, the Third Joke, the Third joke!” said the Jackdaw in great +excitement. + +“I still think it’s a sort of tree,” said the Warthog. + +“If it’s a tree,” said the other Bear, “there might be a bees’ nest in it.” + +“I’m sure it’s not a tree,” said the Badger. “I had a sort of idea it was trying + + + +to speak before it toppled over.” + +“That was only the wind in its branches,” said the Warthog. + +“You surely don’t mean,” said the Jackdaw to the Badger, “that you think its +a talking animal! It didn’t say any words.” + +“And yet, you know,” said the Elephant (the She Elephant, of course; her +husband, as you remember, had been called away by Aslan). “And yet, you +know, it might be an animal of some kind. Mightn’t the whitish lump at this end +be a sort of face? And couldn’t those holes be eyes and a mouth? No nose, of +course. But then - ahem - one mustn’t be narrow-minded. Very few of us have +what could exactly be called a Nose.” She squinted down the length of her own +trunk with pardonable pride. + +“I object to that remark very strongly,” said the Bulldog. + +“The Elephant is quite right,” said the Tapir. + +“I tell you what!” said the Donkey brightly, “perhaps it’s an animal that can’t +talk but thinks it can.” + +“Can it be made to stand up?” said the Elephant thoughtfully. She took the +limp form of Uncle Andrew gently in her trunk and set him up on end: upside +down, unfortunately, so that two half-sovereigns, three halfcrowns, and a +sixpence fell out of his pocket. But it was no use. Uncle Andrew merely +collapsed again. + +“There!” said several voices. “It isn’t an animal at all, It’s not alive.” + +“I tell you, it is an animal,” said the Bulldog. “Smell it for yourself.” + +“Smelling isn’t everything,” said the Elephant. + +“Why,” said the Bulldog, “if a fellow can’t trust his nose, what is he to +trust?” + +“Well, his brains perhaps,” she replied mildly. + +“I object to that remark very strongly,” said the Bulldog. + +“Well, we must do something about it,” said the Elephant. “Because it may +be the Neevil, and it must be shown to Aslan. What do most of us think? Is it an +animal or something of the tree kind?” + +“Tree! Tree!” said a dozen voices. + +“Very well,” said the Elephant. “Then, if it’s a tree it wants to be planted. We +must dig a hole.” + +The two Moles settled that part of the business pretty quickly. There was +some dispute as to which way up Uncle Andrew ought to be put into the hole, +and he had a very narrow escape from being put in head foremost. Several +animals said his legs must be his branches and therefore the grey, fluffy thing +(they meant his head) must be his root. But then others said that the forked end +of him was the muddier and that it spread out more, as roots ought to do. So + + + +finally he was planted right way up. When they had patted down the earth it +came up above his knees. + +“It looks dreadfully withered,” said the Donkey. + +“Of course it wants some watering,” said the Elephant. + +“I think I might say (meaning no offence to anyone present) that, perhaps, for +that sort of work, my kind of nose -“ + +“I object to that remark very strongly,” said the Bulldog. But the Elephant +walked quietly to the river, filled her trunk with water, and came back to attend +to Uncle Andrew. The sagacious animal went on doing this till gallons of water +had been squirted over him, and water was running out of the skirts of his frock- +coat as if he had been for a bath with all his clothes on. In the end it revived him. +He awoke from his faint. What a wake it was! But we must leave him to think +over his wicked deed (if he was likely to do anything so sensible) and turn to +more important things. + +Strawberry trotted on with Digory on his back till the noise of the other +animals died away, and now the little group of Aslan and his chosen councillors +was quite close. Digory knew that he couldn’t possibly break in on so solemn a +meeting, but there was no need to do so. At a word from Aslan, the He-Elephant, +the Ravens, and all the rest of them drew aside. Digory slipped off the horse and +found himself face to face with Aslan. And Aslan was bigger and more beautiful +and more brightly golden and more terrible than he had thought. He dared not +look into the great eyes. + +“Please - Mr Lion - Aslan - Sir,” said Digory, “could you - may I - please, +will you give me some magic fruit of this country to make Mother well?” + +He had been desperately hoping that the Lion would say “Yes”; he had been +horribly afraid it might say “No”. But he was taken aback when it did neither. + +“This is the Boy,” said Aslan, looking, not at Digory, but at his councillors. +“This is the Boy who did it.” + +“Oh dear,” thought Digory, “what have I done now?” + +“Son of Adam,” said the Lion. “There is an evil Witch abroad in my new +land of Narnia. Tell these good Beasts how she came here.” + +A dozen different things that he might say flashed through Digory’s mind, +but he had the sense to say nothing except the exact truth. + +“I brought her, Aslan,” he answered in a low voice. + +“Lor what purpose?” + +“I wanted to get her out of my own world back into her own. I thought I was +taking her back to her own place.” + +“How came she to be in your world, Son of Adam?” + +“By - by Magic.” + + + +The Lion said nothing and Digory knew that he had not told enough. + +“It was my Uncle, Aslan,” he said. “He sent us out of our own world by +magic rings, at least I had to go because he sent Polly first, and then we met the +Witch in a place called Charn and she just held on to us when -“ + +“You met the Witch?” said Asian in a low voice which had the threat of a +growl in it. + +“She woke up,” said Digory wretchedly. And then, turning very white, “I +mean, I woke her. Because I wanted to know what would happen if I struck a +bell. Polly didn’t want to. It wasn’t her fault. I -1 fought her. I know I shouldn’t +have. I think I was a bit enchanted by the writing under the bell.” + +“Do you?” asked Asian; still speaking very low and deep. . + +“No,” said Digory. “I see now I wasn’t. I was only pretending.” + +There was a long pause. And Digory was thinking all the time, “I’ve spoiled +everything. There’s no chance of getting anything for Mother now.” + +When the Lion spoke again, it was not to Digory. + +“You see, friends,” he said, “that before the new, clean world I gave you is +seven hours old, a force of evil has already entered it; waked and brought hither +by this son of Adam.” The Beasts, even Strawberry, all turned their eyes on +Digory till he felt that he wished the ground would swallow him up. “But do not +be cast down,” said Aslan, still speaking to the Beasts. “Evil will come of that +evil, but it is still a long way off, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon +myself. In the meantime, let us take such order that for many hundred years yet +this shall be a merry land in a merry world. And as Adam’s race has done the +harm, Adam’s race shall help to heal it. Draw near, you other two.” + +The last words were spoken to Polly and the Cabby who had now arrived. +Polly, all eyes and mouth, was staring at Aslan and holding the Cabby’s hand +rather tightly. The Cabby gave one glance at the Lion, and took off his bowler +hat: no one had yet seen him without it. When it was off, he looked younger and +nicer, and more like a countryman and less like a London cabman. + +“Son,” said Aslan to the Cabby. “I have known you long. Do you know me?” + +“Well, no, sir,” said the Cabby. “Leastways, not in an ordinary manner of +speaking. Yet I feel somehow, if I may make so free, as ‘ow we’ve met before.” + +“It is well,” said the Lion. “You know better than you think you know, and +you shall live to know me better yet. How does this land please you?” + +“It’s a fair treat, sir,” said the Cabby. + +“Would you like to live here always?” + +“Well you see sir, I’m a married man,” said the Cabby. “If my wife was here +neither of us would ever want to go back to London, I reckon. We’re both +country folks really.” + + + +Aslan threw up his shaggy head, opened his mouth, and uttered a long, single +note; not very loud, but full of power. Polly’s heart jumped in her body when she +heard it. She felt sure that it was a call, and that anyone who heard that call +would want to obey it and (what’s more) would be able to obey it, however +many worlds and ages lay between. And so, though she was filled with wonder, +she was not really astonished or shocked when all of a sudden a young woman, +with a kind, honest face stepped out of nowhere and stood beside her. Polly +knew at once that it was the Cabby’s wife, fetched out of our world not by any +tiresome magic rings, but quickly, simply and sweetly as a bird flies to its nest. +The young woman had apparently been in the middle of a washing day, for she +wore an apron, her sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, and there were soapsuds +on her hands. If she had had time to put on her good clothes (her best hat had +imitation cherries on it) she would have looked dreadful; as it was, she looked +rather nice. + +Of course she thought she was dreaming. That was why she didn’t rush +across to her husband and ask him what on earth had happened to them both. But +when she looked at the Lion she didn’t feel quite so sure it was a dream, yet for +some reason she did not appear to be very frightened. Then she dropped a little +half curtsey, as some country girls still knew how to do in those days. After that, +she went and put her hand in the Cabby’s and stood there looking round her a +little shyly. + +“My children,” said Aslan, fixing his eyes on both of them, “you are to be +the first King and Queen of Narnia.” + +The Cabby opened his mouth in astonishment, and his wife turned very red. + +“You shall rule and name all these creatures, and do justice among them, and +protect them from their enemies when enemies arise. And enemies will arise, for +there is an evil Witch in this world.” + +The Cabby swallowed hard two or three times and cleared his throat. + +“Begging your pardon, sir,” he said, “and thanking you very much I’m sure +(which my Missus does the same) but I ain’t no sort of a chap for a job like that. +I never ‘ad much eddycation, you see.” + +“Well,” said Aslan,’’can you use a spade and a plough and raise food out of +the earth?” + +“Yes, sir, I could do a bit of that sort of work: being brought up to it, like.” + +“Can you rule these creatures kindly and fairly, remembering that they are +not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in, but Talking +Beasts and free subjects?” + +“I see that, sir,” replied the Cabby. “I’d try to do the square thing by them +all.” + + + +“And would you bring up your children and grandchildren to do the same?” + +“It’d be up to me to try, sir. I’d do my best: wouldn’t we, Nellie?” + +“And you wouldn’t have favourites either among your own children or +among the other creatures or let any hold another under or use it hardly?” + +“I never could abide such goings on, sir, and that’s the truth. I’d give 'em +what for if I caught 'em at it,” said the Cabby. (All through this conversation his +voice was growing slower and richer. More like the country voice he must have +had as a boy and less like the sharp, quick voice of a cockney.) + +“And if enemies came against the land (for enemies will arise) and there was +war, would you be the first in the charge and the last in the retreat?” + +“Well, sir,” said the Cabby very slowly, “a chap don’t exactly know till he’s +been tried. I dare say I might turn out ever such a soft ‘un. Never did no fighting +except with my fists. I’d try -that is, I ‘ope I’d try - to do my bit.” + +“Then,” said Aslan,, “You will have done all that a King should do. Your +coronation will be held presently. And you and your children and grandchildren +shall be blessed, and some will be Kings of Narnia, and others will be Kings of +Archenland which lies yonder over the Southern Mountains. And you, little +Daughter (here he turned to Polly) are welcome. Have you forgiven the Boy for +the violence he did you in the Hall of Images in the desolate palace of accursed +Charn?” + +“Yes, Aslan, we’ve made it up,” said Polly. + +“That is well,” said Aslan. “And now for the Boy himself.” + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +STRAWBERRY’S ADVENTURE + +DIGORY kept his mouth very tight shut. He had been growing more and +more uncomfortable. He hoped that, whatever happened, he wouldn’t blub or do +anything ridiculous. + +“Son of Adam,” said Aslan. “Are you ready to undo the wrong that you have +done to my sweet country of Narnia on the very day of its birth?” + +“Well, I don’t see what I can do,” said Digory. “You see, the Queen ran away +and -“ + +“I asked, are you ready?” said the Lion. + +“Yes,” said Digory. He had had for a second some wild idea of saying “I’ll +try to help you if you’ll promise to help my Mother,” but he realized in time that +the Lion was not at all the sort of person one could try to make bargains with. +But when he had said “Yes,” he thought of his Mother, and he thought of the +great hopes he had had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came in +his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out: + +“But please, please - won’t you - can’t you give me something that will cure +Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge +claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw +surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent +down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the +Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that +for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than +he was himself. + +“My son, my son,” said Aslan. “I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this +land know that yet. Let us be good to one another. But I have to think of +hundreds of years in the life of Narnia. The Witch whom you have brought into +this world will come back to Narnia again. But it need not be yet. It is my wish +to plant in Narnia a tree that she will not dare to approach, and that tree will +protect Narnia from her for many years. So this land shall have a long, bright +morning before any clouds come over the sun. You must get me the seed from +which that tree is to grow.” + +“Yes, sir,” said Digory. He didn’t know how it was to be done but he felt +quite sure now that he would be able to do it. The Lion drew a deep breath, +stooped its head even lower and gave him a Lion’s kiss. And at once Digory felt +that new strength and courage had gone into him. + + + +“Dear son,” said Aslan, “I will tell you what you must do. Turn and look to +the West and tell me what do you see?” + +“I see terribly big mountains, Aslan,” said Digory, “I see this river coming +down cliffs in a waterfall. And beyond the cliff there are high green hills with +forests. And beyond those there are higher ranges that look almost black. And +then, far away, there are big snowy mountains all heaped up together - like +pictures of the Alps. And behind those there’s nothing but the sky.” + +“You see well,” said the Lion. “Now the land of Narnia ends where the +waterfall comes down, and once you have reached the top of the cliffs you will +be out of Narnia and into the Western Wild. You must journey through those +mountains till you find a green valley with a blue lake in it, walled round by +mountains of ice. At the end of the lake there is a steep, green hill. On the top of +that hill there is a garden. In the centre of that garden is a tree. Pluck an apple +from that tree and bring it back to me.” + +“Yes, sir,” said Digory again. He hadn’t the least idea of how he was to climb +the cliff and find his way among all the mountains, but he didn’t like to say that +for fear it would sound like making excuses. But he did say, “I hope, Aslan, +you’re not in a hurry. I shan’t be able to get there and back very quickly.” + +“Little son of Adam, you shall have help,” said Aslan. He then turned to the +Horse who had been standing quietly beside them all this time, swishing his tail +to keep the flies off, and listening with his head on one side as if the +conversation were a little difficult to understand. + +“My dear,” said Aslan to the Horse, “would you like to be a winged horse?” + +You should have seen how the Horse shook its mane and how its nostrils +widened, and the little tap it gave the ground with one back hoof. Clearly it +would very much like to be a winged horse. But it only said: + +“If you wish, Aslan - if you really mean -1 don’t know why it should be me - +I’m not a very clever horse.” + +“Be winged. Be the father of all flying horses,” roared Aslan in a voice that +shook the ground. “Your name is Fledge.” + +The horse shied, just as it might have shied in the old, miserable days when it +pulled a hansom. Then it roared. It strained its neck back as if there were a fly +biting its shoulders and it wanted to scratch them. And then, just as the beasts +had burst out of the earth, there burst out from the shoulders of Fledge wings that +spread and grew, larger than eagles’, larger than swans’, larger than angels’ +wings in church windows. The feathers shone chestnut colour and copper colour. +He gave a great sweep with them and leaped into the air. + +Twenty feet above Aslan and Digory he snorted, neighed, and curvetted. +Then, after circling once round them, he dropped to the earth, all four hoofs + + + +together, looking awkward and surprised, but extremely pleased. + +“Is it good, Fledge?” said Aslan. + +“It is very good, Aslan,” said Fledge. + +“Will you carry this little son of Adam on your back to the mountainvalley I +spoke of?” + +“What? Now? At once?” said Strawberry - or Fledge, as we must now call +him - “Hurrah! Come, little one, I’ve had things like you on my back before. + +Long, long ago. When there were green fields; and sugar.” + +“What are the two daughters of Eve whispering about?” said Aslan, turning +very suddenly on Polly and the Cabby’s wife, who had in fact been making +friends. + +“If you please, sir,” said Queen Helen (for that is what Nellie the cabman’s +wife now was), “I think the little girl would love to go too, if it weren’t no +trouble.” + +“What does Fledge say about that?” asked the Lion. + +“Oh, I don’t mind two, not when they’re little ones,” said Fledge. “But I +hope the Elephant doesn’t want to come as well.” + +The Elephant had no such wish, and the new King of Narnia helped both the +children up: that is, he gave Digory a rough heave and set Polly as gently and +daintily on the horse’s back as if she were made of china and might break. +“There they are, Strawberry - Fledge, I should say. This is a rum go.” + +“Do not fly too high,” said Aslan. “Do not try to go over the tops of the great +ice-mountains. Look out for the valleys, the green places, and fly through them. +There will always be a way through. And now, begone with my blessing.” + +“Oh Fledge!” said Digory, leaning forward to pat the Horse’s glossy neck. +“This is fun. Hold on to me tight, Polly.” + +Next moment the country dropped away beneath them, and whirled round as +Fledge, like a huge pigeon, circled once or twice before setting off on his long +westward flight. Looking down, Polly could hardly see the King and the Queen, +and even Aslan himself was only a bright yellow spot on the green grass. Soon +the wind was in their faces and Fledges wings settled down to a steady beat. + +All Narnia, many-coloured with lawns and rocks and heather and different +sorts of trees, lay spread out below them, the river winding through it like a +ribbon of quicksilver. They could already see over the tops of the low hills which +lay northward on their right; beyond those hills a great moorland sloped gently +up and up to the horizon. On their left the mountains were much higher, but +every now and then there was a gap when you could see, between steep pine +woods, a glimpse of the southern lands that lay beyond them, looking blue and +far away. + + + +“That’ll be where Archenland is,” said Polly. + +“Yes, but look ahead!” said Digory. + +For now a great barrier of cliffs rose before them and they were almost +dazzled by the sunlight dancing on the great waterfall by which the river roars +and sparkles down into Narnia itself from the high western lands in which it +rises. They were flying so high already that the thunder of those falls could only +just be heard as a small, thin sound, but they were not yet high enough to fly +over the top of the cliffs. + +“We’ll have to do a bit of zig-zagging here,” said Fledge. “Hold on tight.” + +He began flying to and fro, getting higher at each turn. The air grew colder, +and they heard the call of eagles far below them. + +“I say, look back! Look behind,” said Polly. + +There they could see the whole valley of Narnia stretched out to where, just +before the eastern horizon, there was a gleam of the sea. And now they were so +high that they could see tiny-looking jagged mountains appearing beyond the +northwest moors, and plains of what looked like sand far in the south. + +“I wish we had someone to tell us what all those places are,” said Digory. + +“I don’t suppose they’re anywhere yet,” said Polly. “I mean, there’s no one +there, and nothing happening. The world only began today.” + +“No, but people will get there,” said Digory. “And then they’ll have histories, +you know.” + +“Well, it’s a jolly good thing they haven’t now,” said Polly. “Because nobody +can be made to learn it. Battles and dates and all that rot.” + +Now they were over the top of the cliffs and in a few minutes the valley land +of Narnia had sunk out of sight behind them. They were flying over a wild +country of steep hills and dark forests, still following the course of the river. The +really big mountains loomed ahead. But the sun was now in the travellers’ eyes +and they couldn’t see things very clearly in that direction. For the sun sank lower +and lower till the western sky was all like one great furnace full of melted gold; +and it set at last behind a jagged peak which stood up against the brightness as +sharp and flat as if it were cut out of cardboard. + +“It’s none too warm up here,” said Polly. + +“And my wings are beginning to ache,” said Fledge. There’s no sign of the +valley with a Lake in it, like what Aslan said. What about coming down and +looking out for a decent spot to spend the night in? We shan’t reach that place +tonight.” + +“Yes, and surely it’s about time for supper?” said Digory. + +So Fledge came lower and lower. As they came down nearer to the earth and +among the hills, the air grew warmer and after travelling so many hours with + + + +nothing to listen to but the beat of Fledge’s wings, it was nice to hear the homely +and earthy noises again - the chatter of the river on its stony bed and the creaking +of trees in the light wind. A warm, good smell of sun-baked earth and grass and +flowers came up to them. At last Fledge alighted. Digory rolled off and helped +Polly to dismount. Both were glad to stretch their stiff legs. + +The valley in which they had come down was in the heart of the mountains; +snowy heights, one of them looking rosered in the reflections of the sunset, +towered above them. + +“I am hungry,” said Digory. + +“Well, tuck in,” said Fledge, taking a big mouthful of grass. Then he raised +his head, still chewing and with bits of grass sticking out on each side of his +mouth like whiskers, and said, “Come on, you two. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty +for us all.” + +“But we can’t eat grass,” said Digory. + +“H’m, h’m,” said Fledge, speaking with his mouth full. “Well - h’m - don’t +know quite what you’ll do then. Very good grass too.” + +Polly and Digory stared at one another in dismay. + +“Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said +Digory. + +“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge. + +“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly. + +“I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve +a sort of idea he likes to be asked.” + +“But what on earth are we to do?” asked Digory. + +“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Fledge. “Unless you try the grass. You might +like it better than you think.” + +“Oh, don’t be silly,” said Polly, stamping her foot. “Of course humans can’t +eat grass, any more than you could eat a mutton chop.” + +“For goodness’ sake don’t talk about chops and things,” said Digory. “It only +makes it worse.” + +Digory said that Polly had better take herself home by ring and get +something to eat there; he couldn’t himself because he had promised to go +straight on his message for Aslan, and, if once he showed up again at home, +anything might happen to prevent his getting back. But Polly said she wouldn’t +leave him, and Digory said it was jolly decent of her. + +“I say,” said Polly, “I’ve still got the remains of that bag of toffee in my +jacket. It’ll be better than nothing.” + +“A lot better,” said Digory, “But be careful to get your hand into your pocket +without touching your ring.” + + + +This was a difficult and delicate job but they managed it in the end. The little +paper bag was very squashy and sticky when they finally got it out, so that it was +more a question of tearing the bag off the toffees than of getting the toffees out +of the bag. Some grown-ups (you know how fussy they can be about that sort of +thing) would rather have gone without supper altogether than eaten those toffees. +There were nine of them all told. It was Digory who had the bright idea of eating +four each and planting the ninth; for, as he said, “if the bar off the lamp-post +turned into a little light-tree, why shouldn’t this turn into a toffee-tree?” So they +dibbled a small hole in the turf and buried the piece of toffee. Then they ate the +other pieces, making them last as long as they could. It was a poor meal, even +with all the paper they couldn’t help eating as well. + +When Fledge had quite finished his own excellent supper he lay down. The +children came and sat one on each side of him leaning against his warm body, +and when he had spread a wing over each they were really quite snug. As the +bright young stars of that new world came out they talked over everything: how +Digory had hoped to get something for his Mother and how, instead of that, he +had been sent on this message. And they repeated to one another all the signs by +which they would know the places they were looking for - the blue lake and the +hill with a garden on top of it. The talk was just beginning to slow down as they +got sleepy, when suddenly Polly sat up wide awake and said “Hush!” + +Everyone listened as hard as they could. + +“Perhaps it was only the wind in the trees,” said Digory presently. + +“I’m not so sure,” said Fledge. “Anyway - wait! There it goes again. By +Aslan, it is something.” + +The horse scrambled to its feet with a great noise and a great upheaval; the +children were already on theirs. Fledge trotted to and fro, sniffing and +whinnying. The children tip-toed this way and that, looking behind every bush +and tree. They kept on thinking they saw things, and there was one time when +Polly was perfectly certain she had seen-a tall, dark figure gliding quickly away +in a westerly direction. But they caught nothing and in the end Fledge lay down +again and the children re-snuggled (if that is the right word) under his wings. +They went to sleep at once. Fledge stayed awake much longer moving his ears to +and fro in the darkness and sometimes giving a little shiver with his skin as if a +fly had lighted on him: but in the end he too slept. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +AN UNEXPECTED MEETING + +“WAKE up, Digory, wake up, Fledge,” came the voice of Polly. “It has +turned into a toffee tree. And it’s the loveliest morning.” + +The low early sunshine was streaming through the wood and the grass was +grey with dew and the cobwebs were like silver. Just beside them was a little, +very darkwooded tree, about the size of an apple tree. The leaves were whitish +and rather papery, like the herb called honesty, and it was loaded with little +brown fruits that looked rather like dates. + +“Hurrah!” said Digory. “But I’m going to have a dip first.” He rushed +through a flowering thicket or two down to the river’s edge. Have you ever +bathed in a mountain river that is running in shallow cataracts over red and blue +and yellow stones with the sun on it? It is as good as the sea: in some ways +almost better. Of course, he had to dress again without drying but it was well +worth it. When he came back, Polly went down and had her bathe; at least she +said that was what she’d been doing, but we know she was not much of a +swimmer and perhaps it is best not to ask too many questions. Fledge visited the +river too but he only stood in midstream, stooping down for a long drink of +water and then shaking his mane and neighing several times. + +Polly and Digory got to work on the toffee-tree. The fruit was delicious; not +exactly like toffee - softer for one thing, and juicy - but like fruit which reminded +one of toffee. Fledge also made an excellent breakfast; he tried one of the toffee +fruits and liked it but said he felt more like grass at that hour in the morning. +Then with some difficulty the children got on his back and the second journey +began. + +It was even better than yesterday, partly because every one was feeling so +fresh, and partly because the newly risen sun was at their backs and, of course, +everything looks nicer when the light is behind you. It was a wonderful ride. The +big snowy mountains rose above them in every direction. The valleys, far +beneath them, were so green, and all the streams which tumbled down from the +glaciers into the main river were so blue, that it was like flying over gigantic +pieces of jewellery. They would have liked this part of the adventure to go on +longer than it did. But quite soon they were all sniffing the air and saying “What +is it?” and “Did you smell something?” and “Where’s it coming from?” For a +heavenly smell, warm and golden, as if from all the most delicious fruits and +flowers of the world, was coming up to them from somewhere ahead. + + + +“It’s coming from that valley with the lake in it,” said Fledge. + +“So it is,” said Digory. “And look! There’s a green hill at the far end of the +lake. And look how blue the water is.” + +“It must be the Place,” said all three. + +Fledge came lower and lower in wide circles. The icy peaks rose up higher +and higher above. The air came up warmer and sweeter every moment, so sweet +that it almost brought the tears to your eyes. Fledge was now gliding with his +wings spread out motionless on each side, and his hoofs pawing for the ground. +The steep green hill was rushing towards them. A moment later he alighted on its +slope, a little awkwardly. The children rolled off, fell without hurting themselves +on the warm, fine grass, and stood up panting a little. + +They were three-quarters of the way up the hill, and set out at once to climb +to the top. (I don’t think Fledge could have managed this without his wings to +balance him and to give him the help of aflutter now and then.) All round the +very top of the hill ran a high wall of green turf. Inside the wall trees were +growing. Their branches hung out over the wall; their leaves showed not only +green but also blue and silver when the wind stirred them. When the travellers +reached the top they walked nearly all the way round it outside the green wall +before they found the gates: high gates of gold, fast shut, facing due east. + +Up till now I think Fledge and Polly had had the idea that they would go in +with Digory. But they thought so no longer. You never saw a place which was so +obviously private. You could see at a glance that it belonged to someone else. +Only a fool would dream of going in unless he had been sent there on very +special business. Digory himself understood at once that the others wouldn’t and +couldn’t come in with him. He went forward to the gates alone. + +When he had come close up to them he saw words written on the gold with +silver letters; something like this: + +Come in by the gold gates or not at all, Take of my fruit for others or forbear, +For those who steal or those who climb my wall Shall find their heart’s desire +and find despair. + +“Take of my fruit for others,” said Digory to himself. “Well, that’s what I’m +going to do. It means I mustn’t eat any myself, I suppose. I don’t know what all +that jaw in the last line is about. Come in by the gold gates. Well who’d want to +climb a wall if he could get in by a gates.' But how do the gates open?” He laid +his hand on them: and instantly they swung apart, opening inwards, turning on +their hinges without the least noise. + +Now that he could see into the place it looked more private than ever. He +went in very solemnly, looking about him. Everything was very quiet inside. +Even the fountain which rose near the middle of the garden made only the + + + +faintest sound. The lovely smell was all round him: it was a happy place but very +serious. + +He knew which was the right tree at once, partly because it stood in the very +centre and partly because the great silver apples with which it was loaded shone +so and cast a light of their own down on the shadowy places where the sunlight +did not reach. He walked straight across to it, picked an apple, and put it in the +breast pocket of his Norfolk jacket. But he couldn’t help looking at it and +smelling it before he put it away. + +It would have been better if he had not. A terrible thirst and hunger came +over him and a longing to taste that fruit. He put it hastily into his pocket; but +there were plenty of others. Could it be wrong to taste one? After all, he thought, +the notice on the gate might not have been exactly an order; it might have been +only a piece of advice - and who cares about advice? Or even if it were an order, +would he be disobeying it by eating an apple? He had already obeyed the part +about taking one “for others”. + +While he was thinking of all this he happened to look up through the +branches towards the top of the tree. There, on a branch above his head, a +wonderful bird was roosting. I say “roosting” because it seemed almost asleep; +perhaps not quite. The tiniest slit of one eye was open. It was larger than an +eagle, its breast saffron, its head crested with scarlet, and its tail purple. + +“And it just shows,” said Digory afterwards when he was telling the story to +the others, “that you can’t be too careful in these magical places. You never +know what may be watching you.” But I think Digory would not have taken an +apple for himself in any case. Things like Do Not Steal were, I think, hammered +into boys’ heads a good deal harder in those days than they are now. Still, we can +never be certain. + +Digory was just turning to go back to the gates when he stopped to have one +last look around. He got a terrible shock. He was not alone. There, only a few +yards away from him, stood the Witch. She was just throwing away the core of +an apple which she had eaten. The juice was darker than you would expect and +had made a horrid stain round her mouth. Digory guessed at once that she must +have climbed in over the wall. And he began to see that there might be some +sense in that last line about getting your heart’s desire and getting despair along +with it. For the Witch looked stronger and prouder than ever, and even, in a way, +triumphant; but her face was deadly white, white as salt. + +All this flashed through Digory’s mind in a second; then he took to his heels +and ran for the gates as hard as he could pelt; the Witch after him. As soon as he +was out, the gates closed behind him of their own accord. That gave him the lead +but not for long. By the time he had reached the others and was shouting out + + + +“Quick, get on, Polly! Get up, Fledge”, the Witch had climbed the wall, or +vaulted over it, and was close behind him again. + +“Stay where you are,” cried Digory, turning round to face her, “or we’ll all +vanish. Don’t come an inch nearer.” + +“Foolish boy,” said the Witch. “Why do you run from me? I mean you no +harm. If you do not stop and listen to me now, you will miss some knowledge +that would have made you happy all your life.” + +“Well I don’t want to hear it, thanks,” said Digory. But he did. + +“I know what errand you have come on,” continued the Witch. “For it was I +who was close beside you in the woods last night and heard all your counsels. +You have plucked fruit in the garden yonder. You have it in your pocket now. +And you are going to carry it back, untasted, to the Lion; for him to eat, for him +to use. You simpleton! Do you know what that fruit is? I will tell you. It is the +apple of youth, the apple of life. I know, for I have tasted it; and I feel already +such changes in myself that I know I shall never grow old or die. Eat it, Boy, eat +it; and you and I will both live forever and be king and queen of this whole +world - or of your world, if we decide to go back there.” + +“No thanks,” said Digory, “I don’t know that I care much about living on and +on after everyone I know is dead. I’d rather live an ordinary time and die and go +to Heaven.” + +“But what about this Mother of yours whom you pretend to love so?” + +“What’s she got to do with it?” said Digory. + +“Do you not see, Fool, that one bite of that apple would heal her? You have it +in your pocket. We are here by ourselves and the Lion is far away. Use your +Magic and go back to your own world. A minute later you can be at your +Mother’s bedside, giving her the fruit. Five minutes later you will see the colour +coming back to her face. She will tell you the pain is gone. Soon she will tell you +she feels stronger. Then she will fall asleep - think of that; hours of sweet natural +sleep, without pain, without drugs. Next day everyone will be saying how +wonderfully she has recovered. Soon she will be quite well again. All will be +well again. Your home will be happy again. You will be like other boys.” + +“Oh!” gasped Digory as if he had been hurt, and put his hand to his head. For +he now knew that the most terrible choice lay before him. + +“What has the Lion ever done for you that you should be his slave?” said the +Witch. “What can he do to you once you are back in your own world? And what +would your Mother think if she knew that you could have taken her pain away +and given her back her life and saved your Father’s heart from being broken, and +that you wouldn’t - that you’d rather run messages for a wild animal in a strange +world that is no business of yours?” + + + +“I -1 don’t think he is a wild animal,” said Digory in a dried-up sort of voice. +“He is -1 don’t know + +“Then he is something worse,” said the Witch. “Look what he has done to +you already; look how heartless he has made you. That is what he does to +everyone who listens to him. Cruel, pitiless boy! you would let your own Mother +die rather than -“ + +“Oh shut up,” said the miserable Digory, still in the same voice. “Do you +think I don’t see? But I -1 promised.” + +“Ah, but you didn’t know what you were promising. And no one here can +prevent you.” + +“Mother herself,” said Digory, getting the words out with difficulty, +“wouldn’t like it - awfully strict about keeping promises - and not stealing - and +all that sort of thing. She’d tell me not to do it - quick as anything - if she was +here.” + +“But she need never know,” said the Witch, speaking more sweetly than you +would have thought anyone with so fierce a face could speak. “You wouldn’t tell +her how you’d got the apple. Your Father need never know. No one in your +world need know anything about this whole story. You needn’t take the little girl +back with you, you know.” + +That was where the Witch made her fatal mistake. Of course Digory knew +that Polly could get away by her own ring as easily as he could get away by his. +But apparently the Witch didn’t know this. And the meanness of the suggestion +that he should leave Polly behind suddenly made all the other things the Witch +had been saying to him sound false and hollow. And even in the midst of all his +misery, his head suddenly cleared, and he said (in a different and much louder’ +voice): + +“Look here; where do you come into all this? Why are you so precious fond +of my Mother all of a sudden? What’s it got to do with you? What’s your game?” + +“Good for you, Digs,” whispered Polly in his ear. “Quick! Get away now.” +She hadn’t dared to say anything all through the argument because, you see, it +wasn’t her Mother who was dying. + +“Up then,” said Digory, heaving her on to Fledge’s back and then scrambling +up as quickly as he could. The horse spread its wings. + +“Go then, Fools,” called the Witch. “Think of me, Boy, when you lie old and +weak and dying, and remember how you threw away the chance of endless +youth! It won’t be offered you again.” + +They were already so high that they could only just hear her. Nor did the +Witch waste any time gazing up at them; they saw her set off northward down +the slope of the hill. + + + +They had started early that morning and what happened in the garden had not +taken very long, so that Fledge and Polly both said they would easily get back to +Narnia before nightfall. Digory never spoke on the way back, and the others +were shy of speaking to him. He was very sad and he wasn’t even sure all the +time that he had done the right thing; but whenever he remembered the shining +tears in Aslan’s eyes he became sure. + +All day Fledge flew steadily with untiring wings; eastward with the river to +guide him, through the mountains and over the wild wooded hills, and then over +the great waterfall and down, and down, to where the woods of Narnia were +darkened by the shadow of the mighty cliff, till at last, when the sky was +growing red with sunset behind them, he saw a place where many creatures were +gathered together by the riverside. And soon he could see Aslan himself in the +midst of them. Fledge glided down, spread out his four legs, closed his wings, +and landed cantering. Then he pulled up. The children dismounted. Digory saw +all the animals, dwarfs, satyrs, nymphs, and other things drawing back to the left +and right to make way for him. He walked up to Aslan, handed him the apple +and said: + +“I’ve brought you the apple you wanted, sir.” + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +THE PLANTING OF THE TREE + +“WELL done,” said Aslan in a voice that made the earth shake. Then Digory +knew that all the Narnians had heard those words and that the story of them +would be handed down from father to son in that new world for hundreds of +years and perhaps forever. But he was in no danger of feeling conceited for he +didn’t think about it at all now that he was face to face with Aslan. This time he +found he could look straight into the Lion’s eyes. He had forgotten his troubles +and felt absolutely content. + +“Well done, son of Adam,” said the Lion again. “For this fruit you have +hungered and thirsted and wept. No hand but yours shall sow the seed of the +Tree that is to be the protection of Narnia. Throw the apple towards the river +bank where the ground is soft.” + +Digory did as he was told. Everyone had grown so quiet that you could hear +the soft thump where it fell into the mud. + +“It is well thrown,” said Aslan. “Let us now proceed to the Coronation of +King Frank of Narnia and Helen his Queen.” + +The children now noticed these two for the first time. They were dressed in +strange and beautiful clothes, and from their shoulders rich robes flowed out +behind them to where four dwarfs held up the King’s train and four rivernymphs +the Queen’s. Their heads were bare; but Helen had let her hair down and it made +a great improvement in her appearance. But it was neither hair nor clothes that +made them look so different from their old selves. Their faces had a new +expression, especially the King’s. All the sharpness and cunning and +quarrelsomeness which he had picked up as a London cabby seemed to have +been washed away, and the courage and kindness which he had always had were +easier to see. Perhaps it was the air of the young world that had done it, or +talking with Aslan, or both. + +“Upon my word,” whispered Fledge to Polly. “My old master’s been +changed nearly as much as I have! Why, he’s a real master now.” + +“Yes, but don’t buzz in my ear like that,” said Polly. “It tickles so.” + +“Now,” said Aslan, “some of you undo that tangle you have made with those +trees and let us see what we shall find there.” + +Digory now saw that where four trees grew close together their branches had +all been laced together or tied together with switches so as to make a sort of +cage. The two Elephants with their trunks and a few dwarfs with their little axes + + + +soon got it all undone. There were three things inside. One was a young tree that +seemed to be made of gold; the second was a young tree that seemed to be made +of silver; but the third was a miserable object in muddy clothes, sitting hunched +up between them. + +“Gosh!” whispered Digory. “Uncle Andrew!” + +To explain all this we must go back a bit. The Beasts, you remember, had +tried planting and watering him. When the watering brought him to his senses, +he found himself soaking wet, buried up to his thighs in earth (which was +quickly turning into mud) and surrounded by more wild animals than he had +ever dreamed of in his life before. It is perhaps not surprising that he began to +scream and howl. This was in a way a good thing, for it at last persuaded +everyone (even the Warthog) that he was alive. So they dug him up again (his +trousers were in a really shocking state by now). As soon as his legs were free he +tried to bolt, but one swift curl of the Elephant’s trunk round his waist soon put +an end to that. Everyone now thought he must be safely kept somewhere till +Aslan had time to come and see him and say what should be done about him. So +they made a sort of cage or coop all round him. They then offered him +everything they could; think of to eat. + +The Donkey collected great piles of thistles and threw them in, but Uncle +Andrew didn’t seem to care about them. The Squirrels bombarded him with +volleys of nuts but he only covered his head with his hands and tried to keep out +of the way. Several birds flew to and fro deligently dropping worms on him. The +Bear was especially kind. During the afternoon he found a wild bees’ nest and +instead of eating it himself (which he would very much like to have done) this +worthy creature brought it back to Uncle Andrew. But this was in fact the worst +failure of all. The Bear lobbed the whole sticky mass over the top of the +enclosure and unfortunately it hit Uncle Andrew slap in the face (not all the bees +were dead). The Bear, who would not at all have minded being hit in the face by +a honeycomb himself, could not understand why Uncle Andrew staggered back, +slipped, and sat down. And it was sheer bad luck that he sat down on the pile of +thistles. “And anyway,” as the Warthog said, “quite a lot of honey has got into +the creature’s mouth and that’s bound to have done it some good.” They were +really getting quite fond of their strange pet and hoped that Aslan would allow +them to keep it. The cleverer ones were quite sure by now that at least some of +the noises which came out of his mouth had a meaning. They christened him +Brandy because he made that noise so often. + +In the end, however, they had to leave him there for the night. Aslan was +busy all that day instructing the new King and Queen and doing other important +things, and could not attend to “poor old Brandy”. What with the nuts, pears, + + + +apples, and bananas that had been thrown in to him, he did fairly well for supper; +but it wouldn’t be true to say that he passed an agreeable night. + +“Bring out that creature,” said Aslan. One of the Elephants lifted Uncle +Andrew in its trunk and laid him at the Lion’s feet. He was too frightened to +move. + +“Please, Aslan,” said Polly, “could you say something to - to unfrighten him? +And then could you say something to prevent him from ever coming back here +again?” + +“Do you think he wants to?” said Aslan. + +“Well, Aslan,” said Polly, “he might send someone else. He’s so excited +about the bar off the lamp-post growing into a lamp-post tree and he thinks -“ + +“He thinks great folly, child,” said Aslan. “This world is bursting with life +for these few days because the song with which I called it into life still hangs in +the air and rumbles in the ground. It will not be so for long. But I cannot tell that +to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to +hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh +Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you +good! But I will give him the only gift he is still able to receive.” + +He bowed his great head rather sadly, and breathed into the Magician’s +terrified face. “Sleep,” he said. “Sleep and be separated for some few hours from +all the torments you have devised for yourself.” Uncle Andrew immediately +rolled over with closed eyes and began breathing peacefully. + +“Carry him aside and lay him down,” said Aslan. “Now, dwarfs! Show your +smith-craft. Let me see you make two crowns for your King and Queen.” + +More Dwarfs than you could dream of rushed forward to the Golden Tree. +They had all its leaves stripped off, and some of its branches torn off too, before +you could say Jack Robinson. And now the children could see that it did not +merely look golden but was of real, soft gold. It had of course sprung up from +the half-sovereigns which had fallen out of Uncle Andrew’s pocket when he was +turned upside down; just as the silver had grown up from the half-crowns. Prom +nowhere, as it seemed, piles of dry brushwood for fuel, a little anvil, hammers, +tongs, and bellows were produced. Next moment (how those dwarfs loved their +work!) the fire was blazing, the bellows were roaring, the gold was melting, the +hammers were clinking. Two Moles, whom Aslan had set to dig (which was +what they liked best) earlier in the day, poured out a pile of precious stones at the +dwarfs’ feet. Under the clever fingers of the little smiths two crowns took shape - +not ugly, heavy things like modern European crowns, but light, delicate, +beautifully shaped circles that you could really wear and look nicer by wearing. +The King’s was set with rubies and the Queen’s with emeralds. + + + +When the crowns had been cooled in the river Aslan made Frank and Helen +kneel before him and he placed the crowns on their heads. Then he said, “Rise +up King and Queen of Narnia, father and mother of many kings that shall be in +Narnia and the Isles and Archenland. Be just and merciful and brave. The +blessing is upon you.” + +Then everyone cheered or bayed or neighed or trumpeted or clapped its +wings and the royal pair stood looking solemn and a little shy, but all the nobler +for their shyness. And while Digory was still cheering he heard the deep voice of +Aslan beside him, saying: + +“Look!” + +Everyone in that crowd turned its head, and then everyone drew a long +breath of wonder and delight. A little way off, towering over their heads, they +saw a tree which had certainly not been there before. It must have grown up +silently, yet swiftly as a flag rises when you pull it up on a flagstaff, while they +were all busied about the coronation. Its spreading branches seemed to cast a +light rather than a shade, and silver apples peeped out like stars from under every +leaf. But it was the smell which came from it, even more than the sight, that had +made everyone draw in their breath. For a moment one could hardly think about +anything else. + +“Son of Adam,” said Aslan, “you have sown well. And you, Narnians, let it +be your first care to guard this Tree, for it is your Shield. The Witch of whom I +told you has fled far away into the North of the world; she will live on there, +growing stronger in dark Magic. But while that Tree flourishes she will never +come down into Narnia. She dare not come within a hundred miles of the Tree, +for its smell, which is joy and life and health to you, is death and horror and +despair to her.” + +Everyone was staring solemnly at the Tree when Aslan suddenly swung +round his head (scattering golden gleams of light from his mane as he did so) +and fixed his large eyes on the children. “What is it, children?” he said, for he +caught them in the very act of whispering and nudging one another. + +“Oh - Aslan, sir,” said Digory, turning red, “I forgot to tell you. The Witch +has already eaten one of those apples, one of the same kind that Tree grew +from.” He hadn’t really said all he was thinking, but Polly at once said it for him +(Digory was always much more afraid than she of looking a fool.) + +“So we thought, Aslan,” she said, “that there must be some mistake, and she +can’t really mind the smell of those apples.” + +“Why do you think that, Daughter of Eve?” asked the Lion. ‘ + +“Well, she ate one.” + +“Child,” he replied, “that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is + + + +what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the +wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after.” + +“Oh I see,” said Polly. “And I suppose because she took it in the wrong way +it won’t work for her. I mean it won’t make her always young and all that?” + +“Alas,” said Aslan, shaking his head. “It will. Things always work according +to their nature. She has won her heart’s desire; she has unwearying strength and +endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length +of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not +always like it.” + +“I -1 nearly ate one myself, Aslan,” said Digory. “Would I -“ + +“You would, child,” said Aslan. “For the fruit always works - it must work - +but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any +Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it +would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into +another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be. +And the Witch tempted you to do another thing, my son, did she not?” + +“Yes, Aslan. She wanted me to take an apple home to Mother.” + +“Understand, then, that it would have healed her; but not to your joy or hers. +The day would have come when both you and she would have looked back and +said it would have been better to die in that illness.” + +And Digory could say nothing, for tears choked him and he gave up all +hopes of saving his Mother’s life; but at the same time he knew that the Lion +knew what would have happened, and that there might be things more terrible +even than losing someone you love by death. But now Aslan was speaking +again, almost in a whisper: + +“That is what would have happened, child, with a stolen apple. It is not what +will happen now. What I give you now will bring joy. It will not, in your world, +give endless life, but it will heal. Go. Pluck her an apple from the Tree.” + +For a second Digory could hardly understand. It was as if the whole world +had turned inside out and upside down. And then, like someone in a dream, he +was walking across to the Tree, and the King and Queen were cheering him and +all the creatures were cheering too. He plucked the apple and put it in his pocket. +Then he came back to Aslan. + +“Please,” he said, “may we go home now?” He had forgotten to say “Thank +you”, but he meant it, and Aslan understood. + + + +Narnia 6 - The Magician's Nephew + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +THE END OF THIS STORY AND THE BEGINNING OF ALL THE +OTHERS + +“You need no rings when I am with you,” said the voice of Aslan. The +children blinked and looked about them. They were once more in the Wood +between the Worlds; Uncle Andrew lay on the grass, still asleep; Aslan stood +beside them. + +“Come,” said Aslan; “it is time that you went back. But there are two things +to see to first; a warning, and a command. Look here, children.” + +They looked and saw a little hollow in the grass, with a grassy bottom, warm +and dry. + +“When you were last here,” said Aslan, “that hollow was a pool, and when +you jumped into it you came to the world where a dying sun shone over the ruins +of Charn. There is no pool now. That world is ended, as if it had never been. Let +the race of Adam and Eve take warning.” + +“Yes, Aslan,” said both the children. But Polly added, “But we’re not quite +as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?” + +“Not yet, Daughter of Eve,” he said. “Not yet. But you are growing more like +it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as +evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, +very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your +world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy +than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware. That is the warning. Now for the +command. As soon as you can, take from this Uncle of yours his magic rings and +bury them so that no one can use them again.” + +Both the children were looking up into the Lion’s face as he spoke these +words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face +seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a +sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that +they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and +awake, before. And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that +as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of +all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just +round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them +sure, deep down inside, that all was well. Next minute all three of them (Uncle +Andrew now awake) came tumbling into the noise, heat, and hot smells of + + + +London. + +They were on the pavement outside the Ketterleys’ front door, and except +that the Witch, the Horse, and the Cabby were gone, everything was exactly as +they had left it. There was the lamp-post, with one arm missing; there was the +wreck of the hansom cab; and there was the crowd. Everyone was still talking +and people were kneeling beside the damaged policeman, saying things like, +“He’s coming round” or “How do you feel now, old chap?” or “The Ambulance +will be here in a jiffy.” + +“Great Scott!” thought Digory, “I believe the whole adventure’s taken no +time at all.” + +Most people were wildly looking round for Jadis and the horse. No one took +any notice of the children for no one had seen them go or noticed them coming +back. As for Uncle Andrew, what between the state of his clothes and the honey +on his face, he could not have been recognized by anyone. Fortunately the front +door of the house was-open and the housemaid was standing in the doorway +staring at the fun (what a day that girl was having!) so the children had no +difficulty in bustling Uncle Andrew indoors before anyone asked any questions. + +He raced up the stirs before them and at first they were very afraid he was +heading for his attic and meant to hide his remaining magic rings. But they +needn’t have bothered. What he was thinking about was the bottle in his +wardrobe, and he disappeared at once into his bedroom and locked the door. +When he came out again (which was not for a long time) he was in his +dressinggown and made straight for the bathroom. + +“Can you get the other rings, Poll?” said Digory. “I want to go to Mother.” + +“Right. See you later,” said Polly and clattered up the attic stairs. + +Then Digory took a minute to get his breath, and then went softly into his +Mother’s room. And there she lay, as he had seen her lie so many other times, +propped up on the pillows, with a thin, pale face that would make you cry to +look at. Digory took the Apple of Life out of his pocket. + +And just as the Witch Jadis had looked different when you saw her in our +world instead of in her own, so the fmit of that mountain garden looked different +too. There were of course all sorts of coloured things in the bedroom; the +coloured counterpane on the bed, the wallpaper, the sunlight from the window, +and Mother’s pretty, pale blue dressing jacket. But the moment Digory took the +Apple out of his pocket, all those things seemed to have scarcely any colour at +all. Every one of them, even the sunlight, looked faded and dingy. The +brightness of the Apple threw strange lights on the ceiling. Nothing else was +worth looking at: you couldn’t look at anything else. And the smell of the Apple +of Youth was as if there was a window in the room that opened on Heaven. + + + +“Oh, darling, how lovely,” said Digory’s Mother. + +“You will eat it, won’t you? Please,” said Digory. + +“I don’t know what the Doctor would say,” she answered. “But really - I +almost feel as if I could.” + +He peeled it and cut it up and gave it to her piece by piece. And no sooner +had she finished it than she smiled and her head sank back on the pillow and she +was asleep: a real, natural, gentle sleep, without any of those nasty drugs, which +was, as Digory knew, the thing in the whole world that she wanted most. And he +was sure now that her face looked a little different. He bent down and kissed her +very softly and stole out of the room with a beating heart; taking the core of the +apple with him. For the rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about +him, and saw how ordinary and unmagical they were, he hardly dared to hope; +but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope. + +That evening he buried the core of the Apple in the back garden. + +Next morning when the Doctor made his usual visit, Digory leaned over the +banisters to listen. He heard the Doctor come out with Aunt Letty and say: + +“Miss Ketterley, this is the most extraordinary case I have known in my +whole medical career. It is - it is like a miracle. I wouldn’t tell the little boy +anything at present; we don’t want to raise any false hopes. But in my opinion +then his voice became too low to hear. + +That afternoon he went down the garden and whistled their agreed secret +signal for Polly (she hadn’t been able to get back the day before). + +“What luck?” said Polly, looking over the wall. “I mean, about your +Mother?” + +“I think - I think it is going to be alright,” said Digory. “But if you don’t +mind I’d really rather not talk about it yet. What about the rings?” + +“I’ve got them all,” said Polly. “Look, it’s alright, I’m wearing gloves. Let’s +bury them.” + +“Yes, let’s. I’ve marked the place where I buried the core of the Apple +yesterday.” + +Then Polly came over the wall and they went together to the place. But, as it +turned out, Digory need not have marked the place. Something was already +coming up. It was not growing so that you could see it grow as the new trees had +done in Narnia; but it was already well above ground. They got a trowel and +buried all the magic rings, including their own ones, in a circle round it. + +About a week after this it was quite certain that Digory’s Mother was getting +better. About a fortnight later she was able to sit out in the garden. And a month +later that whole house had become a different place. Aunt Letty did everything +that Mother liked; windows were opened, frowsy curtains were drawn back to + + + +brighten up the rooms, there were new flowers everywhere, and nicer things to +eat, and the old piano was tuned and Mother took up her singing again, and had +such games with Digory and Polly that Aunt Letty would say “I declare, Mabel, +you’re the biggest baby of the three.” + +When things go wrong, you’ll find they usually go on getting worse for some +time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and +better. After about six weeks of this lovely life there came a long letter from +Father in India, which had wonderful news in it. Old Great-Uncle Kirke had died +and this meant, apparently, that Father was now very rich. He was going to retire +and come home from India forever and ever. And the great big house in the +country, which Digory had heard of all his life and never seen would now be +their home; the big house with the suits of armour, the stables, the kennels, the +river, the park, the hot-houses, the vineries, the woods, and the mountains behind +it. So that Digory felt just as sure as you that they were all going to live happily +ever after. But perhaps you would like to know just one or two things more. + +Polly and Digory were always great friends and she came nearly every +holidays to stay with them at their beautiful house in the country; and that was +where she learned to ride and swim and milk and bake and climb. + +In Narnia the Beasts lived in great peace and joy and neither the Witch nor +any other enemy came to trouble that pleasant land for many hundred years. +King Frank and Queen Helen and their children lived happily in Narnia and their +second son became King of Archenland. The boys married nymphs and the girls +married woodgods and river-gods. The lamp-post which the Witch had planted +(without knowing it) shone day and night in the Narnian forest, so that the place +where it grew came to be called Lantern Waste; and when, many years later, +another child from our world got into Narnia, on a snowy night, she found the +light still burning. And that adventure was, in a way, connected with the ones I +have just been telling you. + +It was like this. The tree which sprang from the Apple that Digory planted in +the back garden, lived and grew into a fine tree. Growing in the soil of our +world, far out of the sound of Aslan’s voice and far from the young air of Narnia, +it did not bear apples that would revive a dying woman as Digory’s Mother had +been revived, though it did bear apples more beautiful than any others in +England, and they were extremely good for you, though not fully magical. But +inside itself, in the very sap of it, the tree (so to speak) never forgot that other +tree in Narnia to which it belonged. Sometimes it would move mysteriously +when there was no wind blowing: I think that when this happened there were +high winds in Narnia and the English tree quivered because, at that moment, the +Narnia tree was rocking and swaying in a strong south-western gale. However, + + + +that might be, it was proved later that there was still magic in its wood. For when +Digory was quite middle-aged (and he was a famous learned man, a Professor, +and a great traveller by that time) and the Ketterleys’ old house belonged to him, +there was a great storm all over the south of England which blew the tree down. +He couldn’t bear to have it simply chopped up for firewood, so he had part of the +timber made into a wardrobe, which he put in his big house in the country. And +though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, +someone else did. That was the beginning of all the comings and goings between +Narnia and our world, which you can read of in other books. + +When Digory and his people went to live in the big country house, they took +Uncle Andrew to live with them; for Digory’s Father said, “We must try to keep +the old fellow out of mischief, and it isn’t fair that poor Letty should have him +always on her hands.” Uncle Andrew never tried any Magic again as long as he +lived. He had learned his lesson, and in his old age he became a nicer and less +selfish old man than he had ever been before. But he always liked to get visitors +alone in the billiard-room and tell them stories about a mysterious lady, a foreign +royalty, with whom he had driven about London. “A devilish temper she had,” +he would say. “But she was a dem fine woman, sir, a dem fine woman.” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +BY CALDRON POOL + +IN the last days of Narnia, far up to the west beyond Lantern Waste and close +beside the great waterfall, there lived an Ape. He was so old that no one could +remember when he had first come to live in those parts, and he was the cleverest, +ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine. He had a little house, built of wood +and thatched with leaves, up in the fork of a great tree, and his name was Shift. +There were very few Talking Beasts or Men or Dwarfs, or people of any sort, in +that part of the wood, but Shift had one friend and neighbour who was a donkey +called Puzzle. At least they both said they were friends, but from the way things +went on you might have thought Puzzle was more like Shift’s servant than his +friend. He did all the work. When they went together to the river, Shift filled the +big skin bottles with water but it was Puzzle who carried them back. When they +wanted anything from the towns further down the river it was Puzzle who went +down with empty panniers on his back and came back with the panniers full and +heavy. And all the nicest things that Puzzle brought back were eaten by Shift; for +as Shift said, “You see, Puzzle, I can’t eat grass and thistles like you, so it’s only +fair I should make it up in other ways.” And Puzzle always said, “Of course, +Shift, of course. I see that.” Puzzle never complained, because he knew that Shift +was far cleverer than himself and he thought it was very kind of Shift to be +friends with him at all. And if ever Puzzle did try to argue about anything, Shift +would always say, “Now, Puzzle, I understand what needs to be done better than +you. You know you’re not clever, Puzzle.” And Puzzle always said, “No, Shift. +It’s quite true. I’m not clever.” Then he would sigh and do whatever Shift had +said. + +One morning early in the year the pair of them were out walking along the +shore of Caldron Pool. Caldron Pool is the big pool right under the cliffs at the +western end of Narnia. The great waterfall pours down into it with a noise like +everlasting thunder, and the River of Narnia flows out on the other side. The +waterfall keeps the Pool always dancing and bubbling and churning round and +round as if it were on the boil, and that of course is how it got its name of +Caldron Pool. It is liveliest in the early spring when the waterfall is swollen with +all the snow that has melted off the mountains from up beyond Narnia in the +Western Wild from which the river comes. And as they looked at Caldron Pool +Shift suddenly pointed with his dark, skinny finger and said, + +“Look! What’s that?” + + + +“What’s what?” said Puzzle. + +“That yellow thing that’s just come down the waterfall. Look! There it is +again, it’s floating. We must find out what it is.” + +“Must we?” said Puzzle. + +“Of course we must,” said Shift. “It may be something useful. Just hop into +the Pool like a good fellow and fish it out. Then we can have a proper look at it.” + +“Hop into the Pool?” said Puzzle, twitching his long ears. + +“Well how are we to get it if you don’t?” said the Ape. + +“But - but,” said Puzzle, “wouldn’t it be better if you went in? Because, you +see, it’s you who wants to know what it is, and I don’t much. And you’ve got +hands, you see. You’re as good as a Man or a Dwarf when it comes to catching +hold of things. I’ve only got hoofs.” + +“Really, Puzzle,” said Shift, “I didn’t think you’d ever say a thing like that. I +didn’t think it of you, really.” + +“Why, what have I said wrong?” said the Ass, speaking in rather a humble +voice, for he saw that Shift was very deeply offended. “All I meant was -“ + +“Wanting me to go into the water,” said the Ape. “As if you didn’t know +perfectly well what weak chests Apes always have and how easily they catch +cold! Very well. I will go in. I’m feeling cold enough already in this cruel wind. +But I’ll go in. I shall probably die. Then you’ll be sorry.” And Shift’s voice +sounded as if he was just going to burst into tears. + +“Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t,” said Puzzle, half braying, and half +talking. “I never meant anything of the sort, Shift, really I didn’t. You know how +stupid I am and how I can’t think of more than one thing at a time. I’d forgotten +about your weak chest. Of course I’ll go in. You mustn’t think of doing it +yourself. Promise me you won’t, Shift.” + +So Shift promised, and Puzzle went cloppety-clop on his four hoofs round +the rocky edge of the Pool to find a place where he could get in. Quite apart from +the cold it was no joke getting into that quivering and foaming water, and Puzzle +had to stand and shiver for a whole minute before he made up his mind to do it. +But then Shift called out from behind him and said: “Perhaps I’d better do it +after all, Puzzle.” And when Puzzle heard that he said, “No, no. You promised. +I’m in now,” and in he went. + +A great mass of foam got him in the face and filled his mouth with water and +blinded him. Then he went under altogether for a few seconds, and when he +came up again he was in quite another part of the Pool. Then the swirl caught +him and carried him round and round and faster and faster till it took him right +under the waterfall itself, and the force of the water plunged him down, deep +down, so that he thought he would never be able to hold his breath till he came + + + +up again. And when he had come up and when at last he got somewhere near the +thing he was trying to catch, it sailed away from him till it too got under the fall +and was forced down to the bottom. When it came up again it was further from +him than ever. But at last, when he was almost tired to death, and bruised all +over and numb with cold, he succeeded in gripping the thing with his teeth. And +out he came carrying it in front of him and getting his front hoofs tangled up in +it, for it was as big as a large hearthrug, and it was very heavy and cold and +slimy. + +He flung it down in front of Shift and stood dripping and shivering and +trying to get his breath back. But the Ape never looked at him or asked him how +he felt. The Ape was too busy going round and round the Thing and spreading it +out and patting it and smelling it. Then a wicked gleam came into his eye and he +said: + +“It is a lion’s skin.” + +“Ee - auh - auh - oh, is it?” gasped Puzzle. + +“Now I wonder ... I wonder ... I wonder,” said Shift to himself, for he was +thinking very hard. + +“I wonder who killed the poor lion,” said Puzzle presently. “It ought to be +buried. We must have a funeral.” + +“Oh, it wasn’t a Talking Lion,” said Shift. “You needn’t bother about that. +There are no Talking Beasts up beyond the Falls, up in the Western Wild. This +skin must have belonged to a dumb, wild lion.” + +This, by the way, was true. A Hunter, a Man, had killed and skinned this lion +somewhere up in the Western Wild several months before. But that doesn’t come +into this story. + +“All the same, Shift,” said Puzzle, “even if the skin only belonged to a dumb, +wild lion, oughtn’t we to give it a decent burial? I mean, aren’t all lions rather - +well, rather solemn? Because of you know Who. Don’t you see?” + +“Don’t you start getting ideas into your head, Puzzle,” said Shift. “Because, +you know, thinking isn’t your strong point. We’ll make this skin into a fine warm +winter coat for you.” + +“Oh, I don’t think I’d like that,” said the Donkey. “It would look - I mean, +the other Beasts might think - that is to say, I shouldn’t feel -“ + +“What are you talking about?” said Shift, scratching himself the wrong way +up as Apes do. + +“I don’t think it would be respectful to the Great Lion, to Aslan himself, if an +ass like me went about dressed up in a lion-skin,” said Puzzle. + +“Now don’t stand arguing, please,” said Shift. “What does an ass like you +know about things of that sort? You know you’re no good at thinking, Puzzle, so + + + +why don’t you let me do your thinking for you? Why don’t you treat me as I +treat you? I don’t think I can do everything. I know you’re better at some things +than I am. That’s why I let you go into the Pool; I knew you’d do it better than +me. But why can’t I have my turn when it comes to something I can do and you +can’t? Am I never to be allowed to do anything? Do be fair. Turn and turn +about.” + +“Oh, well, of course, if you put it that way,” said Puzzle. + +“I tell you what,” said Shift. “You’d better take a good brisk trot down river +as far as Chippingford and see if they have any oranges or bananas.” + +“But I’m so tired, Shift,” pleaded Puzzle. + +“Yes, but you are very cold and wet,” said the Ape. “You want something to +warm you up. A brisk trot would be just the thing. Besides, it’s market day at +Chippingford today.” And then of course Puzzle said he would go. + +As soon as he was alone Shift went shambling along, sometimes on two +paws and sometimes on four, till he reached his own tree. Then he swung +himself up from branch to branch, chattering and grinning all the time, and went +into his little house. He found needle and thread and a big pair of scissors there; +for he was a clever Ape and the Dwarfs had taught him how to sew. He put the +ball of thread (it was very thick stuff, more like cord than thread) into his mouth +so that his cheek bulged out as if he were sucking a big bit of toffee. He held the +needle between his lips and took the scissors in his left paw. Then he came down +the tree and shambled across to the lion-skin. He squatted down and got to work. + +He saw at once that the body of the lion-skin would be too long for Puzzle +and its neck too short. So he cut a good piece out of the body and used it to make +a long collar for Puzzle’s long neck. Then he cut off the head and sewed the +collar in between the head and the shoulders. He put threads on both sides of the +skin so that it would tie up under Puzzle’s chest and stomach. Every now and +then a bird would pass overhead and Shift would stop his work, looking +anxiously up. He did not want anyone to see what he was doing. But none of the +birds he saw were Talking Birds, so it didn’t matter. + +Late in the afternoon Puzzle came back. He was not trotting but only +plodding patiently along, the way donkeys do. + +“There weren’t any oranges,” he said, “and there weren’t any bananas. And +I’m very tired.” He lay down. + +“Come and try on your beautiful new lion-skin coat,” said Shift. + +“Oh bother that old skin,” said Puzzle. “I’ll try it on in the morning. I’m too +tired tonight.” + +“You are unkind, Puzzle,” said Shift. “If you’re tired what do you think I +am? All day long, while you’ve been having a lovely refreshing walk down the + + + +valley, I’ve been working hard to make you a coat. My paws are so tired I can +hardly hold these scissors. And you won’t say thank you -and you won’t even +look at the coat -and you don’t care - and- and-“ + +“My dear Shift,” said Puzzle getting up at once, “I am so sorry. I’ve been +horrid. Of course I’d love to try it on. And it looks simply splendid. Do try it on +me at once. Please do.” + +“Well, stand still then,” said the Ape. The skin was very heavy for him to lift, +but in the end, with a lot of pulling and pushing and puffing and blowing, he got +it on to the donkey. He tied it underneath Puzzle’s body and he tied the legs to +Puzzle’s legs and the tail to Puzzle’s tail. A good deal of Puzzle’s grey nose and +face could be seen through the open mouth of the lion’s head. No one who had +ever seen a real lion would have been taken in for a moment. But if someone +who had never seen a lion looked at Puzzle in his lion-skin he just might mistake +him for a lion, if he didn’t come too close, and if the light was not too good, and +if Puzzle didn’t let out a bray and didn’t make any noise with his hoofs. + +“You look wonderful, wonderful,” said the Ape. “If anyone saw you now, +they’d think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself.” + +“That would be dreadful,” said Puzzle. + +“No it wouldn’t,” said Shift. “Everyone would do whatever you told them.” + +“But I don’t want to tell them anything.” + +“But you think of the good we could do!” said Shift. “You’d have me to +advise you, you know. I’d think of sensible orders for you to give. And everyone +would have to obey us, even the King himself. We would set everything right in +Narnia.” + +“But isn’t everything right already?” said Puzzle. + +“What!” cried Shift. “Everything right?-when there are no oranges or +bananas?” + +“Well, you know,” said Puzzle, “there aren’t many people - in fact, I don’t +think there’s anyone but yourself who wants those sort of things.” + +“There’s sugar too,” said Shift. + +“H’m yes,” said the Ass. “It would be nice if there was more sugar.” + +“Well then, that’s settled,” said the Ape. “You will pretend to be Aslan, and +I’ll tell you what to say.” + +“No, no, no,” said Puzzle. “Don’t say such dreadful things. It would be +wrong, Shift. I maybe not very clever but I know that much. What would +become of us if the real Aslan turned up?” + +“I expect he’d be very pleased,” said Shift. “Probably he sent us the lion-skin +on purpose, so that we could set things to right. Anyway, he never does turn up, +you know. Not nowadays.” + + + +At that moment there came a great thunderclap right overhead and the +ground trembled with a small earthquake. Both the animals lost their balance and +were flung on their faces. + +“There!” gasped Puzzle, as soon as he had breath to speak. “It’s a sign, a +warning. I knew we were doing something dreadfully wicked. Take this +wretched skin off me at once.” + +“No, no,” said the Ape (whose mind worked very quickly). “It’s a sign the +other way. I was just going to say that if the real Aslan, as you call him, meant us +to go on with this, he would send us a thunderclap and an earth-tremor. It was +just on the tip of my tongue, only the sign itself came before I could get the +words out. You’ve got to do it now, Puzzle. And please don’t let us have any +more arguing. You know you don’t understand these things. What could a +donkey know about signs?” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +THE RASHNESS OF THE KING + +About three weeks later the last of the Kings of Narnia sat under the great +oak which grew beside the door of his little hunting lodge, where he often stayed +for ten days or so in the pleasant spring weather. It was a low, thatched building +not far from the Eastern end of Lantern Waste and some way above the meeting +of the two rivers. He loved to live there simply and at ease, away from the state +and pomp of Cair Paravel, the royal city. His name was King Tirian, and he was +between twenty and twenty-five years old; his shoulders were already broad and +strong and his limbs full of hard muscle, but his beard was still scanty. He had +blue eyes and a fearless, honest face. + +There was no one with him that spring morning except his dearest friend, +Jewel the Unicorn. They loved each other like brothers and each had saved the +other’s life in the wars. The lordly beast stood close beside the King’s chair, with +its neck bent round polishing its blue horn against the creamy whiteness of its +flank. + +“I cannot set myself to any work or sport today, Jewel,” said the King. “I can +think of nothing but this wonderful news. Think you we shah hear any more of it +today?” + +“They are the most wonderful tidings ever heard in our days or our fathers’ +or our grandfathers’ days, Sire,” said Jewel, “if they are true.” + +“How can they choose but be true?” said the King. “It is more than a week +ago that the first birds came flying over us saying, Aslan is here, Aslan has come +to Narnia again. And after that it was the squirrels. They had not seen him, but +they said it was certain he was in the woods. Then came the Stag. He said he had +seen him with his own eyes, a great way off, by moonlight, in Lantern Waste. +Then came that dark Man with the beard, the merchant from Calormen. The +Calormenes care nothing for Aslan as we do; but the man spoke of it as a thing +beyond doubt. And there was the Badger last night; he too had seen Aslan.” + +“Indeed, Sire,” answered Jewel, “I believe it ah. If I seem not to, it is only +that my joy is too great to let my belief settle itself. It is almost too beautiful to +believe.” + +“Yes,” said the King with a great sigh, almost a shiver, of delight. “It is +beyond all that I ever hoped for in ah my life.” + +“Listen!” said Jewel, putting his head on one side and cocking his ears +forward. + + + +“What is it?” asked the King. + +“Hoofs, Sire,” said Jewel. “A galloping horse. Avery heavy horse. It must be +one of the Centaurs. And look, there he is.” + +A great, golden bearded Centaur, with man’s sweat on his forehead and +horse’s sweat on his chestnut flanks, dashed up to the King, stopped, and bowed +low. “Hail, King,” it cried in a voice as deep as a bull’s. + +“Ho, there!” said the King, looking over his shoulder towards the door of the +hunting lodge. “A bowl of wine for the noble Centaur. Welcome, Roonwit. When +you have found your breath you shall tell us your errand.” + +A page came out of the house carrying a great wooden bowl, curiously +carved, and handed it to the Centaur. The Centaur raised the bowl and said, + +“I drink first to Aslan and truth, Sire, and secondly to your Majesty.” + +He finished the wine (enough for six strong men) at one draught and handed +the empty bowl back to the page. + +“Now, Roonwit,” said the King. “Do you bring us more news of Aslan?” + +Roonwit looked very grave, frowning a little. + +“Sire,” he said. “You know how long I have lived and studied the stars; for +we Centaurs live longer than you Men, and even longer than your kind, Unicorn. +Never in all my days have I seen such terrible things written in the skies as there +have been nightly since this year began. The stars say nothing of the coming of +Aslan, nor of peace, nor of joy. I know by my art that there have not been such +disastrous conjunctions of the planets for five hundred years. It was already in +my mind to come and warn your Majesty that some great evil hangs over Narnia. +But last night the rumour reached me that Aslan is abroad in Narnia. Sire, do not +believe this tale. It cannot be. The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do. If +Aslan were really coming to Narnia the sky would have foretold it. If he were +really come, all the most gracious stars would be assembled in his honour. It is +all a lie.” + +“A lie!” said the King fiercely. “What creature in Narnia or all the world +would dare to lie on such a matter?” And, without knowing it, he laid his hand +on his sword hilt. + +“That I know not, Lord King,” said the Centaur. “But I know there are liars +on earth; there are none among the stars.” + +“I wonder,” said Jewel, “whether Aslan might not come though all the stars +foretold otherwise. He is not the slave of the stars but their Maker. Is it not said +in all the old stories that He is not a tame lion.” + +“Well said, well said, Jewel,” cried the King. “Those are the very words: not +a tame lion. It comes in many tales.” + +Roonwit had just raised his hand and was leaning forward to say something + + + +very earnestly to the King when all three of them turned their heads to listen to a +wailing sound that was quickly drawing nearer. The wood was so thick to the +West of them that they could not see the newcomer yet. But they could soon hear +the words. + +“Woe, woe, woe!” called the voice. “Woe for my brothers and sisters! Woe +for the holy trees! The woods are laid waste. The axe is loosed against us. We +are being felled. Great trees are falling, falling, falling.” + +With the last “falling” the speaker came in sight. She was like a woman but +so tall that her head was on a level with the Centaur’s yet she was like a tree too. +It is hard to explain if you have never seen a Dryad but quite unmistakable once +you have - something different in the colour, the voice, and the hair. King Tirian +and the two Beasts knew at once that she was the nymph of a beech tree. + +“Justice, Lord King!” she cried. “Come to our aid. Protect your people. They +are felling us in Lantern Waste. + +Forty great trunks of my brothers and sisters are already on the ground.” + +“What, Lady! Felling Lantern Waste? Murdering the talking trees?” cried the +King, leaping to his feet and drawing his sword. “How dare they? And who +dares it? Now by the Mane of Aslan-“ + +“A-a-a-h,” gasped the Dryad shuddering as if in pain - shuddering time after +time as if under repeated blows. Then all at once she fell sideways as suddenly +as if both her feet had been cut from under her. For a second they saw her lying +dead on the grass and then she vanished. They knew what had happened. Her +tree, miles away, had been cut down. + +For a moment the King’s grief and anger were so great that he could not +speak. Then he said: + +“Come, friends. We must go up river and find the villains who have done +this, with all the speed we may. I will leave not one of them alive.” + +“Sire, with a good will,” said Jewel. + +But Roonwit said, “Sire, be wary in your just wrath. There are strange doings +on foot. If there should be rebels in arms further up the valley, we three are too +few to meet them. If it would please you to wait while -“ + +“I will not wait the tenth part of a second,” said the King. “But while Jewel +and I go forward, do you gallop as hard as you may to Cair Paravel. Here is my +ring for your token. Get me a score of men-at-arms, all well mounted, and a +score of Talking Dogs, and ten Dwarfs (let them all be fell archers), and a +Leopard or so, and Stonefoot the Giant. Bring all these after us as quickly as +may be.” + +“With a good will, Sire,” said Roonwit. And at once he turned and galloped +Eastward down the valley. + + + +The King strode on at a great pace, sometimes muttering to himself and +sometimes clenching his fists. Jewel walked beside him, saying nothing; so there +was no sound between them but the faint jingle of a rich gold chain that hung +round the Unicorn’s neck and the noise of two feet and four hoofs. + +They soon reached the River and turned up it where there was a grassy road: +they had the water on their left and the forest on their right. Soon after that they +came to the place where the ground grew rougher and thick wood came down to +the water’s edge. The road, what there was of it, now ran on the Southern bank +and they had to ford the River to reach it. It was up to Tirian’s arm-pits, but +Jewel (who had four legs and was therefore steadier) kept on his right so as to +break the force of the current, and Tirian put his strong arm round the Unicorn’s +strong neck and they both got safely over. The King was still so angry that he +hardly noticed the cold of the water. But of course he dried his sword very +carefully on the shoulder of his cloak, which was the only dry part of him, as +soon as they came to shore. + +They were now going Westward with the River on their right and Lantern +Waste straight ahead of them. They had not gone more than a mile when they +both stopped and both spoke at the same moment. The King said “What have we +here?” and Jewel said “Look!” + +“It is a raft,” said King Tirian. + +And so it was. Half a dozen splendid tree-trunks, all newly cut and newly +lopped of their branches, had been lashed together to make a raft, and were +gliding swiftly down the river. On the front of the raft there was a water rat with +a pole to steer it. + +“Hey! Water-Rat! What are you about?” cried the King. + +“Taking logs down to sell to the Calormenes, Sire,” said the Rat, touching his +ear as he might have touched his cap if he had had one. + +“Calormenes!” thundered Tirian. “What do you mean? Who gave order for +these trees to be felled?” + +The River flows so swiftly at that time of the year that the raft had already +glided past the King and Jewel. But the Water-Rat looked back over its shoulder +and shouted out: + +“The Lion’s orders, Sire. Aslan himself.” He added something more but they +couldn’t hear it. + +The King and the Unicorn stared at one another and both looked more +frightened than they had ever been in any battle. + +“Aslan,” said the King at last, in a very low voice. “Aslan. Could it be true? +Could he be felling the holy trees and murdering the Dryads?” + +“Unless the Dryads have all done something dreadfully wrong-” murmured + + + +Jewel. + +“But selling them to Calormenes!” said the King. “Is it possible?” + +“I don’t know,” said Jewel miserably. “He’s not a tame lion.” + +“Well,” said the King at last, “we must go on and take the adventure that +comes to us.” + +“It is the only thing left for us to do, Sire,” said the Unicorn. He did not see +at the moment how foolish it was for two of them to go on alone; nor did the +King. They were too angry to think clearly. But much evil came of their rashness +in the end. + +Suddenly the King leaned hard on his friend’s neck and bowed his head. + +“Jewel,” he said, “what lies before us? Horrible thoughts arise in my heart. If +we had died before today we should have been happy.” + +“Yes,” said Jewel. “We have lived too long. The worst thing in the world has +come upon us.” They stood like that for a minute or two and then went on. + +Before long they could hear the hack-hack-hack of axes falling on timber, +though they could see nothing yet because there was a rise of the ground in front +of them. When they had reached the top of it they could see right into Lantern +Waste itself. And the King’s face turned white when he saw it. + +Right through the middle of that ancient forest - that forest where the trees of +gold and of silver had once grown and where a child from our world had once +planted the Tree of Protection - a broad lane had already been opened. It was a +hideous lane like a raw gash in the land, full of muddy ruts where felled trees +had been dragged down to the river. There was a great crowd of people at work, +and a cracking of whips, and horses tugging and straining as they dragged at the +logs. The first thing that struck the King and the Unicorn was that about half the +people in the crowd were not Talking Beasts but Men. The next thing was that +these men were not the fair-haired men of Narnia: they were dark, bearded men +from Calormen, that great and cruel country that lies beyond Archenland across +the desert to the south. There was no reason, of course, why one should not meet +a Calormene or two in Narnia - a merchant or an ambassador - for there was +peace between Narnia and Calormen in those days. But Tirian could not +understand why there were so many of them: nor why they were cutting down a +Narnian forest. He grasped his sword tighter and rolled his cloak round his left +arm. They came quickly down among the men. + +Two Calormenes were driving a horse which was harnessed to a log. Just as +the King reached them the log had got stuck in a bad muddy place. + +“Get on, son of sloth! Pull, you lazy pig!” cried the Calormenes, cracking +their whips. The horse was already straining himself as hard as he could; his +eyes were red and he was covered with foam. + + + +“Work, lazy brute,” shouted one of the Calormenes: and as he spoke he +struck the horse savagely with his whip. It was then that the really dreadful thing +happened. + +Up till now Tirian had taken it for granted that the horses which the +Calormenes were driving were their own horses; dumb, witless animals like the +horses of our own world. And though he hated to see even a dumb horse +overdriven, he was of course thinking more about the murder of the Trees. It had +never crossed his mind that anyone would dare to harness one of the free Talking +Horses of Narnia, much less to use a whip on it. But as that savage blow fell the +horse reared up and said, half screaming: + +“Fool and tyrant! Do you not see I am doing all I can?” + +When Tirian knew that the Horse was one of his own Narnians, there came +over him and over Jewel such a rage that they did not know what they were +doing. The King’s sword went up, the Unicorn’s horn went down. They rushed +forward together. Next moment both the Calormenes lay dead, the one beheaded +by Tirian’s sword and the other gored through the heart by Jewel’s horn. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +THE APE IN ITS GLORY + +“MASTER Horse, Master Horse,” said Tirian as he hastily cut its traces, +“how came these aliens to enslave you? Is Narnia conquered? Has there been a +battle?” + +“No, Sire,” panted the horse, “Aslan is here. It is all by his orders. He has +commanded -“ + +“‘Ware danger, King,” said Jewel. Tirian looked up and saw that Calormenes +(mixed with a few Talking Beasts) were beginning to run towards them from +every direction. The two dead men had died without a cry and so it had taken a +moment before the rest of the crowd knew what had happened. But now they +did. Most of them had naked scimitars in their hands. + +“Quick. On my back,” said Jewel. + +The King flung himself astride of his old friend who turned and galloped +away. He changed direction twice or thrice as soon as they were out of sight of +their enemies, crossed a stream, and shouted without slackening his pace, +“Whither away, Sire? To Cair Paravel?” + +“Hold hard, friend,” said Tirian. “Let me off.” He slid off the Unicorn’s back +and faced him. + +“Jewel,” said the King. “We have done a dreadful deed.” + +“We were sorely provoked,” said Jewel. + +“But to leap on them unawares - without defying them while they were +unarmed - faugh! We are two murderers, Jewel. I am dishonoured forever.” + +Jewel drooped his head. He too was ashamed. + +“And then,” said the King, “the Horse said it was by Aslan’s orders. The Rat +said the same. They all say Aslan is here. How if it were true?” + +“But, Sire, how could Aslan be commanding such dreadful things?” + +“He is not a tame lion,” said Tirian. “How should we know what he would +do? We, who are murderers. Jewel, I will go back. I will give up my sword and +put myself in the hands of these Calormenes and ask that they bring me before +Aslan. Let him do justice on me.” + +“You will go to your death, then,” said Jewel. + +“Do you think I care if Aslan dooms me to death?” said the King. “That +would be nothing, nothing at all. Would it not be better to be dead than to have +this horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the Aslan we have believed +in and longed for? It is as if the sun rose one day and were a black sun.” + + + +“I know,” said Jewel. “Or as if you drank water and it were dry water. You +are in the right, Sire. This is the end of all things. Let us go and give ourselves +up.” + +“There is no need for both of us to go.” + +“If ever we loved one another, let me go with you now,” said the Unicorn. “If +you are dead and if Aslan is not Aslan, what life is left for me?” + +They turned and walked back together, shedding bitter tears. + +As soon as they came to the place where the work was going on the +Calormenes raised a cry and came towards them with their weapons in hand. But +the King held out his sword with the hilt towards them and said: + +“I who was King of Narnia and am now a dishonoured knight give myself up +to the justice of Aslan. Bring me before him.” + +“And I give myself up too,” said Jewel. + +Then the dark men came round them in a thick crowd, smelling of garlic and +onions, their white eyes flashing dreadfully in their brown faces. They put a rope +halter round Jewel’s neck. They took the King’s sword away and tied his hands +behind his back. One of the Calormenes, who had a helmet instead of a turban +and seemed to be in command, snatched the gold circlet off Tirian’s head and +hastily put it away somewhere among his clothes. They led the two prisoners +uphill to a place where there was a big clearing. And this was what the prisoners +saw. At the centre of the clearing, which was also the highest point of the hill, +there was a little hut like a stable, with a thatched roof. Its door was shut. On the +grass in front of the door there sat an Ape. Tirian and Jewel, who had been +expecting to see Aslan and had heard nothing about an Ape yet, were very +bewildered when they saw it. The Ape was of course Shift himself, but he +looked ten times uglier than when he lived by Caldron Pool, for he was now +dress- ed up. He was wearing a scarlet jacket which did not fit him very well, +having been made for a dwarf. He had Jewelled slippers on his hind paws which +would not stay on properly because, as you know, the hind paws of an Ape are +really like hands. He wore what seemed to be a paper crown on his head. There +was a great pile of nuts beside him and he kept cracking nuts with his jaws and +spitting out the shells. And he also kept on pulling up the scarlet jacket to scratch +himself. A great number of Talking Beasts stood facing him, and nearly every +face in that crowd looked miserably worried and bewildered. When they saw +who the prisoners were they all groaned and whimpered. + +“O Lord Shift, mouthpiece of Aslan,” said the chief Calormene. “We bring +you prisoners. By our skill and courage and by the permission of the great god +Tash we have taken alive these two desperate murderers.” + +“Give me that man’s sword,” said the Ape. So they took the King’s sword + + + +and handed it, with the sword-belt and all, to the monkey. And he hung it round +his own neck: and it made him look sillier than ever. + +“We’ll see about those two later,” said the Ape, spitting out a shell in the +direction of the two prisoners. “I got some other business first. They can wait. +Now listen to me, everyone. The first thing I want to say is about nuts. Where’s +that Head Squirrel got to?” + +“Here, Sir,” said a red squirrel, coming forward and making a nervous little +bow. + +“Oh you are, are you?” said the Ape with a nasty look. “Now attend to me. I +want - I mean, Aslan wants - some more nuts. These you’ve brought aren’t +anything like enough. You must bring some more, do you hear? Twice as many. +And they’ve got to be here by sunset tomorrow, and there mustn’t be any bad +ones or any small ones among them.” + +A murmur of dismay ran through the other squirrels, and the Head Squirrel +plucked up courage to say: + +“Please, would Aslan himself speak to us about it? If we might be allowed to +see him -“ + +“Well you won’t,” said the Ape. “He may be very kind (though it’s a lot +more than most of you deserve) and come out for a few minutes tonight. Then +you can all have a look at him. But he will not have you all crowding round him +and pestering him with questions. Anything you want to say to him will be +passed on through me: if I think it’s worth bothering him about. In the meantime +all you squirrels had better go and see about the nuts. And make sure they are +here by tomorrow evening or, my word! you’ll catch it.” + +The poor squirrels all scampered away as if a dog were after them. This new +order was terrible news for them. The nuts they had carefully hoarded for the +winter had nearly all been eaten by now; and of the few that were left they had +already given the Ape far more than they could spare. + +Then a deep voice - it belonged to a great tusked and shaggy Boar - spoke +from another part of the crowd. + +“But why can’t we see Aslan properly and talk to him?” it said. “When he +used to appear in Narnia in the old days everyone could talk to him face to face.” + +“Don’t you believe it,” said the Ape. “And even if it was true, times have +changed. Aslan says he’s been far too soft with you before, do you see? Well, he +isn’t going to be soft any more. He’s going to lick you into shape this time. He’ll +teach you to think he’s a tame lion!” + +A low moaning and whimpering was heard among the Beasts; and, after that, +a dead silence which was more miserable still. + +“And now there’s another thing you got to learn,” said the Ape. “I hear some + + + +of you are saying I’m an Ape. Well, I’m not. I’m a Man. If I look like an Ape, +that’s because I’m so very old: hundreds and hundreds of years old. And it’s +because I’m so old that I’m so wise. And it’s because I’m so wise that I’m the +only one Aslan is ever going to speak to. He can’t be bothered talking to a lot of +stupid animals. He’ll tell me what you’ve got to do, and I’ll tell the rest of you. +And take my advice, and see you do it in double quick time, for he doesn’t mean +to stand any nonsense.” + +There was a dead silence except for the noise of a very young badger crying +and its mother trying to make it keep quiet. + +“And now here’s another thing,” the Ape went on, fitting a fresh nut into its +cheek, “I hear some of the horses are saying, Let’s hurry up and get this job of +carting timber over as quickly as we can, and then we’ll be free again. Well, you +can get that idea out of your heads at once. And not only the Horses either. +Everybody who can work is going to be made to work in future. Aslan has it all +settled with the King of Calormen - The Tisroc, as our dark faced friends the +Calormenes call him. All you Horses and Bulls and Donkeys are to be sent down +into Calormen to work for your living - pulling and carrying the way horses and +such-like do in other countries. And all you digging animals like Moles and +Rabbits and Dwarfs are going down to work in The Tisroc’s mines. And + +“No, no, no,” howled the Beasts. “It can’t be true. Aslan would never sell us +into slavery to the King of Calormen.” + +“None of that! Hold your noise!” said the Ape with a snarl. “Who said +anything about slavery? You won’t be slaves. You’ll be paid - very good wages +too. That is to say, your pay will be paid into Aslan’s treasury and he will use it +all for everybody’s good.” Then he glanced, and almost winked, at the chief +Calormene. The Calormene bowed and replied, in the pompous Calormene way: + +“Most sapient Mouthpiece of Aslan, The Tisroc (may he-live-forever) is +wholly of one mind with your lordship in this judicious plan.” + +“There! You see!” said the Ape. “It’s all arranged. And all for your own +good. We’ll be able, with the money you earn, to make Narnia a country worth +living in. There’ll be oranges and bananas pouring in - and roads and big cities +and schools and offices and whips and muzzles and saddles and cages and +kennels and prisons - Oh, everything.” + +“But we don’t want all those things,” said an old Bear. “We want to be free. +And we want to hear Aslan speak himself.” + +“Now don’t you start arguing,” said the Ape, “for it’s a thing I won’t stand. +I’m a Man: you’re only a fat, stupid old Bear. What do you know about +freedom? You think freedom means doing what you like. Well, you’re wrong. +That isn’t true freedom. True freedom means doing what I tell you.” + + + +“H-n-n-h,” grunted the Bear and scratched its head; it found this sort of thing +hard to understand. + +“Please, please,” said the high voice of a woolly lamb, who was so young +that everyone was surprised he dared to speak at all. + +“What is it now?” said the Ape. “Be quick.” + +“Please,” said the Lamb, “I can’t understand. What have we to do with the +Calormenes? We belong to Aslan. They belong to Tash. They have a god called +Tash. They say he has four arms and the head of a vulture. They kill Men on his +altar. I don’t believe there’s any such person as Tash. But if there was, how could +Aslan be friends with him?” + +All the animals cocked their heads sideways and all their bright eyes flashed +towards the Ape. They knew it was the best question anyone had asked yet. + +The Ape jumped up and spat at the Lamb. + +“Baby!” he hissed. “Silly little bleater! Go home to your mother and drink +milk. What do you understand of such things? But the others, listen. Tash is only +another name for Aslan. All that old idea of us being right and the Calormenes +wrong is silly. We know better now. The Calormenes use different words but we +all mean the same thing. Tash and Aslan are only two different names for you +know Who. That’s why there can never be any quarrel between them. Get that +into your heads, you stupid brutes. Tash is Aslan: Aslan is Tash.” + +You know how sad your own dog’s face can look sometimes. Think of that +and then think of all the faces of those Talking Beasts - all those honest, humble, +bewildered Birds, Bears, Badgers, Rabbits, Moles, and Mice - all far sadder than +that. Every tail was down, every whisker drooped. It would have broken your +heart with very pity to see their faces. There was only one who did not look at all +unhappy. + +It was a ginger Cat - a great big Tom in the prime of life - who sat bolt +upright with his tail curled round his toes, in the very front row of all the Beasts. +He had been staring hard at the Ape and the Calormene captain all the time and +had never once blinked his eyes. + +“Excuse me,” said the Cat very politely, “but this interests me. Does your +friend from Calormen say the same?” + +“Assuredly,” said the Calormene. “The enlightened Ape - Man, I mean - is in +the right. Aslan means neither less nor more than Tash.” + +“Especially, Aslan means no more than Tash?” suggested the Cat. + +“No more at all,” said the Calormene, looking the Cat straight in the face. + +“Is that good enough for you, Ginger?” said the Ape. + +“Oh certainly,” said Ginger coolly. “Thank you very much. I only wanted to +be quite clear. I think I am beginning to understand.” + + + +Up till now the King and Jewel had said nothing: they were waiting until the +Ape should bid them speak, for they thought it was no use interrupting. But now, +as Tirian looked round on the miserable faces of the Narnians, and saw how they +would all believe that Aslan and Tash were one and the same, he could bear it no +longer. + +“Ape,” he cried with a great voice, “you lie damnably. You lie like a +Calormene. You lie like an Ape.” + +He meant to go on and ask how the terrible god Tash who fed on the blood of +his people could possibly be the same as the good Lion by whose blood all +Narnia was saved. If he had been allowed to speak, the rule of the Ape might +have ended that day; the Beasts might have seen the truth and thrown the Ape +down. But before he could say another word two Calormenes struck him in the +mouth with all their force, and a third, from behind, kicked his feet from under +him. And as he fell, the Ape squealed in rage and terror. + +“Take him away. Take him away. Take him where he cannot hear us, nor we +hear him. There tie him to a tree. I will -1 mean, Aslan will - do justice on him +later.” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT + +THE King was so dizzy from being knocked down that he hardly knew what +was happening until the Calormenes untied his wrists and put his arms straight +down by his sides and set him with his back against an ash tree. Then they bound +ropes round his ankles and his knees and his waist and his chest and left him +there. What worried him worst at the moment - for it is often little things that are +hardest to stand - was that his lip was bleeding where they had hit him and he +couldn’t wipe the little trickle of blood away although it tickled him. + +From where he was he could still see the little stable on the top of the hill +and the Ape sitting in front of it. He could just hear the Ape’s voice still going on +and, every now and then, some answer from the crowd, but he could not make +out the words. + +“I wonder what they’ve done to Jewel,” thought the King. + +Presently the crowd of beasts broke up and began going away in different +directions. Some passed close to Tirian. They looked at him as if they were both +frightened and sorry to see him tied up but none of them spoke. Soon they had +all gone and there was silence in the wood. Then hours and hours went past and +Tirian became first very thirsty and then very hungry; and as the afternoon +dragged on and turned into evening, he became cold too. His back was very sore. +The sun went down and it began to be twilight. + +When it was almost dark Tirian heard a light pitter-patter of feet and saw +some small creatures coming towards him. The three on the left were Mice, and +there was a Rabbit in the middle: on the right were two Moles. Both these were +carrying little bags on their backs which gave them a curious look in the dark so +that at first he wondered what kind of beasts they were. Then, in a moment, they +were all standing up on their hind legs, laying their cool paws on his knees and +giving his knees snuffly animal kisses. (They could reach his knees because +Narnian Talking Beasts of that sort are bigger than the dumb beasts of the same +kind in England.) + +“Lord King! dear Lord King,” said their shrill voices, “we are so sorry for +you. We daren’t untie you because Aslan might be angry with us. But we’ve +brought you your supper.” + +At once the first Mouse climbed nimbly up till he was perched on the rope +that bound Tirian’s chest and was wrinkling his blunt nose in front of Tirian’s +face. Then the second Mouse climbed up and hung on just below the first + + + +Mouse. The other beasts stood on the ground and began handing things up. + +“Drink, Sire, and then you’ll find you are able to eat,” said the topmost +Mouse, and Tirian found that a little wooden cup was being held to his lips. It +was only the size of an egg cup so that he had hardly tasted the wine in it before +it was empty. But then the Mouse passed it down and the others re-filled it and it +was passed up again and Tirian emptied it a second time. In this way they went +on till he had quite a good drink, which was all the better for coming in little +doses, for that is more thirst-quenching than one long draught. + +“Here is cheese, Sire,” said the first Mouse, “but not very much, for fear it +would make you too thirsty.” And after the cheese they fed him with oat-cakes +and fresh butter, and then with some more wine. + +“Now hand up the water,” said the first Mouse, “and I’ll wash the King’s +face. There is blood on it.” + +Then Tirian felt something like a tiny sponge dabbing his face, and it was +most refreshing. + +“Little friends,” said Tirian, “how can I thank you for all this?” + +“You needn’t, you needn’t,” said the little voices. “What else could we do? +We don’t want any other King. We’re your people. If it was only the Ape and the +Calormenes who were against you we would have fought till we were cut into +pieces before we’d let them tie you up. We would, we would indeed. But we +can’t go against Aslan.” + +“Do you think it really is Aslan?” asked the King. + +“Oh yes, yes,” said the Rabbit. “He came out of the stable last night. We all +saw him.” + +“What was he like?” said the King. + +“Like a terrible, great Lion, to be sure,” said one of the Mice. + +“And you think it is really Aslan who is killing the Wood-Nymphs and +making you all slaves to the King of Calormen?” + +“Ah, that’s bad, isn’t it?” said the second Mouse. “It would have been better +if we’d died before all this began. But there’s no doubt about it. Everyone says it +is Aslan’s orders. And we’ve seen him. We didn’t think Aslan would be like that. +Why, we - we wanted him to come back to Narnia.” + +“He seems to have come back very angry this time,” said the first Mouse. +“We must all have done something dreadfully wrong without knowing it. He +must be punishing us for something. But I do think we might be told what it +was!” + +“I suppose what we’re doing now may be wrong,” said the Rabbit. + +“I don’t care if it is,” said one of the Moles. “I’d do it again.” + +But the others said, “Oh hush,” and “Do be careful,” and then they all said, + + + +“We’re sorry, dear King, but we must go back now. It would never do for us to +be caught here.” + +“Leave me at once, dear Beasts,” said Tirian. “I would not for all Narnia +bring any of you into danger.” + +“Goodnight, goodnight,” said the Beasts, rubbing their noses against his +knees. “We will come back - if we can.” Then they all pattered away and the +wood seemed darker and colder and lonelier than it had been before they came. + +The stars came out and time went slowly on - imagine how slowly - while +that last King of Narnia stood stiff and sore and upright against the tree in his +bonds. But at last something happened. + +Far away there appeared a red light. Then it disappeared for a moment and +came back again, bigger and stronger. Then he could see dark shapes going to +and fro on this side of the light and carrying bundles and throwing them down. +He knew now what he was looking at. It was a bonfire, newly lit, and people +were throwing bundles of brushwood on to it. Presently it blazed up and Tirian +could see that it was on the very top of the hill. He could see quite clearly the +stable behind it, all lit up in the red glow, and a great crowd of Beasts and Men +between the fire and himself. A small figure, hunched up beside the fire, must be +the Ape. It was saying something to the crowd, but he could not hear what. Then +it went and bowed three times to the ground in front of the door of the stable. +Then it got up and opened the door. And something on four legs - something that +walked rather stiffly - came out of the stable and stood facing the crowd. + +A great wailing or howling went up, so loud that Tirian could hear some of +the words. + +“Aslan! Aslan! Aslan!” cried the Beasts. “Speak to us. Comfort us. Be angry +with us no more.” + +From where Tirian was he could not make out very clearly what the thing +was; but he could see that it was yellow and hairy. He had never seen the Great +Lion. He had never seen a common lion. He couldn’t be sure that what he saw +was not the real Aslan. He had not expected Aslan to look like that stiff thing +which stood and said nothing. But how could one be sure? For a moment +horrible thoughts went through his mind: then he remembered the nonsense +about Tash and Aslan being the same and knew that the whole thing must be a +cheat. + +The Ape put his head close up to the yellow thing’s head as if he were +listening to something it was whispering to him. Then he turned and spoke to the +crowd, and the crowd wailed again. Then the yellow thing turned clumsily round +and walked - you might almost say, waddled - back into the stable and the Ape +shut the door behind it. After that the fire must have been put out for the light + + + +vanished quite suddenly, and Tirian was once more alone with the cold and the +darkness. + +He thought of other Kings who had lived and died in Narnia in old times and +it seemed to him that none of them had ever been so unlucky as himself. He +thought of his great-grandfather’s great-grandfather King Rilian who had been +stolen away by a Witch when he was only a young prince and kept hidden for +years in the dark caves beneath the land of the Northern Giants. But then it had +all come; right in the end, for two mysterious children had suddenly appeared +from the land beyond the world’s end and had rescued him so that he came home +to Narnia and had a long and prosperous reign. “It’s not like that with me,” said +Tirian to himself. Then he went further back and: thought about Rilian’s father, +Caspian the Seafarer, whose wicked uncle King Miraz had tried to murder him +and how Caspian had fled away into the woods and lived among the Dwarfs. But +that story too had all come right in the end: for Caspian also had been helped by +children - only there were four of them that time - who came from somewhere +beyond the world and fought a great battle and set him on his father’s throne. +“But it was all long ago,” said Tirian to himself. “That sort of thing doesn’t +happen now.” And then he remembered (for he had always been good at history +when he was a boy) how those same four children who had helped Caspian had +been in Narnia over a thousand years before; and it was then that they had done +the most remarkable thing of all. For then they had defeated the terrible White +Witch and ended the Hundred Years of Winter, and after that they had reigned +(all four of them together) at Cair Paravel, till they were no longer children but +great Kings and lovely Queens, and their reign had been the golden age of +Narnia. And Aslan had come into that story a lot. He had come into all the other +stories too, as Tirian now remembered. “Aslan - and children from another +world,” thought Tirian. “They have always come in when things were at their +worst. Oh, if only they could now.” + +And he called out “Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us now.” + +But the darkness and the cold and the quietness went on just the same. + +“Let me be killed,” cried the King. “I ask nothing for myself. But come and +save all Narnia.” + +And still there was no change in the night or the wood, but there began to be +a kind of change inside Tirian. Without knowing why, he began to feel a faint +hope. And he felt somehow stronger. “Oh Aslan, Aslan,” he whispered. “If you +will not come yourself, at least send me the helpers from beyond the world. Or +let me call them. Let my voice carry beyond the world.” Then, hardly knowing +that he was doing it, he suddenly cried out in a great voice: + +“Children! Children! Friends of Narnia! Quick. Come to me. Across the + + + +worlds I call you; I Tirian, King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of +the Lone Islands!” + +And immediately he was plunged into a dream (if it was a dream) more vivid +than any he had had in his life. + +He seemed to be standing in a lighted room where seven people sat round a +table. It looked as if they had just finished their meal. Two of those people were +very old, an old man with a white beard and an old woman with wise, merry, +twinkling eyes. He who sat at the right hand of the old man was hardly full +grown, certainly younger than Tirian himself, but his face had already the look +of a king and a warrior. And you could almost say the same of the other youth +who sat at the right hand of the old woman. Facing Tirian across the table sat a +fair-haired girl younger than either of these, and on either side of her a boy and +girl who were younger still. They were all dressed in what seemed to Tirian the +oddest kind of clothes. + +But he had no time to think about details like that, for instantly the younger +boy and both the girls started to their feet, and one of them gave a little scream. +The old woman started and drew in her breath sharply. The old man must have +made some sudden movement too for the wine glass which stood at his right +hand was swept off the table: Tirian could hear the tinkling noise as it broke on +the floor. + +Then Tirian realized that these people could see him; they were staring at +him as if they saw a ghost. But he noticed that the king-like one who sat at the +old man’s right never moved (though he turned pale) except that he clenched his +hand very tight. Then he said: + +“Speak, if you’re not a phantom or a dream. You have a Narnian look about +you and we are the seven friends of Narnia.” + +Tirian was longing to speak, and he tried to cry out aloud that he was Tirian +of Narnia, in great need of help. But he found (as I have sometimes found in +dreams too) that his voice made no noise at all. + +The one who had already spoken to him rose to his feet. “Shadow or spirit or +whatever you are,” he said, fixing his eyes full upon Tirian. “If you are from +Narnia, I charge you in the name of Aslan, speak to me. I am Peter the High +King.” + +The room began to swim before Tirian’s eyes. He heard the voices of those +seven people all speaking at once, and all getting fainter every second, and they +were saying things like, “Look! It’s fading.” “It’s melting away.” “It’s +vanishing.” Next moment he was wide awake, still tied to the tree, colder and +stiffer than ever. The wood was full of the pale, dreary light that comes before +sunrise, and he was soaking wet with dew; it was nearly morning. + + + +That waking was about the worst moment he had ever had in his life. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +HOW HELP CAME TO THE KING + +Bur his misery did not last long. Almost at once there came a bump, and then +a second bump, and two children were standing before him. The wood in front of +him had been quite empty a second before and he knew they had not come from +behind his tree, for he would have heard them. They had in fact simply appeared +from nowhere. He saw at a glance that they were wearing the same queer, dingy +sort of clothes as the people in his dream; and he saw, at a second glance, that +they were the youngest boy and girl out of that party of seven. + +“Gosh!” said the boy, “that took one’s breath away! I thought -“ + +“Hurry up and get him untied,” said the girl. “We can talk, afterwards.” Then +she added, turning to Tirian, “I’m sorry we’ve been so long. We came the +moment we could.” + +While she was speaking the Boy produced a knife from his pocket and was +quickly cutting the King’s bonds: too quickly, in fact, for the King was so stiff +and numb that when the last cord was cut he fell forward on his hands and knees. +He couldn’t get up again till he had brought some life back into his legs by a +good mbbing. + +“I say,” said the girl. “It was you, wasn’t it, who appeared to us that night +when we were all at supper? Nearly a week ago.” + +“A week, fair maid?” said Tirian. “My dream led me into your world scarce +ten minutes since.” + +“It’s the usual muddle about times, Pole,” said the Boy. + +“I remember now,” said Tirian. “That too comes in all the old tales. The time +of your strange land is different from ours. But if we speak of Time, ’tis time to +be gone from here: for my enemies are close at hand. Will you come with me?” + +“Of course,” said the girl. “It’s you we’ve come to help.” + +Tirian got to his feet and led them rapidly down hill, Southward and away +from the stable. He knew where he meant to go but his first aim was to get to +rocky places where they would leave no trail, and his second to cross some water +so that they would leave no scent. This took them about an hour’s scrambling +and wading and while that was going on nobody had any breath to talk. But even +so, Tirian kept on stealing glances at his companions. The wonder of walking +beside the creatures from another world made him feel a little dizzy: but it also +made all the old stories seem far more real than they had ever seemed before . . . +anything might happen now. + + + +“Now,” said Tirian as they came to the head of a little valley which ran down +before them among young birch trees, “we are out of danger of those villains for +a space and may walk more easily.” The sun had risen, dew-drops were +twinkling on every branch, and birds were singing. + +“What about some grub? - I mean for you, Sir, we two have had our +breakfast,” said the Boy. + +Tirian wondered very much what he meant by “grub”, but when the Boy +opened a bulgy satchel which he was carrying and pulled out a rather greasy and +squashy packet, he understood. He was ravenously hungry, though he hadn’t +thought about it till that moment. There were two hard-boiled egg sandwiches, +and two cheese sandwiches, and two with some kind of paste in them. If he +hadn’t been so hungry he wouldn’t have thought much of the paste, for that is a +sort of food nobody eats in Narnia. By the time he had eaten all six sandwiches +they had come to the bottom of the valley and there they found a mossy cliff +with a little fountain bubbling out of it. All three stopped and drank and splashed +their hot faces. + +“And now,” said the girl as she tossed her wet hair back from her forehead, +“aren’t you going to tell us who you are and why you were tied up and what it’s +all about?” + +“With a good will, damsel,” said Tirian. “But we must keep on the march.” +So while they went on walking he told them who he was and all the things that +had happened to him. “And now,” he said at the end, “I am going to a certain +tower, one of three that were built in my grandsire’s time to guard Lantern Waste +against certain perilous outlaws who dwelled there in his day. By Aslan’s good +will I was not robbed of my keys. In that tower we shall find stores of weapons +and mail and some victuals also, though no better than dry biscuit. There also we +can lie safe while we make our plans. And now, prithee, tell me who you two are +and all your story.” + +“I’m Eustace Scrubb and this is Jill Pole,” said the Boy. “And we were here +once before, ages and ages ago, more than a year ago by our time, and there was +a chap called Prince Rilian, and they were keeping this chap underground, and +Puddleglum put his foot in -“ + +“Ha!” cried Tirian, “are you then that Eustace and that Jill who rescued King +Rilian from his long enchantment?” + +“Yes, that’s us,” said Jill. “So he’s King Rilian now, is he? Oh of course he +would be. I forgot-“ + +“Nay,” said Tirian, “I am the seventh in descent from him. He has been dead +over two hundred years.” + +Jill made a face. “Ugh!” she said. “That’s the horrid part about coming back + + + +to Narnia.” But Eustace went on. + +“Well now you know who we are, Sire,” he said. “And it was like this. The +Professor and Aunt Polly had got all us friends of Narnia together -“ + +“I know not these names, Eustace,” said Tirian. + +“They’re the two who came into Narnia at the very beginning, the day all the +animals learned to talk.” + +“By the Lion’s Mane,” cried Tirian. “Those two! The Lord Digory and the +Lady Polly! Prom the dawn of the world! And still in your place? The wonder +and the glory of it! But tell me, tell me.” + +“She isn’t really our aunt, you know,” said Eustace. “She’s Miss Plummer, +but we call her Aunt Polly. Well those two got us all together partly just for fun, +so that we could all have a good jaw about Narnia (for of course there’s no one +else we can ever talk to about things like that) but partly because the Professor +had a feeling that we were somehow wanted over here. Well then you came in +like a ghost or goodness-knows-what and nearly frightened the lives out of us +and vanished without saying a word. After that, we knew for certain there was +something up. + +The next question was how to get here. You can’t go just by wanting to. So +we talked and talked and at last the Professor said the only way would be by the +Magic Rings. It was by those Rings that he and Aunt Polly got here long, long +ago when they were only kids, years before we younger ones were born. But the +Rings had all been buried in the garden of a house in London (that’s our big +town, Sire) and the house had been sold. So then the problem was how to get at +them. You’ll never guess what we did in the end! Peter and Edmund - that’s the +High King Peter, the one who spoke to you - went up to London to get into the +garden from the back, early in the morning before people were up. They were +dressed like workmen so that if anyone did see them it would look as if they’d +come to do something about the drains. I wish I’d been with them: it must have +been glorious fun. And they must have succeeded for next day Peter sent us a +wire - that’s a sort of message, Sire, I’ll explain about it some other time - to say +he’d got the Rings. And the day after that was the day Pole and I had to go back +to school - we’re the only two who are still at school and we’re at the same one. +So Peter and Edmund were to meet us at a place on the way down to school and +hand over the Rings. It had to be us two who were to go to Narnia, you see, +because the older ones couldn’t come again. So we got into the train that’s a kind +of thing people travel in in our world: a lot of wagons chained together - and the +Professor and Aunt Polly and Lucy came with us. We wanted to keep together as +long as we could. Well there we were in the train. And we were just getting to +the station where the others were to meet us, and I was looking out of the + + + +window to see if I could see them when suddenly there came a most frightful +jerk and a noise: and there we were in Narnia and there was your Majesty tied up +to the tree.” + +“So you never used the Rings?” said Tirian. + +“No,” said Eustace. “Never even saw them. Aslan did it all for us in his own +way without any Rings.” + +“But the High King Peter has them,” said Tirian. + +“Yes,” said Jill. “But we don’t think he can use them. When the two other +Pevensies - King Edmund and Queen Lucy - were last here, Aslan said they +would never come to Narnia again. And he said something of the same sort to +the High King, only longer ago. You may be sure he’ll come like a shot if he’s +allowed.” + +“Gosh!” said Eustace. “It’s getting hot in this sun. Are we nearly there, +Sire?” + +“Look,” said Tirian and pointed. Not many yards away grey battlements rose +above the tree-tops, and after a minute’s more walking they came out in an open +grassy space. A stream ran across it and on the far side of the stream stood a +squat, square tower with very few and narrow windows and one heavy-looking +door in the wall that faced them. + +Tirian looked sharply this way and that to make sure that no enemies were in +sight. Then he walked up to the tower and stood still for a moment fishing up his +bunch of keys which he wore inside his hunting-dress on a narrow silver chain +that went round his neck. It was a nice bunch of keys that he brought out, for two +were golden and many were richly ornamented: you could see at once that they +were keys made for opening solemn and secret rooms in palaces, or chests and +caskets of sweet-smelling wood that contained royal treasures. But the key +which he now put into the lock of the door was big and plain and more rudely +made. The lock was stiff and for a moment Tirian began to be afraid that he +would not be able to turn it: but at last he did and the door swung open with a +sullen creak. + +“Welcome friends,” said Tirian. “I fear this is the best palace that the King of +Narnia can now offer to his guests.” + +Tirian was pleased to see that the two strangers had been well brought up. +They both said not to mention it and that they were sure it would be very nice. + +As a matter of fact it was not particularly nice. It was rather dark and smelled +very damp. There was only one room in it and this room went right up to the +stone roof: a wooden staircase in one corner led up to a trap door by which you +could get out on the battlements. There were a few rude bunks to sleep in, and a +great many lockers and bundles. There was also a hearth which looked as if + + + +nobody had lit a fire in it for a great many years. + +“We’d better go out and gather some firewood first thing, hadn’t we?” said +Jill. + +“Not yet, comrade,” said Tirian. He was determined that they should not be +caught unarmed, and began searching the lockers, thankfully remembering that +he had always been careful to have these garrison towers inspected once a year +and to make sure that they were stocked with all things needful. The bow strings +were there in their coverings of oiled silk, the swords and spears were greased +against rust, and the armour was kept bright in its wrappings. But there was +something even better. “Look you!” said Tirian as he drew out a long mail shirt +of a curious pattern and flashed it before the children’s eyes. + +“That’s funny-looking mail, Sire,” said Eustace. + +“Aye, lad,” said Tirian. “No Narnian Dwarf smithied that. ‘Tis mail of +Calormen, outlandish gear. I have ever kept a few suits of it in readiness, for I +never knew when I or my friends might have reason to walk unseen in The +Tisroc’s land. And look on this stone bottle. In this there is a juice which, when +we have rubbed it on our hands and faces, will make us brown as Calormenes.” + +“Oh hurrah!” said Jill. “Disguise! I love disguises.” + +Tirian showed them how to pour out a little of the juice into the palms of +their hands and then rub it well over their faces and necks, right down to the +shoulders, and then on their hands, right up to the elbows. He did the same +himself. + +“After this has hardened on us,” he said, “we may wash in water and it will +not change. Nothing but oil and ashes will make us white Narnians again. And +now, sweet Jill, let us go see how this mail shirt becomes you. ‘Tis something +too long, yet not so much as I feared. Doubtless it belonged to a page in the train +of one of their Tarkaans.” + +After the mail shirts they put on Calormene helmets, which are little round +ones fitting tight to the head and having a spike on top. Then Tirian took long +rolls of some white stuff out of the locker and wound them over the helmets till +they became turbans: but the little steel spike still stuck up in the middle. He and +Eustace took curved Calormene swords and little round shields. There was no +sword light enough for Jill, but he gave her a long, straight hunting knife which +might do for a sword at a pinch. + +“Hast any skill with the bow, maiden?” said Tirian. + +“Nothing worth talking of,” said Jill, blushing. “Scrubb’s not bad.” + +“Don’t you believe her, Sire,” said Eustace. “We’ve both been practising +archery ever since we got back from Narnia last time, and she’s about as good as +me now. Not that either of us is much.” + + + +Then Tirian gave Jill a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The next business +was to light a fire, for inside that tower it still felt more like a cave than like +anything indoors and set one shivering. But they got warm gathering wood - the +sun was now at its highest - and once the blaze was roaring up the chimney the +place began to look cheerful. Dinner was, however, a dull meal, for the best they +could do was to pound up some of the hard biscuit which they found in a locker +and pour it into boiling water, with salt, so as to make a kind of porridge. And of +course there was nothing to drink but water. + +“I wish we’d brought a packet of tea,” said Jill. + +“Or a tin of cocoa,” said Eustace. + +“A firkin or so of good wine in each of these towers would not have been +amiss,” said Tirian. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +A GOOD NIGHT’S WORK + +ABOUT four hours later Tirian flung himself into one of the bunks to snatch +a little sleep. The two children were already snoring: he had made them go to +bed before he did because they would have to be up most of the night and he +knew that at their age they couldn’t do without sleep. Also, he had tired them +out. First he had given Jill some practice in archery and found that, though not +up to Narnian standards, she was really not too bad. Indeed she had succeeded in +shooting a rabbit (not a Talking rabbit, of course: there are lots of the ordinary +kind about in Western Narnia) and it was already skinned, cleaned, and hanging +up. He had found that both the children knew all about this chilly and smelly job; +they had learned that kind of thing on their great journey through Giant-Land in +the days of Prince Rilian. Then he had tried to teach Eustace how to use his +sword and shield. Eustace had learned quite a lot about sword fighting on his +earlier adventures but that had been all with a straight Narnian sword. He had +never handled a curved Calormene scimitar and that made it hard, for many of +the strokes are quite different and some of the habits he had learned with the +long sword had now to be unlearned again. But Tirian found that he had a good +eye and was very quick on his feet. He was surprised at the strength of both +children: in fact they both seemed to be already much stronger and bigger and +more grown-up than they had been when he first met them a few hours ago. It is +one of the effects which Narnian air often has on visitors from our world. + +All three of them agreed that the very first thing they must do was to go back +to Stable Hill and try to rescue Jewel the Unicorn. After that, if they succeeded, +they would try to get away Eastward and meet the little army which Roonwit the +Centaur would be bringing from Cair Paravel. + +An experienced warrior and huntsman like Tirian can always wake up at the +time he wants. So he gave himself till nine o’clock that night and then put all +worries out of his head and fell asleep at once. It seemed only a moment later +when he woke but he knew by the light and the very feel of things that he had +timed his sleep exactly. He got up, put on his helmet-and-turban (he had slept in +his mail shirt), and then shook the other two till they woke up. They looked, to +tell the truth, very grey and dismal as they climbed out of their bunks and there +was a good deal of yawning. + +“Now,” said Tirian, “we go due North from here - by good fortune ’tis a +starry night - and it will be much shorter than our journey this morning, for then + + + +we went round-about but now we shall go straight. If we are challenged, then do +you two hold your peace and I will do my best to talk like a curst, cruel, proud +lord of Calormen. If I draw my sword then thou, Eustace, must do likewise and +let Jill leap behind us and stand with an arrow on the string. But if I cry 'Home 5 , +then fly for the Tower both of you. And let none try to fight on - not even one +stroke after I have given the retreat: such false valour has spoiled many notable +plans in the wars. And now, friends, in the name of Aslan let us go forward.” + +Out they went into the cold night. All the great Northern stars were burning +above the tree-tops. The North-Star of that world is called the Spear-Head: it is +brighter than our Pole Star. + +For a time they could go straight towards the Spear-Head but presently they +came to a dense thicket so that they had to go out of their course to get round it. +And after that -for they were still overshadowed by branches - it was hard to +pick up their bearings. It was Jill who set them right again: she had been an +excellent Guide in England. And of course she knew her Narnian stars perfectly, +having travelled so much in the wild Northern Lands, and could work out the +direction from other stars even when the Spear-Head was hidden. As soon as +Tirian saw that she was the best pathfinder of the three of them he put her in +front. And then he was astonished to find how silently and almost invisibly she +glided on before them. + +“By the Mane!” he whispered to Eustace. “This girl is a wondrous wood- +maid. If she had Dryad’s blood in her she could scarce do it better.” + +“She’s so small, that’s what helps,” whispered Eustace. But Jill from in front +said: “S-s-s-h, less noise.” + +All round them the wood was very quiet. Indeed it was far too quiet. On an +ordinary Narnia night there ought to have been noises - an occasional cheery +“Goodnight” from a Hedgehog, the cry of an Owl overhead, perhaps a flute in +the distance to tell of Fauns dancing, or some throbbing, hammering noises from +Dwarfs underground. All that was silenced: gloom and fear reigned over Narnia. + +After a time they began to go steeply uphill and the trees grew further apart. +Tirian could dimly make out the wellknown hill-top and the stable. Jill was now +going with more and more caution: she kept on making signs to the others with +her hand to do the same. Then she stopped dead still and Tirian saw her +gradually sink down into the grass and disappear without a sound. A moment +later she rose again, put her mouth close to Tirian’s ear, and said in the lowest +possible whisper, “Get down. Thee better.” She said thee for see not because she +had a lisp but because she knew the hissing letter S is the part of a whisper most +likely to be overheard. Tirian at once lay down, almost as silently as Jill, but not +quite, for he was heavier and older. And once they were down, he saw how from + + + +that position you could see the edge of the hill sharp against the star-strewn sky. +Two black shapes rose against it: one was the stable, and the other, a few feet in +front of it, was a Calormene sentry. He was keeping very ill watch: not walking +or even standing but sitting with his spear over his shoulder and his chin on his +chest. “Well done,” said Tirian to Jill. She had shown him exactly what he +needed to know. + +They got up and Tirian now took the lead. Very slowly, hardly daring to +breathe, they made their way up to a little clump of trees which was not more +than forty feet away from the sentinel. + +“Wait here till I come again,” he whispered to the other two. “If I miscarry, +fly.” Then he sauntered out boldly in full view of the enemy. The man started +when he saw him and was just going to jump to his feet: he was afraid Tirian +might be one of his own officers and that he would get into trouble for sitting +down. But before he could get up Tirian had dropped on one knee beside him, +saying: + +“Art thou a warrior of the Tisroc’s, may he live for ever? It cheers my heart +to meet thee among all these beasts and devils of Narnians. Give me thy hand, +friend.” + +Before he well knew what was happening the Calormene sentry found his +right hand seized in a mighty grip. Next instant someone was kneeling on his +legs and a dagger was pressed against his neck. + +“One noise and thou art dead,” said Tirian in his ear. “Tell me where the +Unicorn is and thou shalt live.” + +“B - behind the stable, O My Master,” stammered the unfortunate man. + +“Good. Rise up and lead me to him.” + +As the man got up the point of the dagger never left his neck. It only +travelled round (cold and rather ticklish) as Tirian got behind him and settled it +at a convenient place under his ear. Trembling he went round to the back of the +stable. + +Though it was dark Tirian could see the white shape of Jewel at once. + +“Hush!” he said. “No, do not neigh. Yes, Jewel, it is I. How have they tied +thee?” + +“Hobbled by all four legs and tied with a bridle to a ring in the stable wall,” +came Jewel’s voice. + +“Stand here, sentry, with your back to the wall. So. Now, Jewel: set the point +of your horn against this Calormene’s breast.” + +“With a good will, Sire,” said Jewel. + +“If he moves, rive him to the heart.” Then in a few seconds Tirian cut the +ropes. With the remains of them he bound the sentry hand and foot. Finally he + + + +made him open his mouth, stuffed it full of grass and tied him up from scalp to +chin so that he could make no noise, lowered the man into a sitting position and +set him against the wall. + +“I have done thee some discourtesy, soldier,” said Tirian. “But such was my +need. If we meet again I may happen to do thee a better turn. Now, Jewel, let us +go softly.” + +He put his left arm round the beast’s neck and bent and kissed its nose and +both had great joy. They went back as quietly as possible to the place where he +had left the children. It was darker in there under the trees and he nearly ran into +Eustace before he saw him. + +“All’s well,” whispered Tirian. “A good night’s work. Now for home.” + +They turned and had gone a few paces when Eustace said, “Where are you, +Pole?” There was no answer. “Is Jill on the other side of you, Sire?” he asked. + +“What?” said Tirian. “Is she not on the other side of your” + +It was a terrible moment. They dared not shout but they whispered her name +in the loudest whisper they could manage. There was no reply. + +“Did she go from you while I was away?” asked Tirian. + +“I didn’t see or hear her go,” said Eustace. “But she could have gone without +my knowing. She can be as quiet as a cat; you’ve seen for yourself.” + +At that moment a far off drum beat was heard. Jewel moved his ears forward. +“Dwarfs,” he said. + +“And treacherous Dwarfs, enemies, as likely as not,” muttered Tirian. + +“And here comes something on hoofs, much nearer,” said Jewel. + +The two humans and the Unicorn stood dead still. There were now so many +different things to worry about that they didn’t know what to do. The noise of +hoofs came steadily nearer. And then, quite close to them, a voice whispered: + +“Hallo! Are you all there?” + +Thank heaven, it was Jill’s. + +“Where the devil have you been to?” said Eustace in a furious whisper, for +he had been very frightened. + +“In the stable,” gasped Jill, but it was the sort of gasp you give when you’re +struggling with suppressed laughter. + +“Oh,” growled Eustace, “you think it funny, do you? Well all I can say is -“ + +“Have you got Jewel, Sire?” asked Jill. + +“Yes. Here he is. What is that beast with you?” + +“That’s him,” said Jill. “But let’s be off home before anyone wakes up.” And +again there came little explosions of laughter. + +The others obeyed at once for they had already lingered long enough in that +dangerous place and the Dwarf drums seemed to have come a little nearer. It was + + + +only after they had been walking Southward for several minutes that Eustace +said: + +“Got him? What do you mean?” + +“The false Aslan,” said Jill. + +“What?” said Tirian. “Where have you been? What have you done?” + +“Well, Sire,” said Jill. “As soon as I saw that you’d got the sentry out of the +way I thought hadn’t I better have a look inside the stable and see what really is +there? So I crawled along. It was as easy as anything to draw the bolt. + +Of course it was pitch black inside and smelled like any other stable. Then I +struck a light and - would you believe it? - there was nothing at all there but this +old donkey with a bundle of lion-skin tied on to his back. So I drew my knife +and told him he’d have to come along with me. As a matter of fact I needn’t +have threatened him with the knife at all. He was very fed up with the stable and +quite ready to come - weren’t you, Puzzle dear?” + +“Great Scott!” said Eustace. “Well I’m - jiggered. I was jolly angry with you +a moment ago, and I still think it was mean of you to sneak off without the rest +of us: but I must admit - well, I mean to say - well it was a perfectly gorgeous +thing to do. If she was a boy she’d have to be knighted, wouldn’t she, Sire?” + +“If she was a boy,” said Tirian, “she’d be whipped for disobeying orders.” +And in the dark no one could see whether he said this with a frown or a smile. +Next minute there was a sound of rasping metal. + +“What are you doing, Sire?” asked Jewel sharply. + +“Drawing my sword to smite off the head of the accursed Ass,” said Tirian in +a terrible voice. “Stand clear, girl.” + +“Oh don’t, please don’t,” said Jill. “Really, you mustn’t. It wasn’t his fault. It +was all the Ape. He didn’t know any better. And he’s very sorry. And he’s a nice +Donkey. His name’s Puzzle. And I’ve got my arms round his neck.” + +“Jill,” said Tirian, “you are the bravest and most woodwise of all my +subjects, but also the most malapert and disobedient. Well: let the Ass live. What +have you to say for yourself, Ass?” + +“Me, Sire?” came the Donkey’s voice. “I’m sure I’m very sorry if I’ve done +wrong. The Ape said Aslan wanted me to dress up like that. And I thought he’d +know. I’m not clever like him. I only did what I was told. It wasn’t any fun for +me living in that stable. I don’t even know what’s been going on outside. He +never let me out except for a minute or two at night. Some days they forgot to +give me any water too.” + +“Sire,” said Jewel. “Those Dwarfs are coming nearer and nearer. Do we want +to meet them?” + +Tirian thought for a moment and then suddenly gave a great laugh out loud. + + + +Then he spoke, not this time in a whisper. “By the Lion,” he said, “I am growing +slow witted! Meet them? Certainly we will meet them. We will meet anyone +now. We have this Ass to show them. Let them see the thing they have feared +and bowed to. We can show them the truth of the Ape’s vile plot. His secret’s +out. The tide’s turned. Tomorrow we shall hang that Ape on the highest tree in +Narnia. No more whispering and skulking and disguises. Where are these honest +Dwarfs? We have good news for them.” + +When you have been whispering for hours the mere sound of anyone talking +out loud has a wonderfully stirring effect. The whole party began talking and +laughing: even Puzzle lifted up his head and gave a grand Haw-hee-haw-hee- +hee; a thing the Ape hadn’t allowed him to do for days. Then they set off in the +direction of the drumming. It grew steadily louder and soon they could see +torchlight as well. They came out on one of those rough roads (we should hardly +call them roads at all in England) which ran through Lantern Waste. And there, +marching sturdily along, were about thirty Dwarfs, all with their little spades and +mattocks over their shoulders. Two armed Calormenes led the column and two +more brought up the rear. + +“Stay!” thundered Tirian as he stepped out on the road. “Stay, soldiers. +Whither do you lead these Narnian Dwarfs and by whose orders?” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +MAINLY ABOUT DWARFS + +THE two Calormene soldiers at the head of the column, seeing what they +took for a Tarkaan or great lord with two armed pages, came to a halt and raised +their spears in salute. + +“O My Master,” said one of them, “we lead these manikins to Calormen to +work in the mines of The Tisroc, may-he-live-forever. “ + +“By the great god Tash, they are very obedient,” said Tirian. Then suddenly +he turned to the Dwarfs themselves. About one in six of them carried a torch and +by that flickering light he could see their bearded faces all looking at him with +grim and dogged expressions. “Has The Tisroc fought a great battle, Dwarfs, and +conquered your land?” he asked, “that thus you go patiently to die in the salt-pits +of Pugrahan?” + +The two soldiers glared at him in surprise but the Dwarfs all answered, +“Aslan’s orders, Aslan’s orders. He’s sold us. What can we do against him?” + +“Tisroc indeed!” added one and spat. “I’d like to see him try it!” + +“Silence, dogs!” said the chief soldier. + +“Look!” said Tirian, pulling Puzzle forward into the light. “It has all been a +lie. Aslan has not come to Narnia at all. You have been cheated by the Ape. This +is the thing he brought out of the stable to show you. Look at it.” + +What the Dwarfs saw, now that they could see it close, was certainly enough +to make them wonder how they had ever been taken in. The lion-skin had got +pretty untidy already during Puzzle’s imprisonment in the stable and it had been +knocked crooked during his journey through the dark wood. Most of it was in a +big lump on one shoulder. The head, besides being pushed sideways, had +somehow got very far back so that anyone could now see his silly, gentle, +donkeyish face gazing out of it. Some grass stuck out of one corner of his mouth, +for he’d been doing a little quiet nibbling as they brought him along. And he was +muttering, “It wasn’t my fault, I’m not clever. I never said I was.” + +For one second all the Dwarfs were staring at Puzzle with wide open mouths +and then one of the soldiers said sharply, “Are you mad, My Master? What are +you doing to the slaves?” and the other said, “And who are you?” Neither of +their spears was at the salute now - both were down and ready for action. + +“Give the password,” said the chief soldier. + +“This is my password,” said the King as he drew his sword. “The light is +dawning, the lie broken. Now guard thee, miscreant, for I am Tirian of Narnia.” + + + +He flew upon the chief soldier like lightning. Eustace, who had drawn his +sword when he saw the King draw his, rushed at the other one: his face was +deadly pale, but I wouldn’t blame him for that. And he had the luck that +beginners sometimes do have. He forgot all that Tirian had tried to teach him +that afternoon, slashed wildly (indeed I’m not sure his eyes weren’t shut) and +suddenly found, to his own great surprise, that the Calormene lay dead at his +feet. And though that was a great relief, it was, at the moment, rather frightening. +The King’s fight lasted a second or two longer: then he too had killed his man +and shouted to Eustace, “‘Ware the other two.” + +But the Dwarfs had settled the two remaining Calormenes. There was no +enemy left. + +“Well struck, Eustace!” cried Tirian, clapping him on the back. “Now, +Dwarfs, you are free. Tomorrow I will lead you to free all Narnia. Three cheers +for Aslan!” + +But the result which followed was simply wretched. There was a feeble +attempt from a few Dwarfs (about five) which died away all at once: from +several others there were sulky growls. Many said nothing at all. + +“Don’t they understand?” said Jill impatiently. “What’s wrong with all you +Dwarfs? Don’t you hear what the King says? It’s all over. The Ape isn’t going to +rule Narnia any longer. Everyone can go back to ordinary life. You can have fun +again. Aren’t you glad?” + +After a pause of nearly a minute a not-very-nice-looking Dwarf with hair and +beard as black as soot said: “And who might you be, Missie?” + +“I’m Jill,” she said. “The same Jill who rescued King Rilian from the +enchantment and this is Eustace who did it too - and we’ve come back from +another world after hundreds of years. Aslan sent us.” + +The Dwarfs all looked at one another with grins; sneering grins, not merry +ones. + +“Well,” said the Black Dwarf (whose name was Griffle), “I don’t know how +all you chaps feel, but I feel I’ve heard as much about Aslan as I want to for the +rest of my life.” + +“That’s right, that’s right,” growled the other Dwarfs. “It’s all a plant, all a +blooming plant.” + +“What do you mean?” said Tirian. He had not been pale when he was +fighting but he was pale now. He had thought this was going to be a beautiful +moment, but it was turning out more like a bad dream. + +“You must think we’re blooming soft in the head, that you must,” said +Griffle. “We’ve been taken in once and now you expect us to be taken in again +the next minute. We’ve no more use for stories about Aslan, see! Look at him! + + + +An old moke with long ears!” + +“By heaven, you make me mad,” said Tirian. “Which of us said that was +Aslan? That is the Ape’s imitation of the real Aslan. Can’t you understand?” + +“And you’ve got a better imitation, I suppose!” said Griffle. “No thanks. +We’ve been fooled once and we’re not going to be fooled again.” + +“I have not,” said Tirian angrily, “I serve the real Aslan.” + +“Where’s he? Who’s he? Show him to us!” said several Dwarfs. + +“Do you think I keep him in my wallet, fools?” said Tirian. “Who am I that I +could make Aslan appear at my bidding? He’s not a tame lion.” + +The moment those words were out of his mouth he realized that he had made +a false move. The Dwarfs at once began repeating “not a tame lion, not a tame +lion,” in a jeering sing-song. “That’s what the other lot kept on telling us,” said +one. + +“Do you mean you don’t believe in the real Aslan?” said Jill. “But I’ve seen +him. And he has sent us two here out of a different world.” + +“Ah,” said Griffle with a broad smile. “So you say. They’ve taught you your +stuff all right. Saying your lessons, ain’t you?” + +“Churl,” cried Tirian, “will you give a lady the lie to her very face?” + +“You keep a civil tongue in your head, Mister,” replied the Dwarf. “I don’t +think we want any more Kings - if you are Tirian, which you don’t look like him +- no more than we want any Aslans. We’re going to look after ourselves from +now on and touch our caps to nobody. See?” + +“That’s right,” said the other Dwarfs. “We’re on our own now. No more +Aslan, no more Kings, no more silly stories about other worlds. The Dwarfs are +for the Dwarfs.” And they began to fall into their places and to get ready for +marching back to wherever they had come from. + +“Little beasts!” said Eustace. “Aren’t you even going to say thank you for +being saved from the salt-mines?” + +“Oh, we know all about that,” said Griffle over his shoulder. “You wanted to +make use of us, that’s why you rescued us. You’re playing some game of your +own. Come on you chaps.” + +And the Dwarfs struck up the queer little marching song which goes with the +drum-beat, and off they tramped into the darkness. + +Tirian and his friends stared after them. Then he said the single word +“Come,” and they continued their journey. + +They were a silent party. Puzzle felt himself to be still in disgrace, and also +he didn’t really quite understand what had happened. Jill, besides being +disgusted with the Dwarfs, was very impressed with Eustace’s victory over the +Calormene and felt almost shy. As for Eustace, his heart was still beating rather + + + +quickly. Tirian and Jewel walked sadly together in the rear. The King had his +arm on the Unicorn’s shoulder and sometimes the Unicorn nuzzled the King’s +cheek with his soft nose. They did not try to comfort one another with words. It +wasn’t very easy to think of anything to say that would be comforting. Tirian had +never dreamed that one of the results of an Ape’s setting up as a false Aslan +would be to stop people from believing in the real one. He had felt quite sure +that the Dwarfs would rally to his side the moment he showed them how they +had been deceived. And then next night he would have led them to Stable Hill +and shown Puzzle to all the creatures and everyone would have turned against +the Ape and, perhaps after a scuffle with the Calormenes, the whole thing would +have been over. But now, it seemed, he could count on nothing. How many other +Narnians might turn the same way as the Dwarfs? + +“Somebody’s coming after us, I think,” said Puzzle suddenly. + +They stopped and listened. Sure enough, there was a thump-thump of small +feet behind them. + +“Who goes there!” shouted the King. + +“Only me, Sire,” came a voice. “Me, Poggin the Dwarf. I’ve only just +managed to get away from the others. I’m on your side, Sire: and on Aslan’s. If +you can put a Dwarfish sword in my fist, I’d gladly strike a blow on the right +side before all’s done.” + +Everyone crowded round him and welcomed him and praised him and +slapped him on the back. Of course one single Dwarf could not make a very +great difference, but it was somehow very cheering to have even one. The whole +party brightened up. But Jill and Eustace didn’t stay bright for very long, for +they were now yawning their heads off and too tired to think about anything but +bed. + +It was at the coldest hour of the night, just before dawn, that they got back to +the Tower. If there had been a meal ready for them they would have been glad +enough to eat, but the bother and delay of getting one was not to be thought of. +They drank from a stream, splashed their faces with water, and tumbled into +their bunks, except for Puzzle and Jewel who said they’d be more comfortable +outside. This perhaps was just as well, for a Unicorn and a fat, full-grown +Donkey indoors always make a room feel rather crowded. + +Narnian Dwarfs, though less than four feet high, are for their size about the +toughest and strongest creatures there are, so that Poggin, in spite of a heavy day +and a late night, woke fully refreshed before any of the others. He at once took +Jill’s bow, went out and shot a couple of wood pigeons. Then he sat plucking +them on the doorstep and chatting to Jewel and Puzzle. Puzzle looked and felt a +good deal better this morning. Jewel, being a Unicorn and therefore one of the + + + +noblest and delicatest of beasts, had been very kind to him, talking to him about +things of the sort they could both understand like grass and sugar and the care of +one’s hoofs. When Jill and Eustace came out of the Tower yawning and rubbing +their eyes at almost half past ten, the Dwarf showed them where they could +gather plenty of a Narnian weed called Wild Fresney, which looks rather like our +wood-sorrel but tastes a good deal nicer when cooked. (It needs a little butter +and pepper to make it perfect, but they hadn’t got these.) So that what with one +thing and another, they had the makings of a capital stew for their breakfast or +dinner, whichever you choose to call it. Tirian went a little further off into the +wood with an axe and brought back some branches for fuel. While the meal was +cooking - which seemed a very long time, especially as it smelled nicer and nicer +the nearer it came to being done - the King found a complete Dwarfish outfit for +Poggin: mail shirt, helmet, shield, sword, belt, and dagger. Then he inspected +Eustace’s sword and found that Eustace had put it back in the sheath all messy +from killing the Calormene. He was scolded for that and made to clean and +polish it. + +All this while Jill went to and fro, sometimes stirring the pot and sometimes +looking out enviously at the Donkey and the Unicorn who were contentedly +grazing. How many times that morning she wished she could eat grass! + +But when the meal came everyone felt it had been worth waiting for, and +there were second helpings all round. When everyone had eaten as much as he +could, the three humans and the Dwarf came and sat on the doorstep, the four- +footed ones lay down facing them, the Dwarf (with permission both from Jill and +from Tirian) lit his pipe, and the King said: + +“Now, friend Poggin, you have more news of the enemy, belike, than we. +Tell us all you know. And first, what tale do they tell of my escape?” + +“As cunning a tale, Sire, as ever was devised,” said Poggin. “It was the Cat, +Ginger, who told it, and most likely made it up too. This Ginger, Sire - oh, he’s a +slyboots if ever a cat was - said he was walking past the tree to which those +villains bound your Majesty. And he said (saving your reverence) that you were +howling and swearing and cursing Aslan: 'language I wouldn’t like to repeat’ +were the words he used, looking ever so prim and proper you know the way a +Cat can when it pleases. And then, says Ginger, Aslan himself suddenly +appeared in a flash of lightning and swallowed your Majesty up at one mouthful. +All the Beasts trembled at this story and some fainted right away. And of course +the Ape followed it up. There, he says, see what Aslan does to those who don’t +respect him. Let that be a warning to you all. And the poor creatures wailed and +whined and said, it will, it will. So that in the upshot your Majesty’s escape has +not set them thinking whether you still have loyal friends to aid you, but only + + + +made them more afraid and more obedient to the Ape.” + +“What devilish policy!” said Tirian. “This Ginger, then, is close in the Ape’s +counsels.” + +“It’s more a question by now, Sire, if the Ape is in his counsels,” replied the +Dwarf. “The Ape has taken to drinking, you see. My belief is that the plot is now +mostly carried on by Ginger or Rishda - that’s the Calormene captain. And I +think some words that Ginger has scattered among the Dwarfs are chiefly to +blame for the scurvy return they made you. And I’ll tell you why. One of those +dreadful midnight meetings had just broken up the night before last and I’d gone +a bit of the way home when I found I’d left my pipe behind. It was a real good +‘un, an old favourite, so I went back to look for it. But before I got to the place +where I’d been sitting (it was black as pitch there) I heard a cat’s voice say Mew +and a Calormene voice say 'here . . . speak softly,’ so I just stood as still as if I +was frozen. And these two were Ginger and Rishda Tarkaan as they call him. +'Noble Tarkaan,’ said the Cat in that silky voice of his, 'I just wanted to know +exactly what we both meant today about Aslan meaning no more than Tash.’ +'Doubtless, most sagacious of cats,’ says the other, 'you have perceived my +meaning.’ 'You mean,’ says Ginger, 'that there’s no such person as either.” “All +who are enlightened know that,’ said the Tarkaan. 'Then we can understand one +another,’ purrs the Cat. 'Do you, like me, grow a little weary of the Ape?’ 'A +stupid, greedy brute,’ says the other, 'but we must use him for the present. Thou +and I must provide for all things in secret and make the Ape do our will.’ 'And it +would be better, wouldn’t it,’ said Ginger, 'to let some of the more enlightened +Narnians into our counsels: one by one as we find them apt. For the Beasts who +really believe in Aslan may turn at any moment: and will, if the Ape’s folly +betrays his secret. But those who care neither for Tash nor Aslan but have only +an eye to their own profit and such reward as The Tisroc may give them when +Narnia is a Calormene province, will be firm.’ 'Excellent Cat,’ said the Captain. +'But choose which ones carefully.”' + +While the Dwarf had been speaking the day seemed to have changed. It had +been sunny when they sat down. Now Puzzle shivered. Jewel shifted his head +uneasily. Jill looked up. + +“It’s clouding over,” she said. + +“And it’s so cold,” said Puzzle. + +“Cold enough, by the Lion!” said Tirian, blowing on his hands. “And faugh! +What foul smell is this?” + +“Phew!” gasped Eustace. “It’s like something dead. Is there a dead bird +somewhere about? And why didn’t we notice it before?” + +With a great upheaval Jewel scrambled to his feet and pointed with his horn. + + + +“Look!” he cried. “Look at it! Look, look!” + +Then all six of them saw; and over all their faces there came an expression of +uttermost dismay. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +WHAT NEWS THE EAGLE BROUGHT + +IN the shadow of the trees on the far side of the clearing something was +moving. It was gliding very slowly Northward. At a first glance you might have +mistaken it for smoke, for it was grey and you could see things through it. But +the deathly smell was not the smell of smoke. Also, this thing kept its shape +instead of billowing and curling as smoke would have done. It was roughly the +shape of a man but it had the head of a bird; some bird of prey with a cruel, +curved beak. It had four arms which it held high above its head, stretching them +out Northward as if it wanted to snatch all Narnia in its grip; and its fingers - all +twenty of them - were curved like its beak and had long, pointed, bird-like claws +instead of nails. It floated on the grass instead of walking, and the grass seemed +to wither beneath it. + +After one look at it Puzzle gave a screaming bray and darted into the Tower. +And Jill (who was no coward, as you know) hid her face in her hands to shut out +the sight of it. The others watched it for perhaps a minute, until it streamed away +into the thicker trees on their right and disappeared. Then the sun came out +again, and the birds once more began to sing. + +Everyone started breathing properly again and moved. They had all been still +as statues while it was in sight. + +“What was it?” said Eustace in a whisper. + +“I have seen it once before,” said Tirian. “But that time it was carved in stone +and overlaid with gold and had solid diamonds for eyes. It was when I was no +older than thou, and had gone as a guest to The Tisroc’s court in Tashbaan. + +He took me into the great temple of Tash. There I saw it, carved above the +altar.” + +“Then that - that thing - was Tash?” said Eustace. + +But instead of answering him Tirian slipped his arm behind Jill’s shoulders +and said, “How is it with you, Lady?” + +“A-all right,” said Jill, taking her hands away from her pale face and trying +to smile. “I’m all right. It only made me feel a little sick for a moment.” + +“It seems, then,” said the Unicorn, “that there is a real Tash, after all.” + +“Yes,” said the Dwarf. “And this fool of an Ape, who didn’t believe in Tash, +will get more than he bargained for! He called for Tash: Tash has come.” + +“Where has it - he - the Thing - gone to?” said Jill. + +“North into the heart of Narnia,” said Tirian. “It has come to dwell among us. + + + +They have called it and it has come.” + +“Ho, ho, ho!” chuckled the Dwarf, mbbing his hairy hands together. “It will +be a surprise for the Ape. People shouldn’t call for demons unless they really +mean what they say.” + +“Who knows if Tash will be visible to the Ape?” said Jewel. + +“Where has Puzzle got to?” said Eustace. + +They all shouted out Puzzle’s name and Jill went round to the other side of +the Tower to see if he had gone there. + +They were quite tired of looking for him when at last his large grey head +peered cautiously out of the doorway and he said, “Has it gone away?” And +when at last they got him to come out, he was shivering the way a dog shivers +before a thunderstorm. + +“I see now,” said Puzzle, “that I really have been a very bad donkey. I ought +never to have listened to Shift. I never thought things like this would begin to +happen.” + +“If you’d spent less time saying you weren’t clever and more time trying to +be as clever as you could began Eustace but Jill interrupted him. + +“Oh leave poor old Puzzle alone,” she said. “It was all a mistake; wasn’t it, +Puzzle dear?” And she kissed him on the nose. + +Though rather shaken by what they had seen, the whole party now sat down +again and went on with their talk. + +Jewel had little to tell them. While he was a prisoner he had spent nearly all +his time tied up at the back of the stable, and had of course heard none of the +enemies’ plans. He had been kicked (he’d done some kicking back too) and +beaten and threatened with death unless he would say that he believed it was +Aslan who was brought out and shown to them by firelight every night. In fact +he was going to be executed this very morning if he had not been rescued. He +didn’t know what had happened to the Lamb. + +The question they had to decide was whether they would go to Stable Hill +again that night, show Puzzle to the Narnians and try to make them see how they +had been tricked, or whether they should steal away Eastward to meet the help +which Roonwit the Centaur was bringing up from Cair Paravel and return +against the Ape and his Calormenes in force. Tirian would very much like to +have followed the first plan: he hated the idea of leaving the Ape to bully his +people one moment longer than need be. On the other hand, the way the Dwarfs +had behaved last night was a warning. Apparently one couldn’t be sure how +people would take it even if he showed them Puzzle. And there were the +Calormene soldiers to be reckoned with. Poggin thought there were about thirty +of them. Tirian felt sure that if the Narnians all rallied to his side, he and Jewel + + + +and the children and Poggin (Puzzle didn’t count for much) would have a good +chance of beating them. But how if half the Narnians - including all the Dwarfs - +just sat and looked on? or even fought against him? The risk was too great. And +there was, too, the cloudy shape of Tash. What might it do? + +And then, as Poggin pointed out, there was no harm in leaving the Ape to +deal with his own difficulties for a day or two. He would have no Puzzle to bring +out and show now. It wasn’t easy to see what story he - or Ginger could make up +to explain that. If the Beasts asked night after night to see Aslan, and no Aslan +was brought out, surely even the simplest of them would get suspicious. + +In the end they all agreed that the best thing was to go off and try to meet +Roonwit. + +As soon as they had decided this, it was wonderful how much more cheerful +everyone became. I don’t honestly think that this was because any of them was +afraid of a fight (except perhaps Jill and Eustace). But I daresay that each of +them, deep down inside, was very glad not to go any nearer - or not yet - to that +horrible bird-headed thing which, visible or invisible, was now probably +haunting Stable Hill. Anyway, one always feels better when one has made up +one’s mind. + +Tirian said they had better remove their disguises, as they didn’t want to be +mistaken for Calormenes and perhaps attacked by any loyal Narnians they might +meet. The Dwarf made up a horrid-looking mess of ashes from the hearth and +grease out of the jar of grease which was kept for rubbing on swords and spear¬ +heads. Then they took off their Calormene armour and went down to the stream. +The nasty mixture made a lather just like soft soap: it was a pleasant, homely +sight to see Tirian and the two children kneeling beside the water and scrubbing +the backs of their necks or puffing and blowing as they splashed the lather off. +Then they went back to the Tower with red, shiny faces, like people who have +been given an extra good wash before a party. They re-armed themselves in true +Narnian style, with straight swords and three-cornered shields. “Body of me,” +said Tirian. “That is better. I feel a true man again.” + +Puzzle begged very hard to have the lion-skin taken off him. He said it was +too hot and the way it was rucked up on his back was uncomfortable: also, it +made him look so silly. But they told him he would have to wear it a bit longer, +for they still wanted to show him in that get-up to the other Beasts, even though +they were now going to meet Roonwit first. + +What was left of the pigeon-meat and rabbit-meat was not worth bringing +away but they took some biscuits. Then Tirian locked the door of the Tower and +that was the end of their stay there. + +It was a little after two in the afternoon when they set out, and it was the first + + + +really warm day of that spring. The young leaves seemed to be much further out +than yesterday: the snow-drops were over, but they saw several primroses. The +sunlight slanted through the trees, birds sang, and always (though usually out of +sight) there was the noise of running water. It was hard to think of horrible things +like Tash. The children felt, “This is really Narnia at last.” Even Tirian’s heart +grew lighter as he walked ahead of them, humming an old Narnian marching +song which had the refrain: + +Ho, rumble, rumble, rumble, Rumble drum belaboured. + +After the King came Eustace and Poggin the Dwarf. Poggin was telling +Eustace the names of all the Narnian trees, birds, and plants which he didn’t +know already. Sometimes Eustace would tell him about English ones. + +After them came Puzzle, and after him Jill and Jewel walking very close +together. Jill had, as you might say, quite fallen in love with the Unicorn. She +thought- and she wasn’t far wrong - that he was the shiningest, delicatest, most +graceful animal she had ever met: and he was so gentle and soft of speech that, if +you hadn’t known, you would hardly have believed how fierce and terrible he +could be in battle. + +“Oh, this is nice!” said Jill. “Just walking along like this. I wish there could +be more of this sort of adventure. It’s a pity there’s always so much happening in +Narnia.” + +But the Unicorn explained to her that she was quite mistaken. He said that +the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve were brought out of their own strange +world into Narnia only at times when Narnia was stirred and upset, but she +mustn’t think it was always like that. In between their visits there were hundreds +and thousands of years when peaceful King followed peaceful King till you +could hardly remember their names or count their numbers, and there was really +hardly anything to put into the History Books. And he went on to talk of old +Queens and heroes whom she had never heard of. He spoke of Swanwhite the +Queen who had lived before the days of the White Witch and the Great Winter, +who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of +her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day +afterwards. He spoke of Moonwood the Hare who had such ears that he could sit +by Caldron Pool under the thunder of the great waterfall and hear what men +spoke in whispers at Cair Paravel. He told how King Gale, who was ninth in +descent from Frank the first of all Kings, had sailed far away into the Eastern +seas and delivered the Lone Islanders from a dragon and how, in return, they had +given him the Lone Islands to be part of the royal lands of Narnia for ever. He +talked of whole centuries in which all Narnia was so happy that notable dances +and feasts, or at most tournaments, were the only things that could be + + + +remembered, and every day and week had been better than the last. And as he +went on, the picture of all those happy years, all the thousands of them, piled up +in Jill’s mind till it was rather like looking down from a high hill on to a rich, +lovely plain full of woods and waters and cornfields, which spread away and +away till it got thin and misty from distance. And she said: + +“Oh, I do hope we can soon settle the Ape and get back to those good, +ordinary times. And then I hope they’ll go on for ever and ever and ever. Our +world is going to have an end some day. Perhaps this one won’t. Oh Jewel +wouldn’t it be lovely if Narnia just went on and on - like what you said it has +been?” + +“Nay, sister,” answered Jewel, “all worlds draw to an end, except Aslan’s +own country.” + +“Well, at least,” said Jill, “I hope the end of this one is millions of millions of +millions of years away - hallo! what are we stopping for?” + +The King and Eustace and the Dwarf were all staring up at the sky. Jill +shuddered, remembering what horrors they had seen already. But it was nothing +of that sort this time. It was small, and looked black against the blue. + +“I dare swear,” said the Unicorn, “from its flight, that it is a Talking bird.” + +“So think I,” said the King. “But is it a friend, or a spy of the Ape’s?” + +“To me, Sire,” said the Dwarf, “it has a look of Far-sight the Eagle.” + +“Ought we to hide under the trees?” said Eustace. + +“Nay,” said Tirian, “best stand still as rocks. He would see us for certain if +we moved.” + +“Look! He wheels, he has seen us already,” said Jewel. “He is coming down +in wide circles.” + +“Arrow on string, Lady,” said Tirian to Jill. “But by no means shoot till I bid +you. He may be a friend.” + +If one had known what was going to happen next it would have been a treat +to watch the grace and ease with which the huge bird glided down. He alighted +on a rocky crag a few feet from Tirian, bowed his crested head, and said in his +strange eagle’s-voice, “Hail, King.” + +“Hail, Farsight,” said Tirian. “And since you call me King, I may well +believe you are not a follower of the Ape and his false Aslan. I am right glad of +your coming.” + +“Sire,” said the Eagle, “when you have heard my news you will be sorrier of +my coming than of the greatest woe that ever befell you.” + +Tirian’s heart seemed to stop beating at these words, but he set his teeth and +said, “Teh on.” + +“Two sights have I seen,” said Farsight. “One was Cair Paravel filled with + + + +dead Narnians and living Calormenes: The Tisroc’s banner advanced upon your +royal battlements: and your subjects flying from the city - this way and that, into +the woods. Cair Paravel was taken from the sea. Twenty great ships of Calormen +put in there in the dark of the night before last night.” + +No one could speak. + +“And the other sight, five leagues nearer than Cair Paravel, was Roonwit the +Centaur lying dead with a Calormene arrow in his side. I was with him in his last +hour and he gave me this message to your Majesty: to remember that all worlds +draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to +buy.” + +“So,” said the King, after a long silence, “Narnia is no more.” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +THE GREAT MEETING ON STABLE HILL + +Fop, a long time they could not speak nor even shed a tear. Then the Unicorn +stamped the ground with his hoof, and shook his mane, and spoke. + +“Sire,” he said, “there is now no need of counsel. We see that the Ape’s plans +were laid deeper than we dreamed of. Doubtless he has been long in secret traffic +with The Tisroc, and as soon as he had found the lion-skin he sent him word to +make ready his navy for the taking of Cair Paravel and all Narnia. Nothing now +remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take +the adventure that Aslan sends us. And if, by a great marvel, we defeat those +thirty Calormenes who are with the Ape, then to turn again and die in battle with +the far greater host of them that will soon march from Cair Paravel.” + +Tirian nodded. But he turned to the children and said: “Now, friends, it is +time for you to go hence into your own world. Doubtless you have done all that +you were sent to do.” + +“B - but we’ve done nothing,” said Jill who was shivering, not with fear +exactly but because everything was so horrible. + +“Nay,” said the King, “you loosed me from the tree: you glided before me +like a snake last night in the wood and took Puzzle: and you, Eustace, killed your +man. But you are too young to share in such a bloody end as we others must +meet tonight or, it may be, three days hence. I entreat you - nay, I command you +- to return to your own place. I should be put to shame if I let such young +warriors fall in battle on my side.” + +“No, no, no,” said Jill (very white when she began speaking and then +suddenly very red and then white again.) “We won’t, I don’t care what you say. +We’re going to stick to you whatever happens, aren’t we, Eustace?” + +“Yes, but there’s no need to get so worked up about it,” said Eustace who had +stuck his hands in his pockets (forgetting how very odd that looks when you are +wearing a mail shirt). “Because, you see, we haven’t any choice. What’s the +good of talking about our going back! How? We’ve got no magic for doing it!” + +This was very good sense but, at the moment, Jill hated Eustace for saying it. +He was fond of being dreadfully matter-of-fact when other people got excited. + +When Tirian realized that the two strangers could not get home (unless Aslan +suddenly whisked them away), he next wanted them to go across the Southern +mountains into Archenland where they might possibly be safe. But they didn’t +know their way and there was no one to send with them. Also, as Poggin said, + + + +once the Calormenes had Narnia they would certainly take Archenland in the +next week or so: The Tisroc had always wanted to have these Northern countries +for his own. In the end Eustace and Jill begged so hard that Tirian said they +could come with him and take their chance - or, as he much more sensibly called +it, “the adventure that Aslan would send them”. + +The King’s first idea was that they should not go back to Stable Hill - they +were sick of the very name of it by now till after dark. But the Dwarf told them +that if they arrived there by daylight they would probably find the place deserted, +except perhaps for a Calormene sentry. The Beasts were far too frightened by +what the Ape (and Ginger) had told them about this new angry Aslan - or +Tashlan - to go near it except when they were called together for these horrible +midnight meetings. And Calormenes are never good woodsmen. Poggin thought +that even by daylight they could easily get round to somewhere behind the stable +without being seen. This would be much harder to do when the night had come +and the Ape might be calling the Beasts together and all the Calormenes were on +duty. And when the meeting did begin they could leave Puzzle at the back of the +stable, completely out of sight, till the moment at which they wanted to produce +him. This was obviously a good thing: for their only chance was to give the +Narnians a sudden surprise. + +Everyone agreed and the whole party set off on a new line - North-West - +towards the hated Hill. The Eagle sometimes flew to and fro above them, +sometimes he sat perched on Puzzle’s back. No one - not even the King himself +except in some great need - would dream of riding on a Unicorn. + +This time Jill and Eustace walked together. They had been feeling very brave +when they were begging to be allowed to come with the others, but now they +didn’t feel brave at all. + +“Pole,” said Eustace in a whisper. “I may as well tell you I’ve got the wind +up.” + +“Oh you’re all right, Scrubb,” said Jill. “You can fight. But I - I’m just +shaking, if you want to know the truth.” + +“Oh shaking’s nothing,” said Eustace. “I’m feeling I’m going to be sick.” + +“Don’t talk about that, for goodness’ sake,” said Jill. + +They went on in silence for a minute or two. + +“Pole,” said Eustace presently. + +“What?” said she. + +“What’ll happen if we get killed here?” + +“Well we’ll be dead, I suppose.” + +“But I mean, what will happen in our own world? Shall we wake up and find +ourselves back in that train? Or shall we just vanish and never be heard of any + + + +more? Or shall we be dead in England?” + +“Gosh. I never thought of that.” + +“It’ll be mm for Peter and the others if they saw me waving out of the +window and then when the train comes in we’re nowhere to be found! Or if they +found two -1 mean, if we’re dead over there in England.” + +“Ugh!” said Jill. “What a horrid idea.” + +“It wouldn’t be horrid for us,” said Eustace. “We shouldn’t be there.” + +“I almost wish - no I don’t, though,” said Jill. + +“What were you going to say?” + +“I was going to say I wished we’d never come. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. +Even if we are killed. I’d rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and +stupid at home and perhaps go about in a bath-chair and then die in the end just +the same.” + +“Or be smashed up by British Railways!” + +“Why d’you say that?” + +“Well when that awful jerk came - the one that seemed to throw us into +Narnia -1 thought it was the beginning of a railway accident. So I was jolly glad +to find ourselves here instead.” + +While Jill and Eustace were talking about this, the others were discussing +their plans and becoming less miserable. That was because they were now +thinking of what was to be done this very night and the thought of what had +happened to Narnia - the thought that all her glories and joys were over - was +pushed away into the back part of their minds. The moment they stopped talking +it would come out and make them wretched again: but they kept on talking. +Poggin was really quite cheerful about the night’s work they had to do. He was +sure that the Boar and the Bear, and probably all the Dogs would come over to +their side at once. And he couldn’t believe that all the other Dwarfs would stick +to Griffle. And fighting by firelight and in and out among trees would be an +advantage to the weaker side. And then, if they could win tonight, need they +really throw their lives away by meeting the main Calormene army a few days +later? + +Why not hide in the woods, or even up in the Western Waste beyond the +great waterfall and live like outlaws? And then they might gradually get stronger +and stronger, for Talking Beasts and Archenlanders would be joining them every +day. And at last they’d come out of hiding and sweep the Calormenes (who +would have got careless by then) out of the country and Narnia would be +revived. After all, something very like that had happened in the time of King +Miraz! + +And Tirian heard all this and thought “But what about Tash?” and felt in his + + + +bones that none of it was going to happen. But he didn’t say so. + +When they got nearer to Stable Hill of course everyone became quiet. Then +the real wood-work began. From the moment at which they first saw the Hill to +the moment at which they all arrived at the back of the stable, it took them over +two hours. It’s the sort of thing one couldn’t describe properly unless one wrote +pages and pages about it. The journey from each bit of cover to the next was a +separate adventure, and there were very long waits in between, and several false +alarms. If you are a good Scout or a good Guide you will know already what it +must have been like. By about sunset they were all safe in a clump of holly trees +about fifteen yards behind the stable. They all munched some biscuit and lay +down. + +Then came the worst part, the waiting. Luckily for the children they slept for +a couple of hours, but of course they woke up when the night grew cold, and +what was worse, woke up very thirsty and with no chance of getting a drink. +Puzzle just stood, shivering a little with nervousness, and said nothing. But +Tirian, with his head against Jewel’s flank, slept as soundly as if he were in his +royal bed at Cair Paravel, till the sound of a gong beating awoke him and he sat +up and saw that there was firelight on the far side of the stable and knew that the +hour had come. + +“Kiss me, Jewel,” he said. “For certainly this is our last night on earth. And +if ever I offended against you in any matter great or small, forgive me now.” + +“Dear King,” said the Unicorn, “I could almost wish you had, so that I might +forgive it. Farewell. We have known great joys together. If Aslan gave me my +choice I would choose no other life than the life I have had and no other death +than the one we go to.” + +Then they woke up Farsight, who was asleep with his head under his wing (it +made him look as if he had no head at all), and crept forward to the stable. They +left Puzzle (not without a kind word, for no one was angry with him now) just +behind it, telling him not to move till someone came to fetch him, and took up +their position at one end of the stable. + +The bonfire had not been lit for long and was just beginning to blaze up. It +was only a few feet away from them, and the great crowd of Narnian creatures +were on the other side of it, so that Tirian could not at first see them very well, +though of course he saw dozens of eyes shining with the reflection of the fire, as +you’ve seen a rabbit’s or cat’s eyes in the headlights of a car. And just as Tirian +took his place, the gong stopped beating and from somewhere on his left three +figures appeared. One was Rishda Tarkaan the Calormene Captain. The second +was the Ape. He was holding on to the Tarkaan’s hand with one paw and kept +whimpering and muttering, “Not so fast, don’t go so fast, I’m not at all well. Oh + + + +my poor head! These midnight meetings are getting too much for me. Apes +aren’t meant to be up at night: It’s not as if I was a rat or a bat - oh my poor +head.” On the other side of the Ape, walking very soft and stately, with his tail +straight up in the air, came Ginger the Cat. They were heading for the bonfire +and were so close to Tirian that they would have seen him at once if they had +looked in the right direction. Fortunately they did not. But Tirian heard Rishda +say to Ginger in a low voice: + +“Now, Cat, to thy post. See thou play thy part well.” + +“Miaow, miaow. Count on me!” said Ginger. Then he stepped away beyond +the bonfire and sat down in the front row of the assembled Beasts: in the +audience, as you might say. + +For really, as it happened, the whole thing was rather like a theatre. The +crowd of Narnians were like the people in the seats; the little grassy place just in +front of the stable, where the bonfire burned and the Ape and the Captain stood +to talk to the crowd, was like the stage; the stable itself was like the scenery at +the back of the stage; and Tirian and his friends were like people peering round +from behind the scenery. It was a splendid position. If any of them stepped +forward into the full firelight, all eyes would be fixed on him at once: on the +other hand, so long as they stood still in the shadow of the end-wall of the stable, +it was a hundred to one against their being noticed. + +Rishda Tarkaan dragged the Ape up close to the fire. The pair of them turned +to face the crowd, and this of course meant that their backs were towards Tirian +and his friends. + +“Now, Monkey,” said Rishda Tarkaan in a low voice. “Say the words that +wiser heads have put into thy mouth. And hold up thy head.” As he spoke he +gave the Ape a little prod or kick from behind with the point of his toe. + +“Do leave me alone,” muttered Shift. But he sat up straighter and began, in a +louder voice - “Now listen, all of you. A terrible thing has happened. A wicked +thing. The wickedest thing that ever was done in Narnia. And Aslan -“ + +“Tashlan, fool,” whispered Rishda Tarkaan. + +“Tashlan I mean, of course,” said the Ape, “is very angry about it.” + +There was a terrible silence while the Beasts waited to hear what new trouble +was in store for them. The little party by the end-wall of the stable also held their +breath. What on earth was coming now? + +“Yes,” said the Ape. “At this very moment, when the Terrible One himself is +among us - there in the stable just behind me - one wicked Beast has chosen to +do what you’d think no one would dare to do even if He were a thousand miles +away. It has dressed itself up in a lion-skin and is wandering about in these very +woods pretending to be Aslan.” + + + +Jill wondered for a moment if the Ape had gone mad. Was he going to tell +the whole truth? A roar of horror and rage went up from the Beasts. “Grrr!” +came the growls. “Who is he? Where is he? Just let me get my teeth into him!” + +“It was seen last night,” screamed the Ape, “but it got away. It’s a Donkey! A +common, miserable Ass! If any of you see that Ass -“ + +“Grrr!” growled the Beasts. “We will, we will. He’d better keep out of our +way.” + +Jill looked at the King: his mouth was open and his face was full of horror. +And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a +little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger. What was the good, now, +of telling the Beasts that an ass had been dressed up as a lion to deceive them? +The Ape would only say, “That’s just what I’ve said.” What was the good of +showing them Puzzle in his lion-skin? They would only tear him in pieces. +“That’s taken the wind out of our sails,” whispered Eustace. “The ground is +taken from under our feet,” said Tirian. “Cursed, cursed cleverness!” said +Poggin. “I’ll be sworn that this new lie is of Ginger’s making.” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +WHO WILL GO INTO THE STABLE? + +JILL felt something tickling her ear. It was Jewel the Unicorn, whispering to +her with the wide whisper of a horse’s mouth. As soon as she heard what he was +saying she nodded and tip-toed back to where Puzzle was standing. Quickly and +quietly she cut the last cords that bound the lion-skin to him. It wouldn’t do for +him to be caught with that on, after what the Ape had said! She would like to +have hidden the skin somewhere very far away, but it was too heavy. The best +she could do was to kick it in among the thickest bushes. Then she made signs to +Puzzle to follow her and they both joined the others. + +The Ape was speaking again. + +“And after a horrid thing like that, Aslan - Tashlan - is angrier than ever. He +says he’s been a great deal too good to you, coming out every night to be looked +at, see! Well, he’s not coming out any more.” + +Howls and mewings and squeals and grunts were the Animals’ answer to +this, but suddenly a quite different voice broke in with a loud laugh. + +“Hark what the monkey says,” it shouted. “We know why he isn’t going to +bring his precious Aslan out. I’ll tell you why: because he hasn’t got him. He +never had anything except an old donkey with a lion-skin on its back. Now he’s +lost that and he doesn’t know what to do.” + +Tirian could not see the faces on the other side of the fire very well but he +guessed this was Griffle the Chief Dwarf. And he was quite certain of it when, a +second later, all the Dwarfs’ voices joined in, singing: “Don’t know what to do! +Don’t know what to do! Don’t know what to do-o-o!” + +“Silence!” thundered Rishda Tarkaan. “Silence, children of mud! Listen to +me, you other Narnians, lest I give command to my warriors to fall upon you +with the edge of the sword. The Lord Shift has already told you of that wicked +Ass. Do you think, because of him that there is no real Tashlan in the stable! Do +you? Beware, beware.” + +“No, no,” shouted most of the crowd. But the Dwarfs said, “That’s right, +Darkie, you’ve got it. Come on, Monkey, show us what’s in the stable, seeing is +believing.” + +When next there was a moment’s quiet the Ape said: “You Dwarfs think +you’re very clever, don’t you? But not so fast. I never said you couldn’t see +Tashlan. Anyone who likes can see him.” + +The whole assembly became silent. Then, after nearly a minute, the Bear + + + +began in a slow, puzzled voice: + +“I don’t quite understand all this,” it grumbled, “I thought you said + +“You thought!” repeated the Ape. “As if anyone could call what goes on in +your head thinking. Listen, you others. Anyone can see Tashlan. But he’s not +coming out. You have to go in and see him.” + +“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” said dozens of voices. “That’s what +we wanted! We can go in and see him face to face. And now he’ll be kind and it +will all be as it used to be.” And the Birds chattered, and the Dogs barked +excitedly. Then suddenly, there was a great stirring and a noise of creatures +rising to their feet, and in a second the whole lot of them would have been +rushing forward and trying to crowd into the stable door all together. But the +Ape shouted: + +“Get back! Quiet! Not so fast.” + +The Beasts stopped, many of them with one paw in the with tails wagging, +and all of them with heads on one side. + +“I thought you said,” began the Bear, but Shift interrupted. + +“Anyone can go in,” he said. “But, one at a time. Who’ll go first? He didn’t +say he was feeling very kind. He’s been licking his lips a lot since he swallowed +up the wicked King the other night. He’s been growling a good deal this +morning. I wouldn’t much like to go into that stable myself tonight. But just as +you please. Who’d like to go in first? Don’t blame me if he swallows you whole +or blasts you into a cinder with the mere terror of his eyes. That’s your affair. +Now then! Who’s first? What about one of you Dwarfs?” + +“Dilly, dilly, come and be killed!” sneered Griffle. “How do we know what +you’ve got in there?” + +“Ho-ho!” cried the Ape. “So you’re beginning to think there’s something +there, eh? Well, all you Beasts were making noise enough a minute ago. What’s +struck you all dumb? Who’s going in first?” + +But the Beasts all stood looking at one another and began backing away from +the stable. Very few tails were wagging now. The Ape waddled to and fro jeering +at them. “Ho-ho-ho!” he chuckled. “I thought you were all so eager to see +Tashlan face to face! Changed your mind, eh?” + +Tirian bent his head to hear something that Jill was trying to whisper in his +ear. “What do you think is really inside the stable?” she said. “Who knows?” +said Tirian. “Two Calormenes with drawn swords, as likely as not, one on each +side of the door.” “You don’t think,” said Jill, “it might be . . . you know . . . that +horrid thing we saw?” “Tash himself?” whispered Tirian. “There’s no knowing. +But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan.” + +Then a most surprising thing happened. Ginger the Cat said in a cool, clear + + + +voice, not at all as if he was excited, “I’ll go in, if you like.” + +Every creature turned and fixed its eyes on the Cat. “Mark their subtleties, +Sire,” said Poggin to the King. “This cursed cat is in the plot, in the very centre +of it. Whatever is in the stable will not hurt him, I’ll be bound. Then Ginger will +come out again and say that he has seen some wonder.” + +But Tirian had no time to answer him. The Ape was calling the Cat to come +forward. “Ho-ho!” said the Ape. “So you, a pert Puss, would look upon him face +to face. Come on, then! I’ll open the door for you. Don’t blame me if he scares +the whiskers off your face. That’s your affair.” + +And the Cat got up and came out of its place in the crowd, walking primly +and daintily, with its tail in the air, not one hair on its sleek coat out of place. It +came on till it had passed the fire and was so close that Tirian, from where he +stood with his shoulder against the end-wall of the stable, could look right into +its face. Its big green eyes never blinked. (’’Cool as a cucumber,” muttered +Eustace. “It knows it has nothing to fear.”) The Ape, chuckling and making +faces, shuttled across beside the Cat: put up his paw: drew the bolt and opened +the door. Tirian thought he could hear the Cat purring as it walked into the dark +doorway. + +“Aii-aii-aouwee! The most horrible caterwaul you ever heard made +everyone jump. You have been wakened yourself by cats quarrelling or making +love on the roof in the middle of the night: you know the sound. + +This was worse. The Ape was knocked head over heels by Ginger coming +back out of the stable at top speed. If you had not known he was a cat, you might +have thought he was a ginger-coloured streak of lightning. He shot across the +open grass, back into the crowd. No one wants to meet a cat in that state. You +could see animals getting out of his way to left and right. He dashed up a tree, +whisked around, and hung head downwards. His tail was bristled out till it was +nearly as thick as his whole body: his eyes were like saucers of green fire: along +his back every single hair stood on end. + +“I’d give my beard,” whispered Poggin, “to know whether that brute is only +acting or whether it has really found something in there that frightened it!” + +“Peace, friend,” said Tirian, for the Captain and the Ape were also +whispering and he wanted to hear what they said. He did not succeed, except that +he heard the Ape once more whimpering “My head, my head,” but he got the +idea that those two were almost as puzzled by the cat’s behaviour as himself. + +“Now, Ginger,” said the Captain. “Enough of that noise. Tell them what thou +hast seen.” + +“Aii - Aii - Aaow - Awah,” screamed the Cat. + +“Art thou not called a Talking Beast?” said the Captain. “Then hold thy + + + +devilish noise and talk.” + +What followed was rather horrible. Tirian felt quite certain (and so did the +others) that the Cat was trying to say something: but nothing came out of his +mouth except the ordinary, ugly cat-noises you might hear from any angry or +frightened old Tom in a backyard in England. And the longer he caterwauled the +less like a Talking Beast he looked. Uneasy whimperings and little sharp squeals +broke out from among the other Animals. + +“Look, look!” said the voice of the Bear. “It can’t talk. It has forgotten how +to talk! It has gone back to being a dumb beast. Look at its face.” Everyone saw +that it was true. And then the greatest terror of all fell upon those Narnians. Lor +every one of them had been taught - when it was only a chick or a puppy or a +cub - how Aslan at the beginning of the world had turned the beasts of Narnia +into Talking Beasts and warned them that if they weren’t good they might one +day be turned back again and be like the poor witless animals one meets in other +countries. “And now it is coming upon us,” they moaned. + +“Mercy! Mercy!” wailed the Beasts. “Spare us, Lord Shift, stand between us +and Aslan, you must always go in and speak to him for us. We daren’t, we +daren’t.” + +Ginger disappeared further up into the tree. No one ever saw him again. + +Tirian stood with his hand on his sword-hilt and his head bowed. He was +dazed with the horrors of that night. Sometimes he thought it would be best to +draw his sword at once and rush upon the Calormenes: then next moment he +thought it would be better to wait and see what new turn affairs might take. And +now a new turn came. + +“My Lather,” came a clear, ringing voice from the left of the crowd. Tirian +knew at once that it was one of the Calormenes speaking, for in The Tisroc’s +army the common soldiers call the officers “My Master” but the officers call +their senior officers “My Lather”. Jill and Eustace didn’t know this but, after +looking this way and that, they saw the speaker, for of course people at the sides +of the crowd were easier to see than people in the middle where the glare of the +fire made all beyond it look rather black. He was young and tall and slender, and +even rather beautiful in the dark, haughty, Calormene way. + +“My Lather,” he said to the Captain, “I also desire to go in.” + +“Peace, Emeth,” said the Captain, “Who called thee to counsel? Does it +become a boy to speak?” + +“My Lather,” said Emeth. “Truly I am younger than thou, yet I also am of the +blood of the Tarkaans even as thou art, and I also am the servant of Tash. +Therefore ...” + +“Silence,” said Rishda Tarkaan. “Am not I thy Captain? Thou hast nothing to + + + +do with this stable. It is for the Narnians.” + +“Nay, my Father,” answered Emeth. “Thou hast said that their Aslan and our +Tash are all one. And if that is the truth, then Tash himself is in yonder. And how +then sayest thou that I have nothing to do with him? For gladly would I die a +thousand deaths if I might look once on the face of Tash.” + +“Thou art a fool and understandest nothing,” said Rishda Tarkaan. “These be +high matters.” + +Emeth’s face grew sterner. “Is it then not true that Tash and Aslan are all +one?” he asked. “Has the Ape lied to us?” + +“Of course they’re all one,” said the Ape. + +“Swear it, Ape,” said Emeth. + +“Oh dear!” whimpered Shift, “I wish you’d all stop bothering me. My head +does ache. Yes, yes, I swear it.” + +“Then, my Father,” said Emeth, “I am utterly determined to go in.” + +“Fool,” began Rishda Tarkaan, but at once the Dwarfs began shouting: +“Come along, Darkie. Why don’t you let him in? Why do you let Narnians in +and keep your own people out? What have you got in there that you don’t want +your own men to meet?” + +Tirian and his friends could only see the back of Rishda Tarkaan, so they +never knew what his face looked like as he shrugged his shoulders and said, +“Bear witness all that I am guiltless of this young fool’s blood. Get thee in, rash +boy, and make haste.” + +Then, just as Ginger had done, Emeth came walking forward into the open +strip of grass between the bonfire and the stable. His eyes were shining, his face +very solemn, his hand was on his sword-hilt, and he carried his head high. Jill +felt like crying when she looked at his face. And Jewel whispered in the King’s +ear, “By the Lion’s Mane, I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though +he be. He is worthy of a better god than Tash.” + +“I do wish we knew what is really inside there,” said Eustace. + +Emeth opened the door and went in, into the black mouth of the stable. He +closed the door behind him. Only a few moments passed - but it seemed longer +before the door opened again. A figure in Calormene armour reeled out, fell on +its back, and lay still: the door closed behind it. The Captain leaped towards it +and bent down to stare at its face. He gave a start of surprise. Then he recovered +himself and turned to the crowd, crying out: + +“The rash boy has had his will. He has looked on Tash and is dead. Take +warning, all of you.” + +“We will, we will,” said the poor Beasts. But Tirian and his friends stared at +the dead Calormene and then at one another. For they, being so close, could see + + + +what the crowd, being further off and beyond the fire, could not see: this dead +man was not Emeth. He was quite different: an older man, thicker and not so tall, +with a big beard. + +“Ho-ho-ho,” chuckled the Ape. “Any more? Anyone else want to go in? +Well, as you’re all shy, I’ll choose the next. You, you Boar! On you come. Drive +him up, Calormenes. He shall see Tashlan face to face.” + +“O-o-mph,” grunted the Boar, rising heavily to his feet. “Come on, then. Try +my tusks.” + +When Tirian saw that brave Beast getting ready to fight for its life - and +Calormene soldiers beginning to close in on it with their drawn scimitars - and +no one going to its help - something seemed to burst inside him. He no longer +cared if this was the best moment to interfere or not. + +“Swords out,” he whispered to the others. “Arrow on string. Follow.” + +Next moment the astonished Narnians saw seven figures leap forth in front +of the stable, four of them in shining mail. The King’s sword flashed in the +firelight as he waved it above his head and cried in a great voice: + +“Here stand I, Tirian of Narnia, in Aslan’s name, to prove with my body that +Tash is a foul fiend, the Ape a manifold traitor, and these Calormenes worthy of +death. To my side, all true Narnians. Would you wait till your new masters have +killed you all one by one?” + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +THE PACE QUICKENS + +QUICK as lightning, Rishda Tarkaan leaped back out of reach of the King’s +sword. He was no coward, and would have fought single-handed against Tirian +and the Dwarf if need were. But he could not take on the Eagle and the Unicorn +as well. He knew how Eagles can fly into your face and peck at your eyes and +blind you with their wings. And he had heard from his father (who had met +Narnians in battle) that no man, except with arrows, or a long spear, can match a +Unicorn, for it rears on its hind legs as it falls upon you and then you have its +hoofs and its horn and its teeth to deal with all at once. So he rushed into the +crowd and stood calling out: + +“To me, to me, warriors of The Tisroc, may-he-liveforever. To me, all loyal +Narnians, lest the wrath of Tashlan fall upon you!” + +While this was happening two other things happened as well. The Ape had +not realized his danger as quickly as the Tarkaan. For a second or so he remained +squatting beside the fire staring at the newcomers. Then Tirian rushed upon the +wretched creature, picked it up by the scruff of the neck, and dashed back to the +stable shouting, “Open the door!” Poggin opened it. “Go and drink your own +medicine, Shift!” said Tirian and hurled the Ape through into the darkness. But +as the Dwarf banged the door shut again, a blinding greenish-blue light shone +out from the inside of the stable, the earth shook, and there was a strange noise - +a clucking and screaming as if it was the hoarse voice of some monstrous bird. +The Beasts moaned and howled and called out “Tashlan! Hide us from him!” and +many fell down, and many hid their faces in their wings or paws. No one except +Farsight the Eagle, who has the best eyes of all living things, noticed the face of +Rishda Tarkaan at that moment. And from what Farsight saw there he knew at +once that Rishda was just as surprised, and nearly frightened, as everyone else. +“There goes one,” thought Farsight, “who has called on gods he does not believe +in. How will it be with him if they have really come?” + +The third thing - which also happened at the same moment - was the only +really beautiful thing that night. Every single Talking Dog in the whole meeting +(there were fifteen of them) came bounding and barking joyously to the King’s +side. They were mostly great big dogs with thick shoulders and heavy jaws. +Their coming was like the breaking of a great wave on the seabeach: it nearly +knocked you down. For though they were Talking Dogs they were just as doggy +as they could be: and they all stood up and put their front paws on the shoulders + + + +of the humans and licked their faces, all saying at once: “Welcome! Welcome! +We’ll help, we’ll help, help, help. Show us how to help, show us how, how. +How-how-how?” + +It was so lovely that it made you want to cry. This, at last, was the sort of +thing they had been hoping for. And when, a moment later, several little animals +(mice and moles and a squirrel or so) came pattering up, squealing with joy, and +saying “See, see. We’re here,” and when, after that, the Bear and the Boar came +too, Eustace began to feel that perhaps, after all, everything might be going to +come right. But Tirian gazed round and saw how very few of the animals had +moved. + +“To me! to me!” he called. “Have you all turned cowards since I was your +King?” + +“We daren’t,” whimpered dozens of voices. “Tashlan would be angry. Shield +us from Tashlan.” + +“Where are all the Talking Horses?” said Tirian to the Boar. + +“We’ve seen, we’ve seen,” squealed the Mice. “The Ape has made them +work. They’re all tied - down at the bottom of the hill.” + +“Then all you little ones,” said Tirian, “you nibblers and gnawers and +nutcrackers, away with you as fast as you can scamper and see if the Horses are +on our side. And if they are, get your teeth into the ropes and gnaw till the +Horses are free and bring them hither.” + +“With a good will, Sire,” came the small voices, and with a whisk of tails +those sharp-eyed and sharp-toothed folk were off. Tirian smiled for mere love as +he saw them go. But it was already time to be thinking of other things. Rishda +Tarkaan was giving his orders. + +“Forward,” he said. “Take all of them alive if you can and hurl them into the +stable or drive them into it. When they are all in we will put fire to it and make +them an offering to the great god Tash.” + +“Ha!” said Farsight to himself. “So that is how he hopes to win Tash’s +pardon for his unbelief.” + +The enemy line - about half of Rishda’s force - was now moving forward, +and Tirian had barely time to give his orders. + +“Out on the left, Jill, and try to shoot all you may before they reach us. Boar +and Bear next to her. Poggin on my left, Eustace on my right. Hold the right +wing, Jewel. Stand by him, Puzzle, and use your hoofs. Hover and strike, +Farsight. You Dogs, just behind us. Go in among them after the sword-play has +begun. Aslan to our aid!” + +Eustace stood with his heart beating terribly, hoping and hoping that he +would be brave. He had never seen anything (though he had seen both a dragon + + + +and a seaserpent) that made his blood run so cold as that line of dark-faced +bright-eyed men. There were fifteen Calormenes, a Talking Bull of Narnia, +Slinkey the Fox, and Wraggle the Satyr. Then he heard twang-and-zipp on his +left and one Calormene fell: then twang-andzipp again and the Satyr was down. +“Oh, well done, daughter!” came Tirian’s voice; and then the enemy were upon +them. + +Eustace could never remember what happened in the next two minutes. It +was all like a dream (the sort you have when your temperature is over 100) until +he heard Rishda Tarkaan’s voice calling out from the distance: + +“Retire. Back hither and re-form.” + +Then Eustace came to his senses and saw the Calormenes scampering back +to their friends. But not all of them. Two lay dead, pierced by Jewel’s horn, one +by Tirian’s sword. The Fox lay dead at his own feet, and he wondered if it was +he who had killed it. The Bull also was down, shot through the eye by an arrow +from Jill and gashed in his side by the Boar’s tusk. But our side had its losses +too. Three dogs were killed and a fourth was hobbling behind the line on three +legs and whimpering. The Bear lay on the ground, moving feebly. Then it +mumbled in its throaty voice, bewildered to the last, “I -1 don’t understand,” laid +its big head down on the grass as quietly as a child going to sleep, and never +moved again. + +In fact, the first attack had failed. Eustace didn’t seem able to be glad about +it: he was so terribly thirsty and his arm ached so. + +As the defeated Calormenes went back to their commander, the Dwarfs +began jeering at them. + +“Had enough, Darkies?” they yelled. “Don’t you like it? Why doesn’t your +great Tarkaan go and fight himself instead of sending you to be killed? Poor +Darkies!” + +“Dwarfs,” cried Tirian. “Come here and use your swords, not your tongues. +There is still time. Dwarfs of Narnia! You can fight well, I know. Come back to +your allegiance.” + +“Yah!” sneered the Dwarfs. “Not likely. You’re just as big humbugs as the +other lot. We don’t want any Kings. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs. Boo!” + +Then the Drum began: not a Dwarf drum this time, but a big bull’s hide +Calormene drum. The children from the very first hated the sound. Boom - boom +- ba-ba-boom it went. But they would have hated it far worse if they had known +what it meant. Tirian did. It meant that there were other Calormene troops +somewhere near and that Rishda Tarkaan was calling them to his aid. Tirian and +Jewel looked at one another sadly. They had just begun to hope that they might +win that night: but it would be all over with them if new enemies appeared. + + + +Tirian gazed despairingly round. Several Narnians were standing with the +Calormenes, whether through treachery or in honest fear of “Tashlan”. Others +were sitting still, staring, not likely to join either side. But there were fewer +animals now: the crowd was much smaller. Clearly, several of them had just +crept quietly away during the fighting. + +Boom - boom - ba-ba-boom went the horrible drum. Then another sound +began to mix with it. “Listen!” said Jewel: and then “Look!” said Farsight. A +moment later there was no doubt what it was. With a thunder of hoofs, with +tossing heads, widened nostrils, and waving manes, over a score of Talking +Horses of Narnia came charging up the hill. The gnawers and nibblers had done +their work. + +Poggin the Dwarf and the children opened their mouths to cheer but that +cheer never came. Suddenly the air was full of the sound of twanging bow¬ +strings and hissing arrows. It was the Dwarfs who were shooting and - for a +moment Jill could hardly believe her eyes - they were shooting the Horses. +Dwarfs are deadly archers. Horse after Horse rolled over. Not one of those noble +Beasts ever reached the King. + +“Little Swine,” shrieked Eustace, dancing in his rage. “Dirty, filthy, +treacherous little brutes.” Even Jewel said, “Shall I run after those Dwarfs, Sire, +and spit ten of them on my horn at each plunge?” But Tirian with his face as +stern as stone, said, “Stand fast, Jewel. If you must weep, sweetheart (this was to +Jill), turn your face aside and see you wet not your bow-string. And peace, +Eustace. Do not scold, like a kitchen-girl. No warrior scolds. Courteous words or +else hard knocks are his only language.” + +But the Dwarfs jeered back at Eustace. “That was a surprise for you, little +boy, eh? Thought we were on your side, did you? No fear. We don’t want any +Talking Horses. We don’t want you to win any more than the other gang. You +can’t take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.” + +Rishda Tarkaan was still talking to his men, doubtless making arrangements +for the next attack and probably wishing he had sent his whole force into the +first. The drum boomed on. Then, to their horror, Tirian and his friends heard, far +fainter as if from a long way off, an answering drum. Another body of +Calormenes had heard Rishda’s signal and were coming to support him. You +would not have known from Tirian’s face that he had now given up all hope. + +“Listen,” he whispered in a matter-of-fact voice, “we must attack now, +before yonder miscreants are strengthened by their friends.” + +“Bethink you, Sire,” said Poggin, “that here we have the good wooden wall +of the stable at our backs. If we advance, shall we not be encircled and get +sword-points between our shoulders?” + + + +“I would say as you do, Dwarf,” said Tirian. “Were it not their very plan to +force us into the stable? The further we are from its deadly door, the better.” + +“The King is right,” said Farsight. “Away from this accursed stable, and +whatever goblin lives inside it, at all costs.” + +“Yes, do let’s,” said Eustace. “I’m coming to hate the very sight of it.” + +“Good,” said Tirian. “Now look yonder to our left. You see a great rock that +gleams white like marble in the firelight. First we will fall upon those +Calormenes. You, maiden, shall move out on our left and shoot as fast as ever +you may into their ranks: and you, Eagle, fly at their faces from the right. +Meanwhile we others will be charging them. When we are so close, Jill, that you +can no longer shoot at them for fear of striking us, go back to the white rock and +wait. You others, keep your ears wide even in the fighting. We must put them to +flight in a few minutes or else not at all, for we are fewer than they. As soon as I +call Back, then rush to join Jill at the white rock, where we shall have protection +behind us and can breathe awhile. Now, be off, Jill.” + +Feeling terribly alone, Jill ran out about twenty feet, put her right leg back +and her left leg forward, and set an arrow to her string. She wished her hands +were not shaking so. “‘That’s a rotten shot!” she said as her first arrow sped +towards the enemy and flew over their heads. But she had another on the string +next moment: she knew that speed was what mattered. She saw something big +and black darting into the faces of the Calormenes. ‘that was Farsight. First one +man, and then another, dropped his sword and put up both his hands to defend +his eyes. Then one of her own arrows hit a man, and another hit a Narnian wolf, +who had, it seemed, joined the enemy. But she had been shooting only for a few +seconds when she had to stop. With a flash of swords and of the Boar’s tusks and +JeweFs horn, and with deep baying from the dogs, Tirian and his party were +rushing on their enemies, like men in a hundred yards’ race. Jill was astonished +to see how unprepared the Calormenes seemed to be. She did not realize that this +was the result of her work and the Eagle’s. Very few troops can keep on looking +steadily to the front if they are getting arrows in their faces from one side and +being pecked by an eagle on the other. + +“Oh well done. Well done!” shouted Jill. The King’s party were cutting their +way right into the enemy. The Unicorn was tossing men as you’d toss hay on a +fork. Even Eustace seemed to Jill (who after all didn’t know very much about +swordsmanship) to be fighting brilliantly. The Dogs were at the Calormenes’ +throats. It was going to work! It was victory at last - With a horrible, cold shock +Jill noticed a strange thing. Though Calormenes were falling at each Narnian +sword-stroke, they never seemed to get any fewer. In fact, there were actually +more of them now than when the fight began. There were more every second. + + + +They were running up from every side. They were new Calormenes. These new +ones had spears. There was such a crowd of them that she could hardly see her +own friends. Then she heard Tirian’s voice crying: + +“Back! To the rock!” + +The enemy had been reinforced. The drum had done its work. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +THROUGH THE STABLE DOOR + +JILL ought to have been back at the white rock already but she had quite +forgotten that part of her orders in the excitement of watching the fight. Now she +remembered. She turned at once and ran to it, and arrived there barely a second +before the others. It thus happened that all of them, for a moment, had their +backs to the enemy. They all wheeled round the moment they had reached it. A +terrible sight met their eyes. + +A Calormene was running towards the stable door carrying something that +kicked and struggled. As he came between them and the fire they could see +clearly both the shape of the man and the shape of what he carried. It was +Eustace. + +Tirian and the Unicorn rushed out to rescue him. But the Calormene was +now far nearer to the door then they. Before they had covered half the distance +he had flung Eustace in and shut the door on him. Half a dozen more +Calormenes had run up behind him. They formed a line on the open space before +the stable. There was no getting at it now. + +Even then Jill remembered to keep her face turned aside, well away from her +bow. “Even if I can’t stop blubbing, I won’t get my string wet,” she said. + +“‘Ware arrows,” said Poggin suddenly. + +Everyone ducked and pulled his helmet well over his + +nose. The Dogs crouched behind. But though a few arrows came their way it +soon became clear that they were not being shot at. Griffle and his Dwarfs were +at their archery again. This time they were coolly shooting at the Calormenes. + +“Keep it up, boys!” came Griffle’s voice. “All together. Carefully. We don’t +want Darkies any more than we want Monkeys - or Lions - or Kings. The +Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.” + +Whatever else you may say about Dwarfs, no one can say they aren’t brave. +They could easily have got away to some safe place. They preferred to stay and +kill as many of both sides as they could, except when both sides were kind +enough to save them trouble by killing one another. They wanted Narnia for their +own. + +What perhaps they had not taken into account was that the Calormenes were +mail-clad and the Horses had had no protection. Also the Calormenes had a +leader. Rishda Tarkaan’s voice cried out: + +“Thirty of you keep watch on those fools by the white rock. The rest, after + + + +me, that we may teach these sons of earth a lesson.” + +Tirian and his friends, still panting from their fight and thankful for a few +minutes’ rest, stood and looked on while the Tarkaan led his men against the +Dwarfs. It was a strange scene by now. The fire had sunk lower: the light it gave +was now less and of a darker red. As far as one could see, the whole place of +assembly was now empty except for the Dwarf and the Calormenes. In that light +one couldn’t make out much of what was happening. It sounded as if the Dwarfs +were putting up a good fight. Tirian could hear Griffle using dreadful language, +and every now and then the Tarkaan calling, “Take all you can alive! Take them +alive!” + +Whatever that fight may have been like, it did not last long. The noise of it +died away. Then Jill saw the Tarkaan coming back to the stable: eleven men +followed him, dragging eleven bound Dwarfs. (Whether the others had all been +killed, or whether some of them had got away, was never known.) + +“Throw them into the shrine of Tash,” said Rishda Tarkaan. + +And when the eleven Dwarfs, one after the other, had been flung or kicked +into that dark doorway and the door had been shut again, he bowed low to the +stable and said: + +“These also are for thy burnt offering, Lord Tash.” + +And all the Calormenes banged the flats of their swords on their shields and +shouted, “Tash! Tash! The great god Tash! Inexorable Tash!” (There was no +nonsense about “Tashlan” now.) + +The little party by the white rock watched these doings and whispered to one +another. They had found a trickle of water coming down the rock and all had +drunk eagerly - Jill and Poggin and the King in their hands, while the four-footed +ones lapped from the little pool which it had made at the foot of the stone. Such +was their thirst that it seemed the most delicious drink they had ever had in their +lives, and while they were drinking they were perfectly happy and could not +think of anything else. + +“I feel in my bones,” said Poggin, “that we shall all, one by one, pass +through that dark door before morning. I can think of a hundred deaths I would +rather have died.” + +“It is indeed a grim door,” said Tirian. “It is more like a mouth.” + +“Oh, can’t we do anything to stop it?” said Jill in a shaken voice. + +“Nay, fair friend,” said Jewel, nosing her gently. “It may be for us the door to +Aslan’s country and we shall sup at his table tonight.” + +Rishda Tarkaan turned his back on the stable and walked slowly to a place in +front of the white rock. + +“Hearken,” he said. “If the Boar and the Dogs and the Unicorn will come + + + +over to me and put themselves in my mercy, their lives shall be spared. The Boar +shall go to a cage in The Tisroc’s garden, the Dogs to The Tisroc’s kennels, and +the Unicorn, when I have sawn his horn off, shall draw a cart. But the Eagle, the +children, and he who was the King shall be offered to Tash this night.” + +The only answer was growls. + +“Get on, warriors,” said the Tarkaan. “Kill the beasts, but take the two- +legged ones alive.” + +And then the last battle of the last King of Narnia began. + +What made it hopeless, even apart from the numbers of the enemy, was the +spears. The Calormenes who had been with the Ape almost from the beginning +had had no spears: that was because they had come into Narnia by ones and +twos, pretending to be peaceful merchants, and of course they had carried no +spears for a spear is not a thing you can hide. The new ones must have come in +later, after the Ape was already strong and they could march openly. The spears +made all the difference. With a long spear you can kill a boar before you are in +reach of his tusks and a unicorn before you are in reach of his horn; if you are +very quick and keep your head. And now the levelled spears were closing in on +Tirian and his last friends. Next minute they were all fighting for their lives. + +In a way it wasn’t quite so bad as you might think. + +When you are using every muscle to the full - ducking under a spear-point +here, leaping over it there, lunging forward, drawing back, wheeling round - you +haven’t much time to feel either frightened or sad. Tirian knew he could do +nothing for the others now; they were all doomed together. He vaguely saw the +Boar go down on one side of him, and Jewel fighting furiously on the other. Out +of the corner of one eye he saw, but only just saw, a big Calormene pulling Jill +away somewhere by her hair. But he hardly thought about any of these things. +His only thought now was to sell his life as dearly as he could. The worst of it +was that he couldn’t keep to the position in which he had started, under the white +rock. A man who is fighting a dozen enemies at once must take his chances +wherever he can; must dart in wherever he sees an enemy’s breast or neck +unguarded. In a very few strokes this may get you quite a distance from the spot +where you began. Tirian soon found that he was getting further and further to the +right, nearer to the stable. He had a vague idea in his mind that there was some +good reason for keeping away from it. But he couldn’t now remember what the +reason was. And anyway, he couldn’t help it. + +All at once everything came quite clear. He found he was fighting the +Tarkaan himself. The bonfire (what was left of it) was straight in front. He was +in fact fighting in the very doorway of the stable, for it had been opened and two +Calormenes were holding the door, ready to slam it shut the moment he was + + + +inside. He remembered everything now, and he realized that the enemy had been +edging him to the stable on purpose ever since the fight began. And while he was +thinking this he was still fighting the Tarkaan as hard as he could. + +A new idea came into Tirian’s head. He dropped his sword, darted forward, +in under the sweep of the Tarkaan’s scimitar, seized his enemy by the belt with +both hands, and jumped back into the stable, shouting: + +“Come in and meet Tash yourself!” + +There was a deafening noise. As when the Ape had been flung in, the earth +shook and there was a blinding light. + +The Calormene soldiers outside screamed. “Tash, Tash!” and banged the +door. If Tash wanted their own Captain, Tash must have him. They, at any rate, +did not want to meet Tash. + +For a moment or two Tirian did not know where he was or even who he was. +Then he steadied himself, blinked, and looked around. It was not dark inside the +stable, as he had expected. He was in strong light: that was why he was blinking. + +He turned to look at Rishda Tarkaan, but Rishda was not looking at him. +Rishda gave a great wail and pointed; then he put his hands before his face and +fell flat, face downwards, on the ground. Tirian looked in the direction where the +Tarkaan had pointed. And then he understood. + +A terrible figure was coming towards them. It was far smaller than the shape +they had seen from the Tower, though still much bigger than a man, and it was +the same. It had a vulture’s head and four arms. Its beak was open and its eyes +blazed. A croaking voice came from its beak. + +“Thou hast called me into Narnia, Rishda Tarkaan. Here I am. What hast +thou to say?” + +But the Tarkaan neither lifted his face from the ground nor said a word. He +was shaking like a man with a bad hiccup. He was brave enough in battle: but +half his courage had left him earlier that night when he first began to suspect that +there might be a real Tash. The rest of it had left him now. + +With a sudden jerk -like a hen stooping to pick up a worm - Tash pounced on +the miserable Rishda and tucked him under the upper of his two right arms. Then +Tash turned his head sidewise to fix Tirian with one of his terrible eyes: for of +course, having a bird’s head, he couldn’t look at you straight. + +But immediately, from behind Tash, strong and calm as the summer sea, a +voice said: + +“Begone, Monster, and take your lawful prey to your own place: in the name +of Aslan and Aslan’s great Father the Emperor-over-the-Sea.” + +The hideous creature vanished, with the Tarkaan still under its arm. And +Tirian turned to see who had spoken. + + + +And what he saw then set his heart beating as it had never beaten in any +fight. + +Seven Kings and Queens stood before him, all with crowns on their heads +and all in glittering clothes, but the Kings wore fine mail as well and had their +swords drawn in their hands. Tirian bowed courteously and was about to speak +when the youngest of the Queens laughed. He stared hard at her face, and then +gasped with amazement, for he knew her. It was Jill: but not Jill as he had last +seen her, with her face all dirt and tears and an old drill dress half slipping off +one shoulder. Now she looked cool and fresh, as fresh as if she had just come +from bathing. And at first he thought she looked older, but then didn’t, and he +could never make up his mind on that point. And then he saw that the youngest +of the Kings was Eustace: but he also was changed as Jill was changed. + +Tirian suddenly felt awkward about coming among these people with the +blood and dust and sweat of a battle still on him. Next moment he realized that +he was not in that state at all. He was fresh and cool and clean, and dressed in +such clothes as he would have worn for a great feast at Cair Paravel. (But in +Narnia your good clothes were never your uncomfortable ones. They knew how +to make things that felt beautiful as well as looking beautiful in Narnia: and there +was no such thing as starch or flannel or elastic to be found from one end of the +country to the other.) + +“Sire,” said Jill coming forward and making a beautiful curtsey, “let me +make you known to Peter the High King over all Kings in Narnia.” + +Tirian had no need to ask which was the High King, for he remembered his +face (though here it was far nobler) from his dream. He stepped forward, sank on +one knee and kissed Peter’s hand. + +“High King,” he said. “You are welcome to me.” + +And the High King raised him and kissed him on both cheeks as a High King +should. Then he led him to the eldest of the Queens - but even she was not old, +and there were no grey hairs on her head and no wrinkles on her cheek - and +said, “Sir, this is that Lady Polly who came into Narnia on the First Day, when +Aslan made the trees grow and the Beasts talk.” He brought him next to a man +whose golden beard flowed over his breast and whose face was full of wisdom. +“And this,” he said, “is the Lord Digory who was with her on that day. And this +is my brother, King Edmund: and this my sister, the Queen Lucy.” + +“Sir,” said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. “If I have read the chronicle +aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is +Queen Susan?” + +“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend +of Narnia.” + + + +“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk +about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, 'What wonderful memories +you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play +when we were children.’” + +“Oh Susan!” said Jill. “She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons +and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being +grown-up.” + +“Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She +wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all +the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the +silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she +can.” + +“Well, don’t let’s talk about that now,” said Peter. “Look! Here are lovely +fruit-trees. Let us taste them.” + +And then, for the first time, Tirian looked about him and realized how very +queer this adventure was. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +HOW THE DWARFS REFUSED TO BE TAKEN IN + +TIRIAN had thought - or he would have thought if he had time to think at all +- that they were inside a little thatched stable, about twelve feet long and six feet +wide. In reality they stood on grass, the deep blue sky was overhead, and the air +which blew gently on their faces was that of a day in early summer. Not far away +from them rose a grove of trees, thickly leaved, but under every leaf there +peeped out the gold or faint yellow or purple or glowing red of fruits such as no +one has seen in our world. The fruit made Tirian feel that it must be autumn but +there was something in the feel of the air that told him it could not be later than +June. They all moved towards the trees. + +Everyone raised his hand to pick the fruit he best liked the look of, and then +everyone paused for a second. This fruit was so beautiful that each felt “It can’t +be meant for me... surely we’re not allowed to pluck it.” + +“It’s all right,” said Peter. “I know what we’re all thinking. But I’m sure, +quite sure, we needn’t. I’ve a feeling we’ve got to the country where everything +is allowed.” + +“Here goes, then!” said Eustace. And they all began to eat. + +What was the fruit like? Unfortunately no one can describe a taste. All I can +say is that, compared with those fmits, the freshest grapefruit you’ve ever eaten +was dull, and the juiciest orange was dry, and the most melting pear was hard +and woody, and the sweetest wild strawberry was sour. And there were no seeds +or stones, and no wasps. If you had once eaten that fruit, all the nicest things in +this world would taste like medicines after it. But I can’t describe it. You can’t +find out what it is like unless you can get to that country and taste it for yourself. + +When they had eaten enough, Eustace said to King Peter, “You haven’t yet +told us how you got here. You were just going to, when King Tirian turned up.” + +“There’s not much to tell,” said Peter. “Edmund and I were standing on the +platform and we saw your train coming in. I remember thinking it was taking the +bend far too fast. And I remember thinking how funny it was that our people +were probably in the same train though Lucy didn’t know about it -“ + +“Your people, High King?” said Tirian. + +“I mean my Father and Mother - Edmund’s and Lucy’s and mine.” + +“Why were they?” asked Jill. “You don’t mean to say they know about +Narnia?” + +“Oh no, it had nothing to do with Narnia. They were on their way to Bristol. + + + +I’d only heard they were going that morning. But Edmund said they’d be bound +to be going by that train.” (Edmund was the sort of person who knows about +railways.) + +“And what happened then?” said Jill. + +“Well, it’s not very easy to describe, is it, Edmund?” said the High King. + +“Not very,” said Edmund. “It wasn’t at all like that other time when we were +pulled out of our own world by Magic. There was a frightful roar and something +hit me with a bang, but it didn’t hurt. And I felt not so much scared as - well, +excited. Oh - and this is one queer thing. + +I’d had a rather sore knee, from a hack at rugger. I noticed it had suddenly +gone. And I felt very light. And then - here we were.” + +“It was much the same for us in the railway carriage,” said the Lord Digory, +wiping the last traces of the fmit from his golden beard. “Only I think you and I, +Polly, chiefly felt that we’d been unstiffened. You youngsters won’t understand. +But we stopped feeling old.” + +“Youngsters, indeed!” said Jill. “I don’t believe you two really are much +older than we are here.” + +“Well if we aren’t, we have been,” said the Lady Polly. + +“And what has been happening since you got here?” asked Eustace. + +“Well,” said Peter, “for a long time (at least I suppose it was a long time) +nothing happened. Then the door opened -“ + +“The door?” said Tirian. + +“Yes,” said Peter. “The door you came in - or came out - by. Have you +forgotten?” + +“But where is it?” + +“Look,” said Peter and pointed. + +Tirian looked and saw the queerest and most ridiculous thing you can +imagine. Only a few yards away, clear to be seen in the sunlight, there stood up a +rough wooden door and, round it, the framework of the doorway: nothing else, +no walls, no roof. He walked towards it, bewildered, and the others followed, +watching to see what he would do. He walked round to the other side of the door. +But it looked just the same from the other side: he was still in the open air, on a +summer morning. The door was simply standing up by itself as if it had grown +there like a tree. + +“Fair Sir,” said Tirian to the High King, “this is a great marvel.” + +“It is the door you came through with that Calormene five minutes ago,” said +Peter smiling. + +“But did I not come in out of the wood into the stable? Whereas this seems to +be a door leading from nowhere to nowhere.” + + + +“It looks like that if you walk round it,” said Peter. “But put your eye to that +place where there is a crack between two of the planks and look through.” + +Tirian put his eye to the hole. At first he could see nothing but blackness. +Then, at his eyes grew used to it, he saw the dull red glow of a bonfire that was +nearly going out, and above that, in a black sky, stars. Then he could see dark +figures moving about or standing between him and the fire: he could hear them +talking and their voices were like those of Calormenes. So he knew that he was +looking out through the stable door into the darkness of Lantern Waste where he +had fought his last battle. The men were discussing whether to go in and look for +Rishda Tarkaan (but none of them wanted to do that) or to set fire to the stable. + +He looked round again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue +sky overhead, and grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every +direction, and his new friends all round him laughing. + +“It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the stable seen from +within and the stable seen from without are two different places.” + +“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.” + +“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a stable once had something +inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” It was the first time she had +spoken, and from the thrill in her voice, Tirian now knew why. She was drinking +everything in even more deeply than the others. She had been too happy to +speak. He wanted to hear her speak again, so he said: + +“Of your courtesy, Madam, tell on. Tell me your whole adventure.” + +“After the shock and the noise,” said Lucy, “we found ourselves here. And +we wondered at the door, as you did. Then the door opened for the first time (we +saw darkness through the doorway when it did) and there came through a big +man with a naked sword. We saw by his arms that he was a Calormene. He took +his stand beside the door with his sword raised, resting on his shoulder, ready to +cut down anyone who came through. We went to him and spoke to him, but we +thought he could neither see nor hear us. And he never looked round on the sky +and the sunlight and the grass: I think he couldn’t see them either. So then we +waited a long time. Then we heard the bolt being drawn on the other side of the +door. But the man didn’t get ready to strike with his sword till he could see who +was coming in. So we supposed he had been told to strike some and spare others. +But at the very moment when the door opened, all of a sudden Tash was there, +on this side of the door; none of us saw where he came from. And through the +door there came a big Cat. It gave one look at Tash and ran for its life: just in +time, for he pounced at it and the door hit his beak as it was shut. The man could +see Tash. He turned very pale and bowed down before the Monster: but it +vanished away. + + + +“Then we waited a long time again. At last the door opened for the third time +and there came in a young Calormene. I liked him. The sentinel at the door +started, and looked very surprised, when he saw him. I think he’d been expecting +someone quite different + +“I see it all now,” said Eustace (he had the bad habit of interrupting stories). +“The Cat was to go in first and the sentry had orders to do him no harm. Then +the Cat was to come out and say he’d seen their beastly Tashlan and pretend to +be frightened so as to scare the other Animals. But what Shift never guessed was +that the real Tash would turn up; so Ginger came out really frightened. And after +that, Shift would send in anyone he wanted to get rid of and the sentry would kill +them. + +And -“ + +“Friend,” said Tirian softly, “you hinder the lady in her tale.” + +“Well,” said Lucy, “the sentry was surprised. That gave the other man just +time to get on guard. They had a fight. He killed the sentry and flung him outside +the door. Then he came walking slowly forward to where we were. He could see +us, and everything else. We tried to talk to him but he was rather like a man in a +trance. He kept on saying Tash, Tash, where is Tash? I go to Tash. So we gave it +up and he went away somewhere - over there. I liked him. And after that ... +ugh!” Lucy made a face. + +“After that,” said Edmund, “someone flung a monkey through the door. And +Tash was there again. My sister is so tender-hearted she doesn’t like to tell you +that Tash made one peck and the Monkey was gone!” + +“Serve him right!” said Eustace. “All the same, I hope he’ll disagree with +Tash too.” + +“And after that,” said Edmund, “came about a dozen Dwarfs: and then Jill, +and Eustace, and last of all yourself.” + +“I hope Tash ate the Dwarfs too,” said Eustace. “Little swine.” + +“No, he didn’t,” said Lucy. “And don’t be horrid. Thery’re still here. In fact +you can see them from here. And I’ve tried and tried to make friends with them +but it’s no use.” + +“Friends with them!” cried Eustace. “If you knew how those Dwarfs have +been behaving!” + +“Oh stop it, Eustace,” said Lucy. “Do come and see them. King Tirian, +perhaps you could do something with them.” + +“I can feel no great love for Dwarfs today,” said Tirian. “Yet at your asking, +Lady, I would do a greater thing than this.” + +Lucy led the way and soon they could all see the Dwarfs. They had a very +odd look. They weren’t strolling about or enjoying themselves (although the + + + +cords with which they had been tied seemed to have vanished) nor were they +lying down and having a rest. They were sitting very close together in a little +circle facing one another. They never looked round or took any notice of the +humans till Lucy and Tirian were almost near enough to touch them. Then the +Dwarfs all cocked their heads as if they couldn’t see anyone but were listening +hard and trying to guess by the sound what was happening. + +“Look out!” said one of them in a surly voice. “Mind where you’re going. +Don’t walk into our faces!” + +“All right!” said Eustace indignantly. “We’re not blind. We’ve got eyes in +our heads.” + +“They must be darn good ones if you can see in here,” said the same Dwarf +whose name was Diggle. + +“In where?” asked Edmund. + +“Why you bone-head, in here of course,” said Diggle. “In this pitch-black, +poky, smelly little hole of a stable.” + +“Are you blind?” said Tirian. + +“Ain’t we all blind in the dark!” said Diggle. + +“But it isn’t dark, you poor stupid Dwarfs,” said Lucy. “Can’t you see? Look +up! Look round! Can’t you see the sky and the trees and the flowers? Can’t you +see me?” + +“How in the name of all Humbug can I see what ain’t there? And how can I +see you any more than you can see me in this pitch darkness?” + +“But I can see you,” said Lucy. “I’ll prove I can see you. You’ve got a pipe in +your mouth.” + +“Anyone that knows the smell of baccy could tell that,” said Diggle. + +“Oh the poor things! This is dreadful,” said Lucy. Then she had an idea. She +stopped and picked some wild violets. “Listen, Dwarf,” she said. “Even if your +eyes are wrong, perhaps your nose is all right: can you smell that?” She leaned +across and held the fresh, damp flowers to Diggle’s ugly nose. But she had to +jump back quickly in order to avoid a blow from his hard little fist. + +“None of that!” he shouted. “How dare you! What do you mean by shoving a +lot of filthy stable-litter in my face? There was a thistle in it too. It’s like your +sauce! And who are you anyway?” + +“Earth-man,” said Tirian, “she is the Queen Lucy, sent hither by Aslan out of +the deep past. And it is for her sake alone that I, Tirian your lawful King, do not +cut all your heads from your shoulders, proved and twice-proved traitors that +you are.” + +“Well if that doesn’t beat everything!” exclaimed Diggle. “How can you go +on talking all that rot? Your wonderful Lion didn’t come and help you, did he? + + + +Thought not. And now - even now - when you’ve been beaten and shoved into +this black hole, just the same as the rest of us, you’re still at your old game. +Starting a new lie! Trying to make us believe we’re none of us shut up, and it +ain’t dark, and heaven knows what.” + +“There is no black hole, save in your own fancy, fool,” cried Tirian. “Come +out of it.” And, leaning forward, he caught Diggle by the belt and the hood and +swung him right out of the circle of Dwarfs. But the moment Tirian put him +down, Diggle darted back to his place among the others, rubbing his nose and +howling: + +“Ow! Ow! What d’you do that for! Banging my face against the wall. You’ve +nearly broken my nose.” + +“Oh dear!” said Lucy, “What are we to do for them?” + +“Let ‘em alone,” said Eustace: but as he spoke the earth trembled. The sweet +air grew suddenly sweeter. A brightness flashed behind them. All turned. Tirian +turned last because he was afraid. There stood his heart’s desire, huge and real, +the golden Lion, Aslan himself, and already the others were kneeling in a circle +round his forepaws and burying their hands and faces in his mane as he stooped +his great head to touch them with his tongue. Then he fixed his eyes upon Tirian, +and Tirian came near, trembling, and flung himself at the Lion’s feet, and the +Lion kissed him and said, “Well done, last of the Kings of Narnia who stood firm +at the darkest hour.” + +“Aslan,” said Lucy through her tears, “could you - will you - do something +for these poor Dwarfs?” + +“Dearest,” said Aslan, “I will show you both what I can, and what I cannot, +do.” He came close to the Dwarfs and gave a low growl: low, but it set all the air +shaking. But the Dwarfs said to one another, “Hear that? That’s the gang at the +other end of the stable. Trying to frighten us. They do it with a machine of some +kind. Don’t take any notice. They won’t take us in again!” + +Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared +on the Dwarfs’ knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each +Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. But it wasn’t much use. They +began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn’t +taste it properly. They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of +things you might find in a stable. One said he was trying to eat hay and another +said he had a bit of an old turnip and a third said he’d found a raw cabbage leaf. +And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said “Ugh! +Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey’s been at! Never +thought we’d come to this.” But very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that +every other Dwarf had found something nicer than he had, and they started + + + +grabbing and snatching, and went on to quarrelling, till in a few minutes there +was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or +trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and +their bleeding noses, they all said: + +“Well, at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in. +The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.” + +“You see, ” said Aslan. “They will not let us help them. They have chosen +cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in +that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out. But +come, children. I have other work to do.” + +He went to the Door and they all followed him. He raised his head and +roared, “Now it is time!” then louder, “Time!”; then so loud that it could have +shaken the stars, “TIME.” The Door flew open. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +NIGHT FALLS ON NARNIA + +THEY all stood beside Aslan, on his right side, and looked through the open +doorway. + +The bonfire had gone out. On the earth all was blackness: in fact you could +not have told that you were looking into a wood if you had not seen where the +dark shapes of the trees ended and the stars began. But when Aslan had roared +yet again, out on their left they saw another black shape. That is, they saw +another patch where there were no stars: and the patch rose up higher and higher +and became the shape of a man, the hugest of all giants. They all knew Narnia +well enough to work out where he must be standing. He must be on the high +moorlands that stretch away to the North beyond the River Shribble. Then Jill +and Eustace remembered how once long ago, in the deep caves beneath those +moors, they had seen a great giant asleep and been told that his name was Father +Time, and that he would wake on the day the world ended. + +“Yes,” said Aslan, though they had not spoken. “While he lay dreaming his +name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one.” + +Then the great giant raised a horn to his mouth. They could see this by the +change of the black shape he made against the stars. After that - quite a bit later, +because sound travels so slowly - they heard the sound of the horn: high and +terrible, yet of a strange, deadly beauty. + +Immediately the sky became full of shooting stars. Even one shooting star is +a fine thing to see; but these were dozens, and then scores, and then hundreds, +till it was like silver rain: and it went on and on. And when it had gone on for +some while, one or two of them began to think that there was another dark shape +against the sky as well as the giant’s. It was in a different place, right overhead, +up in the very roof of the sky as you might call it. “Perhaps it is a cloud,” +thought Edmund. At any rate, there were no stars there: just blackness. But all +around, the downpour of stars went on. And then the starless patch began to +grow, spreading further and further out from the centre of the sky. And presently +a quarter of the whole sky was black, and then a half, and at last the rain of +shooting stars was going on only low down near the horizon. + +With a thrill of wonder (and there was some terror in it too) they all suddenly +realized what was happening. The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it +was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were +no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home. + + + +The last few seconds before the rain of stars had quite ended were very +exciting. Stars began falling all round them. But stars in that world are not the +great flaming globes they are in ours. They are people (Edmund and Lucy had +once met one). So now they found showers of glittering people, all with long +hair like burning silver and spears like white-hot metal, rushing down to them +out of the black air, swifter than falling stones. They made a hissing noise as +they landed and burnt the grass. And all these stars glided past them and stood +somewhere behind, a little to the right. + +This was a great advantage, because otherwise, now that there were no stars +in the sky, everything would have been completely dark and you could have seen +nothing. As it was, the crowd of stars behind them cast a fierce, white light over +their shoulders. They could see mile upon mile of Narnian woods spread out +before them, looking as if they were floodlit. Every bush and almost every blade +of grass had its black shadow behind it. The edge of every leaf stood out so +sharp that you’d think you could cut your finger on it. + +On the grass before them lay their own shadows. But the great thing was +Aslan’s shadow. It streamed away to their left, enormous and very terrible. And +all this was under a sky that would now be starless forever. + +The light from behind them (and a little to their right) was so strong that it lit +up even the slopes of the Northern Moors. Something was moving there. +Enormous animals were crawling and sliding down into Narnia: great dragons +and giant lizards and featherless birds with wings like bats’ wings. They +disappeared into the woods and for a few minutes there was silence. Then there +came - at first from very far off - sounds of wailing and then, from every +direction, a rustling and a pattering and a sound of wings. It came nearer and +nearer. Soon one could distinguish the scamper of little feet from the padding of +big paws, and the clack-clack of light little hoofs from the thunder of great ones. +And then one could see thousands of pairs of eyes gleaming. And at last, out of +the shadow of the trees, racing up the hill for dear life, by thousands and by +millions, came all kinds of creatures - Talking Beasts, Dwarfs, Satyrs, Fauns, +Giants, Calormenes, men from Archenland, Monopods, and strange unearthly +things from the remote islands of the unknown Western lands. And all these ran +up to the doorway where Aslan stood. + +This part of the adventure was the only one which seemed rather like a +dream at the time and rather hard to remember properly afterwards. Especially, +one couldn’t say how long it had taken. Sometimes it seemed to have lasted only +a few minutes, but at others it felt as if it might have gone on for years. +Obviously, unless either the Door had grown very much larger or the creatures +had suddenly grown as small as gnats, a crowd like that couldn’t ever have tried + + + +to get through it. But no one thought about that sort of thing at the time. + +The creatures came rushing on, their eyes brighter and brighter as they drew +nearer and nearer to the standing Stars. But as they came right up to Aslan one or +other of two things happened to each of them. They all looked straight in his +face, I don’t think they had any choice about that. And when some looked, the +expression of their faces changed terribly - it was fear and hatred: except that, on +the faces of Talking Bears, the fear and hatred lasted only for a fraction of a +second. You could see that they suddenly ceased to the Talking Beasts. They +were just ordinary animals. And all the creatures who looked at Aslan in that +way swerved to their right, his left, and disappeared into his huge black shadow, +which (as you have heard) streamed away to the left of the doorway. The +children never saw them again. I don’t know what became of them. But the +others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were +very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on +Aslan’s right. There were some queer specimens among them. Eustace even +recognized one of those very Dwarfs who had helped to shoot the Horses. But he +had no time to wonder about that sort of thing (and anyway it was no business of +his) for a great joy put everything else out of his head. Among the happy +creatures who now came crowding round Tirian and his friends were all those +whom they had thought dead. There was Roonwit the Centaur and Jewel the +Unicorn and the good Boar and the good Bear, and Farsight the Eagle, and the +dear Dogs and the Horses, and Poggin the Dwarf. + +“Further in and higher up!” cried Roonwit and thundered away in a gallop to +the West. And though they did not understand him, the words somehow set them +tingling all over. The Boar grunted at them cheerfully. The Bear was just going +to mutter that he still didn’t understand, when he caught sight of the fruit-trees +behind them. He waddled to those trees as fast as he could and there, no doubt, +found something he understood very well. But the Dogs remained, wagging their +tails, and Poggin remained, shaking hands with everyone and grinning all over +his honest face. And Jewel leaned his snowy white head over the King’s +shoulder and the King whispered in Jewel’s ear. Then everyone turned his +attention again to what could be seen through the Doorway. + +The Dragons and Giant Lizards now had Narnia to themselves. They went to +and fro tearing up the trees by the roots and crunching them up as if they were +sticks of rhubarb. Minute by minute the forests disappeared. The whole country +became bare and you could see all sorts of things about its shape - all the little +humps and hollows which you had never noticed before. The grass died. Soon +Tirian found that he was looking at a world of bare rock and earth. You could +hardly believe that anything had ever lived there. The monsters themselves grew + + + +old and lay down and died. Their flesh shrivelled up and the bones appeared: +soon they were only huge skeletons that lay here and there on the dead rock, +looking as if they had died thousands of years ago. For a long time everything +was still. + +At last something white - a long, level line of whiteness that gleamed in the +light of the standing stars - came moving towards them from the Eastern end of +the world. + +A widespread noise broke the silence: first a murmur then a rumble, then a +roar. And now they could see what it was that was coming, and how fast it came. +It was a foaming wall of water. The sea was rising. In that tree-less world you +could see it very well. You could see all the rivers getting wider and the lakes +getting larger, and separate lakes joining into one, and valleys turning into new +lakes, and hills turning into islands, and then those islands vanishing. And the +high moors to their left and the higher mountains to their right crumbled and +slipped down with a roar and a splash into the mounting water; and the water +came swirling up to the very threshold of the Doorway (but never passed it) so +that the foam splashed about Aslan’s forefeet. All now was level water from +where they stood to where the waters met the sky. + +And out there it began to grow light. A streak of dreary and disastrous dawn +spread along the horizon, and widened and grew brighter, till in the end they +hardly noticed the light of the stars who stood behind them. At last the sun came +up. When it did, the Lord Digory and the Lady Polly looked at one another and +gave a little nod: those two, in a different world, had once seen a dying sun, and +so they knew at once that this sun also was dying. It was three times - twenty +times - as big as it ought to be, and very dark red. As its rays fell upon the great +Time-giant, he turned red too: and in the reflection of that sun the whole waste of +shoreless waters looked like blood. + +Then the Moon came up, quite in her wrong position, very close to the sun, +and she also looked red. And at the sight of her the sun began shooting out great +flames, like whiskers or snakes of crimson fire, towards her. It is as if he were an +octopus trying to draw her to himself in his tentacles. And perhaps he did draw +her. At any rate she came to him, slowly at first, but then more and more quickly, +till at last his long flames licked round her and the two ran together and became +one huge ball like a burning coal. Great lumps of fire came dropping out of it +into the sea and clouds of steam rose up. + +Then Aslan said, “Now make an end.” + +The giant threw his horn into the sea. Then he stretched out one arm - very +black it looked, and thousands of miles long - across the sky till his hand reached +the Sun. He took the Sun and squeezed it in his hand as you would squeeze an + + + +orange. And instantly there was total darkness. + +Everyone except Aslan jumped back from the ice-cold air which now blew +through the Doorway. Its edges were already covered with icicles. + +“Peter, High King of Narnia,” said Aslan. “Shut the Door.” + +Peter, shivering with cold, leaned out into the darkness and pulled the Door +to. It scraped over ice as he pulled it. Then, rather clumsily (for even in that +moment his hands had gone numb and blue) he took out a golden key and locked +it. + +They had seen strange things enough through that Doorway. But it was +stranger than any of them to look round and find themselves in warm daylight, +the blue sky above them, flowers at their feet, and laughter in Aslan’s eyes. + +He turned swiftly round, crouched lower, lashed himself with his tail and +shot away like a golden arrow. + +“Come further in! Come further up!” he shouted over his shoulder. But who +could keep up with him at that pace? They set out walking Westward to follow +him. + +“So,” said Peter, “night falls on Narnia. What, Lucy! You’re not crying? +With Aslan ahead, and all of us here?” + +“Don’t try to stop me, Peter,” said Lucy, “I am sure Aslan would not. I am +sure it is not wrong to mourn for Narnia. Think of all that lies dead and frozen +behind that door.” + +“Yes and I did hope,” said Jill, “that it might go on for ever. I knew our world +couldn’t. I did think Narnia might.” + +“I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it +die.” + +“Sirs,” said Tirian. “The ladies do well to weep. See, I do so myself. I have +seen my mother’s death. What world but Narnia have I ever known? It were no +virtue, but great discourtesy, if we did not mourn.” + +They walked away from the Door and away from the Dwarfs who still sat +crowded together in their imaginary stable. And as they went they talked to one +another about old wars and old peace and ancient Kings and all the glories of +Narnia. + +The Dogs were still with them. They joined in the conversation but not much +because they were too busy racing on ahead and racing back and rushing off to +sniff at smells in the grass till they made themselves sneeze. Suddenly they +picked up a scent which seemed to excite them very much. They all started +arguing about it - “Yes it is - No it isn’t - That’s just what I said - anyone can +smell what that is - Take your great nose out of the way and let someone else +smell.” + + + +“What is it, cousins?” said Peter. + +“A Calormene, Sire,” said several Dogs at once. + +“Lead on to him, then,” said Peter. “Whether he meets us in peace or war, he +shall be welcome.” + +The Dogs darted on ahead and came back a moment later, running as if their +lives depended on it, and barking loudly to say that it really was a Calormene. +(Talking Dogs, just like the common ones, behave as if they thought whatever +they are doing at the moment immensely important.) + +The others followed where the Dogs led them and found a young Calormene +sitting under a chestnut tree beside a clear stream of water. It was Emeth. He +rose at once and bowed gravely. + +“Sir,” he said to Peter, “I know not whether you are my friend or my foe, but +I should count it my honour to have you for either. Has not one of the poets said +that a noble friend is the best gift and a noble enemy the next best?” + +“Sir,” said Peter, “I do not know that there need be any war between you and + +us.” + +“Do tell us who you are and what’s happened to you,” said Jill. + +“If there’s going to be a story, let’s all have a drink and sit down,” barked the +Dogs. “We’re quite blown.” + +“Well of course you will be if you keep tearing about the way you have +done,” said Eustace. + +So the humans sat down on the grass. And when the Dogs had all had a very +noisy drink out of the stream they all sat down, bolt upright, panting, with their +tongues hanging out of their heads a little on one side to hear the story. But Jewel +remained standing, polishing his horn against his side. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN + +“KNOW, O Warlike Kings,” said Emeth, “and you, O ladies whose beauty +illuminates the universe, that I am Emeth the seventh son of Harpha Tarkaan of +the city of Tehishbaan, Westward beyond the desert. I came lately into Narnia +with nine and twenty others under the command of Rishda Tarkaan Now when I +first heard that we should march upon Narnia I rejoiced; for I had heard many +things of your Land and desired greatly to meet you in battle. But when I found +that we were to go in disguised as merchants (which is a shameful dress for a +warrior and the son of a Tarkaan) and to work by lies and trickery, then my joy +departed from me. And most of all when I found we must wait upon a Monkey, +and when it began to be said that Tash and Aslan were one, then the world +became dark in my eyes. For always since I was a boy I have served Tash and +my great desire was to know more of him, if it might be, to look upon his face. +But the name of Aslan was hateful to me. + +“And, as you have seen, we were called together outside the straw-roofed +hovel, night after night, and the fire was kindled, and the Ape brought forth out +of the hovel something upon four legs that I could not well see. And the people +and the Beasts bowed down and did honour to it. But I thought, the Tarkaan is +deceived by the Ape: for this thing that comes out of the stable is neither Tash +nor any other god. But when I watched the Tarkaan’s face, and marked every +word that he said to the Monkey, then I changed my mind: for I saw that the +Tarkaan did not believe in it himself. And then I understood that he did not +believe in Tash at all: for if he had, how could he dare to mock him? + +“When I understood this, a great rage fell upon me and I wondered that the +true Tash did not strike down both the Monkey and the Tarkaan with fire from +heaven. Nevertheless I hid my anger and held my tongue and waited to see how +it would end. But last night, as some of you know, the Monkey brought not forth +the yellow thing but said that all who desired to look upon Tashlan - for so they +mixed the two words to pretend that they were all one - must pass one by one +into the hovel. And I said to myself, Doubtless this is some other deception. But +when the Cat had followed in and had come out again in a madness of terror, +then I said to myself, Surely the true Tash, whom they called on without +knowledge or belief, has now come among us, and will avenge himself. And +though my heart was turned into water inside me because of the greatness and +terror of Tash, yet my desire was stronger than my fear, and I put force upon my + + + +knees to stay them from trembling, and on my teeth that they should not chatter, +and resolved to look upon the face of Tash though he should slay me. So I +offered myself to go into the hovel; and the Tarkaan, though unwillingly, let me + +go- + +“As soon as I had gone in at the door, the first wonder was that I found +myself in this great sunlight (as we all are now) though the inside of the hovel +had looked dark from outside. But I had no time to marvel at this, for +immediately I was forced to fight for my head against one of our own men. As +soon as I saw him I understood that the Monkey and the Tarkaan had set him +there to slay any who came in if he were not in their secrets: so that this man also +was a liar and a mocker and no true servant of Tash. I had the better will to fight +him; and having slain the villain, I cast him out behind me through the door. + +“Then I looked about me and saw the sky and the wide lands, and smelled +the sweetness. And I said, By the Gods, this is a pleasant place: it may be that I +am come into the country of Tash. And I began to journey into the strange +country and to seek him. + +“So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of +wholesome and delectable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks +there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and +his size was an elephant’s; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his +eyes like gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming +Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as +the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert. Then I fell at his feet and +thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all +honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. +Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world +and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden +head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. +But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, +Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. +Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame +my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the +Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook +(but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are +one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast +done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile +can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if +any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he +has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any + + + +man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash +whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? +I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth +constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the +Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so +long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek. + +“Then he breathed upon me and took away the trembling from my limbs and +caused me to stand upon my feet. And after that, he said not much, but that we +should meet again, and I must go further up and further in. Then he turned him +about in a storm and flurry of gold and was gone suddenly. + +“And since then, O Kings and Ladies, I have been wandering to find him and +my happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound. And this is the +marvel of marvels, that he called me Beloved, me who am but as a dog -“ + +“Eh? What’s that?” said one of the Dogs. + +“Sir,” said Emeth. “It is but a fashion of speech which we have in +Calormen.” + +“Well, I can’t say it’s one I like very much,” said the Dog. + +“He doesn’t mean any harm,” said an older Dog. + +“After all, we call our puppies Boys when they don’t behave properly.” + +“So we do,” said the first Dog. “Or girls.” + +“S-s-sh!” said the Old Dog. “That’s not a nice word to use. Remember where +you are.” + +“Look!” said Jill suddenly. Someone was coming, rather timidly, to meet +them; a graceful creature on four feet, all silvery-grey. And they stared at him for +a whole ten seconds before five or six voices said all at once, “Why, it’s old +Puzzle!” They had never seen him by daylight with the lion-skin off, and it made +an extraordinary difference. He was himself now: a beautiful donkey with such a +soft, grey coat and such a gentle, honest face that if you had seen him you would +have done just what Jill and Lucy did - rushed forward and put your arms round +his neck and kissed his nose and stroked his ears. + +When they asked him where he had been he said he had come in at the door +along with all the other creatures but he had - well, to tell the truth, he had been +keeping out of their way as much as he could; and out of Aslan’s way. For the +sight of the real Lion had made him so ashamed of all that nonsense about +dressing up in a lion-skin that he did not know how to look anyone in the face. +But when he saw that all his friends were going away Westward, and after he +had had a mouthful of grass (’’And I’ve never tasted such good grass in my life,” +said Puzzle), he plucked up his courage and followed. “But what I’ll do if I +really have to meet Aslan, I’m sure I don’t know,” he added. + + + +“You’ll find it will be all right when you really do,” said Queen Lucy. + +Then they went forward together, always Westward, for that seemed to be the +direction Aslan had meant when he cried out, “Further up and futher in.” Many +other creatures were slowly moving the same way, but that grassy country was +very wide and there was no crowding. + +It still seemed to be early, and the morning freshness was in the air. They +kept on stopping to look round and to look behind them, partly because it was so +beautiful but partly also because there was something about it which they could +not understand. + +“Peter,” said Lucy, “where is this, do you suppose?” + +“I don’t know,” said the High King. “It reminds me of somewhere but I can’t +give it a name. Could it be somewhere we once stayed for a holiday when we +were very, very small?” + +“It would have to have been a jolly good holiday,” said Eustace. “I bet there +isn’t a country like this anywhere in our world. Look at the colours! You +couldn’t get a blue like the blue on those mountains in our world.” + +“Is it not Aslan’s country?” said Tirian. + +“Not like Aslan’s country on top of that mountain beyond the Eastern end of +the world,” said Jill. “I’ve been there.” + +“If you ask me,” said Edmund, “it’s like somewhere in the Narnian world. +Look at those mountains ahead - and the big ice-mountains beyond them. Surely +they’re rather like the mountains we used to see from Narnia, the ones up +Westward beyond the Waterfall?” + +“Yes, so they are,” said Peter. “Only these are bigger.” + +“I don’t think those ones are so very like anything in Narnia,” said Lucy. +“But look there.” She pointed Southward to their left, and everyone stopped and +turned to look. “Those hills,” said Lucy, “the nice woody ones and the blue ones +behind - aren’t they very like the Southern border of Narnia?” + +“Like!” cried Edmund after a moment’s silence. “Why, they’re exactly like. +Look, there’s Mount Pire with his forked head, and there’s the pass into +Archenland and everything!” + +“And yet they’re not like,” said Lucy. “They’re different. They have more +colours on them and they look further away than I remembered and they’re more +.. . more ... oh, I don’t know...” + +“More like the real thing,” said the Lord Digory softly. + +Suddenly Farsight the Eagle spread his wings, soared thirty or forty feet up +into the air, circled round and then alighted on the ground. + +“Kings and Queens,” he cried, “we have all been blind. We are only +beginning to see where we are. From up there I have seen it all - Ettinsmuir, + + + +Beaversdam, the Great River, and Cair Paravel still shining on the edge of the +Eastern Sea. Narnia is not dead. This is Narnia.” + +“But how can it be?” said Peter. “For Aslan told us older ones that we should +never return to Narnia, and here we are.” + +“Yes,” said Eustace. “And we saw it all destroyed and the sun put out.” + +“And it’s all so different,” said Lucy. + +“The Eagle is right,” said the Lord Digory. “Listen, Peter. When Aslan said +you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. +But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a +shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been here and always will +be here: just as our world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of +something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of +the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real +Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing +is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.” His voice stirred everyone +like a trumpet as he spoke these words: but when he added under his breath “It’s +all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!” the +older ones laughed. It was so exactly like the sort of thing they had heard him +say long ago in that other world where his beard was grey instead of golden. He +knew why they were laughing and joined in the laugh himself. But very quickly +they all became grave again: for, as you know, there is a kind of happiness and +wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes. + +It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia +as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will +get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which +there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley +that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the +window there may have been a lookingglass. And as you turned away from the +window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the +looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one +sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow +different - deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you +have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old +Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: +every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t +describe it any better than that: if ever you get there you will know what I mean. + +It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped +his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: + +“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the + + + +land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The +reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. +Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!” + +He shook his mane and sprang forward into a great gallop - a Unicorn’s +gallop, which, in our world, would have carried him out of sight in a few +moments. But now a most strange thing happened. Everyone else began to run, +and they found, to their astonishment, that they could keep up with him: not only +the Dogs and the humans but even fat little Puzzle and short-legged Poggin the +Dwarf. The air flew in their faces as if they were driving fast in a car without a +windscreen. The country flew past as if they were seeing it from the windows of +an express train. Faster and faster they raced, but no one got hot or tired or out of +breath. + + + +Narnia 7 - The Last Battle + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +FAREWELL TO SHADOWLANDS + +IF one could run without getting tired, I don’t think one would often want to +do anything else. But there might be special reasons for stopping, and it was a +special reason which made Eustace presently shout: + +“I say! Steady! Look what we’re coming to!” + +And well he might. For now they saw before them Caldron Pool and beyond +the Pool the high unclimbable cliffs and, pouring down the cliffs, thousands of +tons of water every second, flashing like diamonds in some places and dark, +glassy green in others, the Great Waterfall; and already the thunder of it was in +their ears. + +“Don’t stop! Further up and further in,” called Farsight, tilting his flight a +little upwards. + +“It’s all very well for him,” said Eustace, but Jewel also cried out: + +“Don’t stop. Further up and further in! Take it in your stride.” + +His voice could only just be heard above the roar of the water but next +moment everyone saw that he had plunged into the Pool. And helter-skelter +behind him, with splash after splash, all the others did the same. The water was +not biting cold as all of them (and especially Puzzle) expected, but of a delicious +foamy coolness. They all found they were swimming straight for the Waterfall +itself. + +“This is absolutely crazy,” said Eustace to Edmund. + +“I know. And yet said Edmund. + +“Isn’t it wonderful?” said Lucy. “Have you noticed one can’t feel afraid, +even if one wants to? Try it.” + +“By Jove, neither one can,” said Eustace after he had tried. + +Jewel reached the foot of the Waterfall first, but Tirian was only just behind +him. Jill was last, so she could see the whole thing better than the others. She +saw something white moving steadily up the face of the Waterfall. That white +thing was the Unicorn. You couldn’t tell whether he was swimming or climbing, +but he moved on, higher and higher. The point of his horn divided the water just +above his head, and it cascaded out in two rainbow-coloured streams all round +his shoulders. Just behind him came King Tirian. He moved his legs and arms as +if he were swimming but he moved straight upwards: as if one could swim up +the wall of a house. + +What looked funniest was the Dogs. During the gallop they had not been at + + + +all out of breath, but now, as they swarmed and wriggled upwards, there was +plenty of spluttering and sneezing among them; that was because they would +keep on barking, and every time they barked they got their mouths and noses full +of water. But before Jill had time to notice all these things fully, she was going +up the Waterfall herself. It was the sort of thing that would have been quite +impossible in our world. Even if you hadn’t been drowned, you would have been +smashed to pieces by the terrible weight of water against the countless jags of +rock. But in that world you could do it. You went on, up and up, with all kinds of +reflected lights flashing at you from the water and all manner of coloured stones +flashing through it, till it seemed as if you were climbing up light itself - and +always higher and higher till the sense of height would have terrified you if you +could be terrified, but later it was only gloriously exciting. And then at last one +came to the lovely, smooth green curve in which the water poured over the top +and found that one was out on the level river above the Waterfall. The current +was racing away behind you, but you were such a wonderful swimmer that you +could make headway against it. Soon they were all on the bank, dripping +buthappy. + +A long valley opened ahead and great snow-mountains, now much nearer, +stood up against the sky. + +“Further up and further in,” cried Jewel and instantly they were off again. + +They were out of Narnia now and up into the Western Wild which neither +Tirian nor Peter nor even the Eagle had ever seen before. But the Lord Digory +and the Lady Polly had. “Do you remember? Do you remember?” they said - and +said it in steady voices too, without panting, though the whole party was now +running faster than an arrow flies. + +“What, Lord?” said Tirian. “Is it then true, as stories tell, that you two +journeyed here on the very day the world was made?” + +“Yes,” said Digory, “and it seems to me as if it were only yesterday.” + +“And on a flying horse?” asked Tirian. “Is that part true?” + +“Certainly,” said Digory. But the Dogs barked, “Faster, faster!” + +So they ran faster and faster till it was more like flying than running, and +even the Eagle overhead was going no faster than they. And they went through +winding valley after winding valley and up the steep sides of hills and, faster +than ever, down the other side, following the river and sometimes crossing it and +skimming across mountainlakes as if they were living speed-boats, till at last at +the far end of one long lake which looked as blue as a turquoise, they saw a +smooth green hill. Its sides were as steep as the sides of a pyramid and round the +very top of it ran a green wall: but above the wall rose the branches of trees +whose leaves looked like silver and their fruit like gold. + + + +“Further up and further in!” roared the Unicorn, and no one held back. They +charged straight at the foot of the hill and then found themselves running up it +almost as water from a broken wave runs up a rock out at the point of some bay. +Though the slope was nearly as steep as the roof of a house and the grass was +smooth as a bowling green, no one slipped. Only when they had reached the very +top did they slow up; that was because they found themselves facing great +golden gates. And for a moment none of them was bold enough to try if the gates +would open. They all felt just as they had felt about the fruit “Dare we? Is it +right? Can it be meant for us?” + +But while they were standing thus a great horn, wonderfully loud and sweet, +blew from somewhere inside that walled garden and the gates swung open. + +Tirian stood holding his breath and wondering who would come out. And +what came was the last thing he had expected: a little, sleek, bright-eyed Talking +Mouse with a red feather stuck in a circlet on its head and its left paw resting on +a long sword. It bowed, a most beautiful bow, and said in its shrill voice: + +“Welcome, in the Lion’s name. Come further up and further in.” + +Then Tirian saw King Peter and King Edmund and Queen Lucy rush forward +to kneel down and greet the Mouse and they all cried out “Reepicheep!” And +Tirian breathed fast with the sheer wonder of it, for now he knew that he was +looking at one of the great heroes of Narnia, Reepicheep the Mouse who had +fought at the great Battle of Beruna and afterwards sailed to the World’s end +with King Caspian the Seafarer. But before he had had much time to think of this +he felt two strong arms thrown about him and felt a bearded kiss on his cheeks +and heard a well remembered voice saying: + +“What, lad? Art thicker and taller since I last touched thee!” + +It was his own father, the good King Erlian: but not as Tirian had seen him +last when they brought him home pale and wounded from his fight with the +giant, nor even as Tirian remembered him in his later years when he was a grey¬ +headed warrior. This was his father, young and merry, as he could just remember +him from very early days when he himself had been a little boy playing games +with his father in the castle garden at Cair Paravel, just before bedtime on +summer evenings. The very smell of the bread-and-milk he used to have for +supper came back to him. + +Jewel thought to himself, “I will leave them to talk for a little and then I will +go and greet the good King Erlian. Many a bright apple has he given me when I +was but a colt.” But next moment he had something else to think of, for out of +the gateway there came a horse so mighty and noble that even a Unicorn might +feel shy in its presence: a great winged horse. It looked a moment at the Lord +Digory and the Lady Polly and neighed out “What, cousins!” and they both + + + +shouted “Fledge! Good old Fledge!” and rushed to kiss it. + +But by now the Mouse was again urging them to come in. So all of them +passed in through the golden gates, into the delicious smell that blew towards +them out of that garden and into the cool mixture of sunlight and shadow under +the trees, walking on springy turf that was all dotted with white flowers. The +very first thing which struck everyone was that the place was far larger than it +had seemed from outside. But no one had time to think about that for people +were coming up to meet the newcomers from every direction. + +Everyone you had ever heard of (if you knew the history of these countries) +seemed to be there. There was Glimfeather the Owl and Puddleglum the +Marshwiggle, and King Rilian the Disenchanted, and his mother the Star’s +daughter and his great father Caspian himself. And close beside him were the +Lord Drinian and the Lord Berne and Trumpkin the Dwarf and Truffle-hunter the +good Badger with Glenstorm the Centaur and a hundred other heroes of the great +War of Deliverance. And then from another side came Cor the King of +Archenland with King Lune his father and his wife Queen Aravis and the brave +prince Corin Thunder-Fist, his brother, and Bree the Horse and Hwin the Mare. +And then - which was a wonder beyond all wonders to Tirian - there came from +further away in the past, the two good Beavers and Tumnus the Faun. And there +was greeting and kissing and hand-shaking and old jokes revived, (you’ve no +idea how good an old joke sounds when you take it out again after a rest of five +or six hundred years) and the whole company moved forward to the centre of the +orchard where the Phoenix sat in a tree and looked down upon them all, and at +the foot of that tree were two thrones and in those two thrones a King and Queen +so great and beautiful that everyone bowed down before them. And well they +might, for these two were King Frank and Queen Helen from whom all the most +ancient Kings of Narnia and Archenland are descended. And Tirian felt as you +would feel if you were brought before Adam and Eve in all their glory. + +About half an hour later - or it might have been half a hundred years later, for +time there is not like time here - Lucy stood with her dear friend, her oldest +Narnian friend, the Faun Tumnus, looking down over the wall of that garden, +and seeing all Narnia spread out below. But when you looked down you found +that this hill was much higher than you had thought: it sank down with shining +cliffs, thousands of feet below them and trees in that lower world looked no +bigger than grains of green salt. Then she turned inward again and stood with her +back to the wall and looked at the garden. + +“I see,” she said at last, thoughtfully. “I see now. This garden is like the +stable. It is far bigger inside than it was outside.” + +“Of course, Daughter of Eve,” said the Faun. “The further up and the further + + + +in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.” + +Lucy looked hard at the garden and saw that it was not really a garden but a +whole world, with its own rivers and woods and sea and mountains. But they +were not strange: she knew them all. + +“I see,” she said. “This is still Narnia, and more real and more beautiful then +the Narnia down below, just as it was more real and more beautiful than the +Narnia outside the stable door! I see... world within world, Narnia within +Narnia...” + +“Yes,” said Mr Tumnus, “like an onion: except that as you go in and in, each +circle is larger than the last.” + +And Lucy looked this way and that and soon found that a new and beautiful +thing had happened to her. Whatever she looked at, however far away it might +be, once she had fixed her eyes steadily on it, became quite clear and close as if +she were looking through a telescope. She could see the whole Southern desert +and beyond it the great city of Tashbaan: to Eastward she could see Cair Paravel +on the edge of the sea and the very window of the room that had once been her +own. And far out to sea she could discover the islands, islands after islands to the +end of the world, and, beyond the end, the huge mountain which they had called +Aslan’s country. But now she saw that it was part of a great chain of mountains +which ringed round the whole world. In front of her it seemed to come quite +close. Then she looked to her left and saw what she took to be a great bank of +brightly-coloured cloud, cut off from them by a gap. But she looked harder and +saw that it was not a cloud at all but a real land. And when she had fixed her +eyes on one particular spot of it, she at once cried out, “Peter! Edmund! Come +and look! Come quickly.” And they came and looked, for their eyes also had +become like hers. + +“Whys” exclaimed Peter. “It’s England. And that’s the house itself - +Professor Kirk’s old home in the country where all our adventures began!” + +“I thought that house had been destroyed,” said Edmund. + +“So it was,” said the Faun. “But you are now looking at the England within +England, the real England just as this is the real Narnia. And in that inner +England no good thing is destroyed.” + +Suddenly they shifted their eyes to another spot, and then Peter and Edmund +and Lucy gasped with amazement and shouted out and began waving: for there +they saw their own father and mother, waving back at them across the great, +deep valley. It was like when you see people waving at you from the deck of a +big ship when you are waiting on the quay to meet them. + +“How can we get at them?” said Lucy. + +“That is easy,” said Mr Tumnus. “That country and this country - all the real + + + +countries - are only spurs jutting out from the great mountains of Aslan. We have +only to walk along the ridge, upward and inward, till it joins on. And listen! +There is King Frank’s horn: we must all go up.” + +And soon they found themselves all walking together and a great, bright +procession it was - up towards mountains higher than you could see in this world +even if they were there to be seen. But there was no snow on those mountains: +there were forests and green slopes and sweet orchards and flashing waterfalls, +one above the other, going up forever. And the land they were walking on grew +narrower all the time, with a deep valley on each side: and across that valley the +land which was the real England grew nearer and nearer. + +The light ahead was growing stronger. Lucy saw that a great series of many- +coloured cliffs led up in front of them like a giant’s staircase. And then she +forgot everything else, because Aslan himself was coming, leaping down from +cliff to cliff like a living cataract of power and beauty. + +And the very first person whom Aslan called to him was Puzzle the Donkey. +You never saw a donkey look feebler and sillier than Puzzle did as he walked up +to Aslan, and he looked, beside Aslan, as small as a kitten looks beside a St +Bernard. The Lion bowed down his head and whispered something to Puzzle at +which his long ears went down, but then he said something else at which the ears +perked up again. The humans couldn’t hear what he had said either time. Then +Aslan turned to them and said: + +“You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.” + +Lucy said, “We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us +back into our own world so often.” + +“No fear of that,” said Aslan. “Have you not guessed?” + +Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them. + +“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. + +“Your father and mother and all of you are - as you used to +call it in the Shadowlands - dead. The term is over: the +holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the +morning.” + +And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but +the things that began to happen after that were so great and +beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the +end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they +all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the +beginning of the real story. All their life in this world +and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover +and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter + + + +One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which +goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the +one before.