ONKYO SONY YAMAHA + FiiO BTR1

[zmaxxx]

CHAPTER EIGHT


WHAT HAPPENED AFTER DINNER



"AND now," said Lucy, "do please tell us what's happened to Mr Tuinnus."

"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 -1 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 Tuinnus."


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 Namia 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

[zmaxxx]

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 Namia 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 Namia - 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 lingers 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 Wolfs 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."

[zmaxxx]

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 ha nk 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 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 is already crumbling."

"What do you mean, Mr Beaver?" panted Peter as they all scrambled up the steep ha nk 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 Namia, 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 thi nk -1 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."

[zmaxxx]

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 hu nk 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 wanner. 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 dwarfs 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 comer 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."

[zmaxxx]

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 fann 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 Namia 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-bom 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
kn ocked 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 Namia 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 Wolfs 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."

[zmaxxx]

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 -1 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 Namia, 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 -1 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.

[zmaxxx]

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 thi nk 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 ann 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 anns 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.

[zmaxxx]

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
kn ots.

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 ah gnawed through.

The sky in the east was whitish by now and the stars were getting fainter - ah except one
very big one low down on the eastern horizon. They felt colder than they had been ah
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
ah 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 ah 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 wann; 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 Namia; 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.

[zmaxxx]

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’11 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 Namia. 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 Namia 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.

[zmaxxx]

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. Lor 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 Turnnus 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 Namia 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 Namia 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 Namia, 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.

===============
End of book one - THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

[biscuit]

konečně tu jsou příspěvky, který maj hlavu a patu!

[corona19 microb]

Tak fain sice to nesouvisí ani s biscuitem... a jeho úchylnýma článkama..., i když mi zvýšil sledovanost ani s muzikou... aleeee
Tak je to zajímavý.... za celi cem platil minulej rok 4200,- "Direct" povinný vč pojištěných skel 5000,- cca to stačí ujela asi ani ne 2000km
Ale jako sem si řikal jestli jako když je jí 30... a víc... vlastně sem přeplatil za 1/2 roku tak jako jestli je tam napadne něco.... no očividně ne
Přišel mail.... 4800,- prej se zdražily byty... a všechno No tak to si děláš asi prdel ne
Co jemi kurfa do toho že se všechno zdražilo.... nic... kurfa...
Tak tam volám a svlečně vysvětluju, že se mi za A nelíbí to zdražení a za B: bych chtěl "tak trochu jinou kalkulaci" ne chci mít stejný značky a chci si nechat techničák, nechci to převádět na veterána... ty poplatky vyjdou na stejno jako když se zajede na stk.... podivejte se svlečno, pojištovny některý tohle umožňujou... protože je to fér... jáááá neviiim teď tu neni žádnej odborník, že by Vám udělal special kalkulaci.... tak joooo ať zavolá zejtra po 10 kdykoliv... tak sem zvědvej jestli Direct má i něco pro auta po 30tce co ale nechtěj mít veteránský značky----
něco fér.... No ty pojišťovny se nepřetrhnou u pojišťování veteránů.... to ne... navíc když jsou 2 možnosti.... já prostě nechci mít veteran značky a srát se s tim... chci si nechat svý.... 1AL 77-28 pak by totiž auto přišlo o origo techničák... a všechno má svojí cenu...
Prdel je byla, že auto bylo vyrobený 10/89 ofiko, aleeee na techničáku je 1990.... tak sem si počkal radši....
Ale jo jen sem doufal naivně... že automat co píše ty dopisy si uvědomí že celice je přes 30 let... nene... 4.200 4.800 si děláš asi prtel---- člověk musí zvednout telefon...
Mimochodem AXA zdražila u Subaru XV kde jsou okna na 10.000,- + střet zvěř o 100,- což je fér.... cena 4.900,- celica fakt nebude cálovat to samý a bez zvěře... do ní se investuje jinak... To byl vtipnej pokus...
U Directu to má výhodu, stačí jim říct "jděte do prdele"... po telefonu a tim to končí Smlouva... A nebo tam něco pro mě najdou noooo to sem zvědavej...

[biscuit]

Bašta z točeňáku

Ingredience:
300 g tvrdý sýr
2 ks vejce
3/4 kg točený salám
4 ks cibule

podle chuti
mletý pepř
plnotučná hořčice

podle potřeby
sádlo

Postup přípravy
Točený salám nakrájíme na kolečka, cibuli na půlkolečka a sýr nastrouháme na hrubém struhadle. Ohnivzdornou misku vymažeme sádlem (pokud máte točený se špekem, vymazávat nemusíte).
Do misky pokládáme na kolečka nakrájený točený, pomažeme hořčicí, poklademe půlkolečky cibule, posypeme sýrem a lehce opepříme a opět poklademe kolečky točeného. Uděláme takto asi tři vrstvy (podle prostoru a surovin). Rozkvedláme vajíčka a nalijeme na připravenou baštu. Přiklopíme a dáme zapékat na 180 - 190 °C tak na 60 - 70 minut.
Baštu z točeňáku podáváme s bramborem nebo jen tak s chlebem.

[corona19 microb]

Biscuit: na to nemam čas i když asi to bude chutnat.... všechno bude chutnat než nás Corona sežere Děti to prej nežere, jen to pak stříkaj... kejchaj na ostatní... děti jsou jen distributoři coronaviru Dealeři... proto zavíraj školy a školky... ne kvůli harantům... ale protože to jsou dealeři roznašeči.... Corona Viru.... zasraný mrňavý šmejdi těžko se u nich dá otestovat jestli to maj nebo nemaj... ale pšíkaj to dál sami to namaj... ale jen to roznášej.... takže bacha na malý kejchací a pšíkací šmejdy

No mě tak napadlo že bych si moh udělat třeba třetí existenci tady... a jako fungovat úplně nenápadně Top secreto.... jako bych se ptal lidí na píčoviny a tak... Zahrát si na amatéra... co nic nepotřebuje... ale jen bude otravovat lidi... dost divný coooo? No proč ne
Co bych z toho měl? prdel... prdel bych z toho měl.... ten co bude psát tak má prdel ze mě ale netuší že já si dělám prdel z něj Takovej to bude retardo...
šéfe hlavně, že tu jsme všichni ingonginto
Vymyslim si auto... co nemam a budu otravovat Ale joooo to bude dobrá prdel.... pro mě...

[corona19 microb]

a něco si k tmu pustíme než se někdo nachytá https://graalradio.com:8128/sensual160
I like it...

No tak když někdo jako admin se snaží mi rozesrat moje... budu si tu dělat prdel... pak jim to řeknu že to byla jen prdel...