CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN "KNOW, O Warlike Kings," said Emeth, "and you, O ladies whose beauty illumihe universe, that I am Emeth the seventh son of Harpha Tarkaan of the city of Tehishbaaward beyond the desert. I came lately into Narnia with nine and twenty others uhe and of Rishda Tarkaan Now when I first heard that we should march upon Narnia I rejoiced; for I had heard many things of your Land and desired greatly to meet you in battle. But when I found that we were to go in disguised as merts (which is a shameful dress for a warrior and the son of a Tarkaan) and to work by lies and trickery, then my joy departed from me. And most of all when I found we must wait upon a Monkey, and when it began to be said that Tash and Aslan were ohen the world became dark in my eyes. For always since I was a boy I have served Tash and my great desire was to know more of him, if it might be, to look upon his face. But the name of Aslan was hateful to me."And, as you have seen, we were called together outside the straw-roofed hovel, night after night, and the fire was kindled, and the Ape brought forth out of the hovel something upon fs that I could not well see. And the people and the Beasts bowed down and did honour to it. But I thought, the Tarkaan is deceived by the Ape: for this thing that es out of the stable is her Tash nor any od. But when I watched the Tarkaans face, and marked every word that he said to the Mohen I ged my mind: for I saw that the Tarkaan did not believe in it himself. And then I uood that he did not believe in Tash at all: for if he had, how could he dare to mock him?
"When I uood this, a great rage fell upon me and I wohat the true Tash did not strike down both the Monkey and the Tarkaan with fire from heaven. heless I hid my anger and held my tongue and waited to see how it would end. But last night, as some of you know, the Monkey brought not forth the yellow thing but said that all who desired to look upon Tashlan - for so they mixed the two words to pretend that they were all one - must pass one by oo the hovel. And I said to myself, Doubtless this is some other deception. But whe had followed in and had e out again in a madness of terror, then I said to myself, Surely the true Tash, whom they called on without knowledge or belief, has now e among us, and will avenge himself. And though my heart was turned into water inside me because of the greatness and terror of Tash, yet my desire was strohan my fear, and I put for?ce upon my ko stay them from trembling, and on my teeth that they should not chatter, and resolved to look upon the face of Tash though he should slay me. So I offered myself to go into the hovel; and the Tarkaan, though unwillingly, let me go.
"As soon as I had gone in at the door, the first wonder was that I found myself in this great sunlight (as we all are now) though the inside of the hovel had looked dark from outside. But I had no time to marvel at this, for immediately I was forced to fight for my head against one of our own men. As soon as I saw him I uood that the Monkey and the Tarkaan had set him there to slay any who came in if he were not in their secrets: so that this man also was a liar and a mocker and no true servant of Tash. I had the better will to fight him; and having slain the villain, I cast him out behihrough the door.
"Then I looked about me and saw the sky and the wide lands, and smelled the sweetness.
And I said, By the Gods, this is a pleasant place: it may be that I am e into the try of Tash. And I began to journey into the strange try and to seek him.
"So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of wholesome aable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and his size was an elephants; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his eyes like gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and iy he surpassed abbr></abbr>ll that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. heless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen
him. But the Glorious O down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art wele. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thi the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast doo Tash, I at as service doo me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and uanding, I overcame my fear and questiohe Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are ohe Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast doo him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile be doo me, and none which is not vile be doo him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oaths sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my hen, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou uand, Child? I said, Lord, thou k how much I uand. But I said also (for the truth strained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, uhy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly.
For all find what they truly seek.
"Then he breathed upon me and took away the trembling from my limbs and caused me to stand upon my feet. And after that, he said not much, but that we should meet again, and I must go further up and further in. Theurned him about in a storm and flurry of gold and was gone suddenly.
"And sihen, O Kings and Ladies, I have been wandering to find him and my happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound. And this is the marvel of marvels, that he called me Beloved, me who am but as a dog -”
"Eh? Whats that?" said one of the Dogs.
"Sir," said Emeth. "It is but a fashion of speech which we have in en.”
"Well, I t say its one I like very much," said the Dog.
"He doesnt mean any harm," said an .
"After all, we call our puppies Boys when they dont behave properly.”
"So we do," said the first Dog. &quirls.”
"S-s-sh!" said the Old Dog. "Thats not a nice word to use. Remember where you are.”
"Look!" said Jill suddenly. Someone was ing, rather timidly, to meet them; a graceful creature on four feet, all silvery-grey. And they stared at him for a whole ten seds before five or six voices said all at once, "Why, its old Puzzle!" They had never seen him by daylight with the lion-skin off, and it made araordinary difference. He was himself now: a beautiful donkey with such a soft, grey coat and such a gentle, ho face
that if you had seen him you would have done just what Jill and Lucy did - rushed forward and put your arms round his ned kissed his nose and stroked his ears.
When they asked him where he had been he said he had e in at the door along with all the other creatures but he had - well, to tell the truth, he had been keeping out of their way as much as he could; and out of Aslans way. For the sight of the real Lion had made him so ashamed of all that nonsense about dressing up in a lion-skin that he did not know how to look anyone in the face. But when he saw that all his friends were going aard, and after he had had a mouthful of grass ("And Ive asted such good grass in my life," said Puzzle), he plucked up his ce and followed. "But what Ill do if I really have to meet Aslan, Im sure I dont know," he added.
"Youll find it will be all right when you really do," said Queen Lucy.
Then they went forward together, always Westward, for that seemed to be the dire Aslan had meant when he cried out, "Further up and futher in." Many other creatures were slowly moving the same way, but that grassy try was very wide and there was no crowding.
It still seemed to be early, and the m freshness was in the air. They kept on stopping to look round and to look behind them, partly because it was so beautiful but partly also because there was something about it which they could not uand.
"Peter," said Lucy, "where is this, do you suppose?”
"I dont know," said the High King. "It reminds me of somewhere but I t give it a name. Could it be somewhere we oayed for a holiday when we were very, very small?”
"It would have to have been a jolly good holiday," said Eustace. "I bet there isnt a try like this anywhere in our world. Look at the colours! You couldnt get a blue like the blue on those mountains in our world.”
"Is it not Aslans try?" said Tirian.
"Not like Aslans try on top of that mountain beyond the Eastern end of the world,”
said Jill. "Ive been there.”
"If you ask me," said Edmund, "its like somewhere in the Narnian world. Look at those mountains ahead - and the big ice-mountains beyond them. Surely theyre rather like the mountains we used to see from Narnia, the ones up Westward beyond the Waterfall?”
"Yes, so they are," said Peter. "Only these are bigger.”
"I dont think those ones are so very like anything in Narnia," said Lucy. "But look there.”
She pointed Southward to their left, and everyoopped and turo look. "Those
hills," said Lucy, "the nice woody ones and the blue ones behind - arent they very like the Southern border of Narnia?”
"Like!" cried Edmund after a moments silence. "Why, theyre exactly like. Look, theres Mount Pire with his forked head, and theres the pass into Arland and everything!”
"Aheyre not like," said Lucy. "Theyre different. They have more colours on them and they look further away than I remembered and theyre more .. . more . . . oh, I dont know...”
"More like the real thing," said the Lord Digory softly.
Suddenly Farsight the Eagle spread his wings, soared thirty or forty feet up into the air, circled round and then alighted on the ground.
"Kings and Queens," he cried, "we have all been blind. We are only beginning to see where we are. From up there I have seen it all - Ettinsmuir, Beaversdam, the Great River, and Cair Paravel still shining on the edge of the Eastern Sea. Narnia is not dead. This is Narnia.”
"But how it be?" said Peter. "For Aslan told us older ohat we should never return to Narnia, and here we are.”
"Yes," said Eustace. "And we saw it all destroyed and the sun put out.”
"And its all so different," said Lucy.
"The Eagle is right," said the Lord Digory. "Listeer. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been here and always will be here: just as our world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslans real world. You need not mourn over Nar<mark>.９９lｉb?</mark>nia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream." His voice stirred everyone like a trumpet as he spoke these words: but when he added under his breath "Its all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!" the older ones laughed. It was so exactly like the sort of thing they had heard him say long ago in that other world where his beard was grey instead of golden. He knew why they were laughing and joined in the laugh himself. But very quickly they all became grave again: for, as you know, there is a kind of happiness and wohat makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.
It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that try taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that
looked out on a lovely bay of the sea reen valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a lookingglass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all ain, in the looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different - deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper try: every rod flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I t describe it aer than that: if ever you get there you will know what I mean.
It was the Uni who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: "I have e home at last! This is my real try! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never k till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee- hee! e further up, e further in!”
He shook his mane and sprang forward into a great gallop - a Unis gallop, which, in our world, would have carried him out of sight in a few moments. But now a most strahing happened. Everyone else began to run, and they found, to their astonishment, that they could keep up with him: not only the Dogs and the humans but even fat little Puzzle and short-legged Poggin the Dwarf. The air flew in their faces as if they were driving fast in a car without a winds. The try flew past as if they were seeing it from the windows of an express train. Faster and faster they raced, but no o hot or tired or out of breath.
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