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ASLAN IS NEARER:
EDMUND meanwhile had been having a most disappointing time. When the dwarf
had gone to get the sledge ready he expected that the Witch would start being
nice to him, as she had been at their last meeting. But she said nothing at all.
And when at last Edmund plucked up his courage to say, "Please, your Majesty,
could I have some Turkish Delight? You - you - said -" she answered, "Silence,
fool!" Then she appeared to change her mind and said, as if to herself, a "And
yet it will not do to have the brat fainting on the way," and once more clapped
her hands. Another, dwarf appeared.
"Bring the human creature food and drink," she said.
The dwarf went away and presently returned bringing an iron bowl with some water
in it and an iron plate with a hunk of dry bread on it. He grinned in a
repulsive manner as he set them down on the floor beside Edmund and said:
"Turkish Delight for the little Prince. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"Take it away," said Edmund sulkily. "I don't want dry bread." But the Witch
suddenly turned on him with such a terrible expression on her face that he,
apologized and began to nibble at the bread, though, it was so stale he could
hardly get it down.
"You may be glad enough of it before you taste bread again," said the Witch.
While he was still chewing away the first dwarf came back and announced that the
sledge was ready. The White Witch rose and went out, ordering Edmund to go with
her. The snow was again falling as they came into the courtyard, but she took no
notice of that and made Edmund sit beside her on the sledge. But before they
drove off she called Maugrim and he came bounding like an enormous dog to the
side of the sledge.
"Take with you the swiftest of your wolves and go at once to the house of the
Beavers," said the Witch, "and kill whatever you find there. If they are already
gone, then make all speed to the Stone Table, but do not be seen. Wait for me
there in hiding. I meanwhile must go many miles to the West before I find a
place where I can drive across the river. You may overtake these humans before
they reach the Stone Table. You will know what to do if you find them!"
"I hear and obey, O Queen," growled the Wolf, and immediately he shot away into
the snow and darkness, as quickly as a horse can gallop. In a few minutes he had
called another wolf and was with him down on the dam sniffing at the Beavers'
house. But of course they found it empty. It would have been a dreadful thing
for the Beavers and the children if the night had remained fine, for the wolves
would then have been able to follow their trail - and ten to one would have
overtaken them before they had got to the cave. But now that the snow had begun
again the scent was cold and even the footprints were covered up.
Meanwhile the dwarf whipped up the reindeer, and the Witch and Edmund drove out
under the archway and on and away into the darkness and the cold. This was a
terrible journey for Edmund, who had no coat. Before they had been going quarter
of an hour all the front of him was covered with snow - he soon stopped trying
to shake it off because, as quickly as he did that, a new lot gathered, and he
was so tired. Soon he was wet to the skin. And oh, how miserable he was! It
didn't look now as if the Witch intended to make him a King. All the things he
had said to make himself believe that she was good and kind and that her side
was really the right side sounded to him silly now. He would have given anything
to meet the others at this moment - even Peter! The only way to comfort himself
now was to try to believe that the whole thing was a dream and that he might
wake up at any moment. And as they went on, hour after hour, it did come to seem
like a dream.
This lasted longer than I could describe even if I wrote pages and pages about
it. But I will skip on to the time when the snow had stopped and the morning had
come and they were racing along in the daylight. And still they went on and on,
with no sound but the everlasting swish of the snow and the creaking of the
reindeer's harness. And then at last the Witch said, "What have we here? Stop!"
and they did.
How Edmund hoped she was going to say something about breakfast! But she had
stopped for quite a different reason. A little way off at the foot of a tree sat
a merry party, a squirrel and his wife with their children and two satyrs and a
dwarf and an old dogfox, all on stools round a table. Edmund couldn't quite see
what they were eating, but it smelled lovely and there seemed to be decorations
of holly and he wasn't at all sure that he didn't see something like a plum
pudding. At the moment when the sledge stopped, the Fox, who was obviously the
oldest person present, had just risen to its feet, holding a glass in its right
paw as if it was going to say something. But when the whole party saw the sledge
stopping and who was in it, all the gaiety went out of their faces. The father
squirrel stopped eating with his fork half-way to his mouth and one of the
satyrs stopped with its fork actually in its mouth, and the baby squirrels
squeaked with terror.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked the Witch Queen. Nobody answered.
"Speak, vermin!" she said again. "Or do you want my dwarf to find you a tongue
with his whip? What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this
selfindulgence? Where did you get all these things?"
"Please, your Majesty," said the Fox, "we were given them. And if I might make
so bold as to drink your Majesty's very good health - "
"Who gave them to you?" said the Witch.
"F-F-F-Father Christmas," stammered the Fox.
"What?" roared the Witch, springing from the sledge and taking a few strides
nearer to the terrified animals. "He has not been here! He cannot have been
here! How dare you - but no. Say you have been lying and you shall even now be
forgiven."
At that moment one of the young squirrels lost its head completely.
"He has - he has - he has!" it squeaked, beating its little spoon on the table.
Edmund saw the Witch bite her lips so that a drop of blood appeared on her white
cheek. Then she raised her wand. "Oh, don't, don't, please don't," shouted
Edmund, but even while he was shouting she had waved her wand and instantly
where the merry party had been there were only statues of creatures (one with
its stone fork fixed forever half-way to its stone mouth) seated round a stone
table on which there were stone plates and a stone plum pudding.
"As for you," said the Witch, giving Edmund a stunning blow on the face as she
re-mounted the sledge, "let that teach you to ask favour for spies and traitors.
Drive on!" And Edmund for the first time in this story felt sorry for someone
besides himself. It seemed so pitiful to think of those little stone figures
sitting there all the silent days and all the dark nights, year after year, till
the moss grew on them and at last even their faces crumbled away.
Now they were steadily racing on again. And soon Edmund noticed that the snow
which splashed against them as they rushed through it was much wetter than it
had been all last night. At the same time he noticed that he was feeling much
less cold. It was also becoming foggy. In fact every minute it grew foggier and
warmer. And the sledge was not running nearly as well as it had been running up
till now. At first he thought this was because the reindeer were tired, but soon
he saw that that couldn't be the real reason. The sledge jerked, and skidded and
kept on jolting as if it had struck against stones. And however the dwarf
whipped the poor reindeer the sledge went slower and slower. There also seemed
to be a curious noise all round them, but the noise of their driving and jolting
and the dwarf's shouting at the reindeer prevented Edmund from hearing what it
was, until suddenly the sledge stuck so fast that it wouldn't go on at all. When
that happened there was a moment's silence. And in that silence Edmund could at
last listen to the other noise properly. A strange, sweet, rustling, chattering
noise - and yet not so strange, for he'd heard it before - if only he could
remember where! Then all at once he did remember. It was the noise of running
water. All round them though out of sight, there were streams, chattering,
murmuring, bubbling, splashing and even (in the distance) roaring. And his heart
gave a great leap (though he hardly knew why) when he realized that the frost
was over. And much nearer there was a drip-drip-drip from the branches of all
the trees. And then, as he looked at one tree he saw a great load of snow slide
off it and for the first time since he had entered Narnia he saw the dark green
of a fir tree. But he hadn't time to listen or watch any longer, for the Witch
said:
"Don't sit staring, fool! Get out and help."
And of course Edmund had to obey. He stepped out into the snow - but it was
really only slush by now - and began helping the dwarf to get the sledge out of
the muddy hole it had got into. They got it out in the end, and by being very
cruel to the reindeer the dwarf managed to get it on the move again, and they
drove a little further. And now the snow was really melting in earnest and
patches of green grass were beginning to appear in every direction. Unless you
have looked at a world of snow as long as Edmund had been looking at it, you
will hardly be able to imagine what a relief those green patches were after the
endless white. Then the sledge stopped again.
"It's no good, your Majesty," said the dwarf. "We can't sledge in this thaw."
"Then we must walk," said the Witch.
"We shall never overtake them walking," growled the dwarf. "Not with the start
they've got."
"Are you my councillor or my slave?" said the Witch. "Do as you're told. Tie the
hands of the human creature behind it and keep hold of the end of the rope. And
take your whip. And cut the harness of the reindeer; they'll find their own way
home."
The dwarf obeyed, and in a few minutes Edmund found himself being forced to walk
as fast as he could with his hands tied behind him. He kept on slipping in the
slush and mud and wet grass, and every time he slipped the dwarf gave him a
curse and sometimes a flick with the whip. The Witch walked behind the dwarf and
kept on saying, "Faster! Faster!"
Every moment the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of spow grew
smaller. Every moment more and more of the trees shook off their robes of snow.
Soon, wherever you looked, instead of white shapes you saw the dark green of
firs or the black prickly branches of bare oaks and beeches and elms. Then the
mist turned from white to gold and presently cleared away altogether. Shafts of
delicious sunlight struck down on to the forest floor and overhead you could see
a blue sky between the tree tops.
Soon there were more wonderful things happening. Coming suddenly round a corner
into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all
directions with little yellow flowers - celandines. The noise of water grew
louder. Presently they actually crossed a stream. Beyond it they found snowdrops
growing.
"Mind your own business!" said the dwarf when he saw that Edmund had turned his
head to look at them; and he gave the rope a vicious jerk.
But of course this didn't prevent Edmund from seeing. Only five minutes later he
noticed a dozen crocuses growing round the foot of an old tree - gold and purple
and white. Then came a sound even more delicious than the sound of the water.
Close beside the path they were following a bird suddenly chirped from the
branch of a tree. It was answered by the chuckle of another bird a little
further off. And then, as if that had been a signal, there was chattering and
chirruping in every direction, and then a moment of full song, and within five
minutes the whole wood was ringing with birds' music, and wherever Edmund's eyes
turned he saw birds alighting on branches, or sailing overhead or chasing one
another or having their little quarrels or tidying up their feathers with their
beaks.
"Faster! Faster!" said the Witch.
There was no trace of the fog now. The sky became bluer and bluer, and now there
were white clouds hurrying across it from time to time. In the wide glades there
were primroses. A light breeze sprang up which scattered drops of moisture from
the swaying branches and carried cool, delicious scents against the faces of the
travellers. The trees began to come fully alive. The larches and birches were
covered with green, the laburnums with gold. Soon the beech trees had put forth
their delicate, transparent leaves. As the travellers walked under them the
light also became green. A bee buzzed across their path.
"This is no thaw," said the dwarf, suddenly stopping. "This is Spring. What are
we to do? Your winter has been destroyed, I tell you! This is Aslan's doing."
"If either of you mention that name again," said the Witch, "he shall instantly
be killed."
