CHAPTER TWELVE
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SORCERY AND SUDDEN VENGEANCE MEANWHILE Trumpkin and the two boys arrived at the dark little stone archway which led into the inside of the Mound, and two sentinel badgers (the white patches on their cheeks were all Edmund could see of them) leaped up with bared teeth and asked them in snarling voices, "Who goes there?”"Trumpkin," said the Dwarf. &quing the High King of Narnia out of the far past.”
The badgers the boys hands. "At last," they said. "At last.”
"Give us a light, friends," said Trumpkin.
The badgers found a torch just ihe ard Peter lit it and handed it to Trumpkin.
"The D.L.F. had better lead," he said. "We dont know our way about this place.”
Trumpkin took the tord went ahead into the dark tunnel. It was a cold, black, musty place, with an occasional bat fluttering iorchlight, and plenty of cobwebs. The boys, who had been mostly in the open air sihat m at the railway statio as if they were going into a trap or a prison.
"I say, Peter," whispered Edmund. "Look at those carvings on the walls. Dont they look old? A were older than that. When we were last here, they hadnt been madaid Trumpkin.)
"To speak plainly," said Nikabrik, "your wallets empty, ys addled, your fish uncaught, your promises broken. Stand aside then ahers work. And that is why -”
"The help will e," said Trufflehunter. "I stand by Aslan. Have patience, like us beasts. The help will e. It may be even now at the door.”
"Pah!" sp://?９９lｉb?d Nikabrik. "You badgers would have us wait till the sky falls and we all catch larks. I tell you we t wait. Food is running short; we lose more than we afford at every enter; our followers are slipping away.”
"And why?" asked Trufflehunter. "Ill tell you why. Because it is noised among them that we have called on the Kings of old and the Kings of old have not answered. The last words Trumpkin spoke before he went (a, most likely, to his death) were, `If you must blow the Horn, do not let the army know why you blow it or what you hope from it. But that same evening everyone seemed to know.”
"Youd better have shoved yrey snout in a hors , Badger, than suggest that I am the blab," said Nikabrik. "Take it back, or-”
"Oh, stop it, both of you," said King Caspian. "I want to know what it is that Nikabrik keeps on hinting we should do. But before that, I want to know who those twers
are whom he has brought into our cil and who stand there with their ears open and their mouths shut.”
"They are friends of mine," said Nikabrik. "And what better right have you yourself to be here than that you are a friend of Trumpkins and the Badgers? And what right has that old dotard in the black gown to be here except that he is your friend? Why am I to be the only one who t bring in his friends?”
"His Majesty is the King to whom you have sworn allegiance," said Trufflehuernly.
"Court manners, court manners," sneered Nikabrik. "But in this hole we may talk plainly.
You know - and he knows that this Telmarine boy will be king of nowhere and nobody in a week unless we help him out of the trap in which he sits.”
"Perhaps," said elius, "your new friends would like to speak for themselves? You there, who and what are you?”
"Worshipful Master Doctor," came a thin, whining voice. "So please you, Im only a poor old woman, I am, and very obliged to his Worshipful Dwarfship for his friendship, Im sure. His Majesty, bless his handsome face, has o be afraid of an old woman thats nearly doubled up with the rheumatid hasnt two sticks to put under her kettle.
I have so<q></q>me poor little skill - not like yours, Master Doctor, of course - in small spells and trips that Id be glad to use against our enemies if it was agreeable to all ed. For I hate em. Oh yes. No oes better than me.”
"That is all most iing and - er - satisfactory," said Doctor Corbbr>.99liｂ.</abbr>nelius. "I think I now know what you are, Madam. Perhaps your other friend, Nikabrik, would give some at of himself?”
A dull, grey voice at which Peters flesh crept replied, "Im hunger. Im thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must y mouthful from my enemys body and bury it with me. I fast a hundred years and not die. I lie a hundred nights on the id not freeze. I drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.”
"And it is in the presence of these two that you wish to disclose your plan?" said Caspian.
"Yes," said Nikabrik. "And by their help that I mean to execute it.”
There was a minute or tw which Trumpkin and the boys could hear Caspian and his two friends speaking in low voices but could not make out what they were saying.
Then Caspian spoke aloud.
"Well, Nikabrik," he said, "we will hear your plan.”
There ause so long that the boys began to wonder if Nikabrik was ever going to begin; when he did, it was in a lower voice, as if he himself did not much like what he was saying.
"All said and done," he muttered, "none of us knows the truth about the a days in Narnia. Trumpkin believed none of the stories. I was ready to put them to the trial. We tried first the Horn and it has failed. If there ever was a High Kier and a Queen Susan and a King Edmund and a Queen Lucy, theher they have not heard us, or they ot e, or they are our enemies -”
"Or they are on the way," put in Trufflehunter.
"You go on saying that till Miraz has fed us all to his dogs. As I was saying, we have tried one link in the of old legends, and it has done us no good. Well. But when your sword breaks, you draw yger. The stories tell of other powers beside the a Kings and Queens. How if we could call them up?”
"If you mean Aslan," said Trufflehunter, "its all one calling on him and on the Kings.
They were his servants. If he will not send them (but I make no doubt he will), is he more likely to e himself?”
"No. Youre right there," said Nikabrik. "Aslan and the Kings go together. Either Aslan is dead, or he is not on our side. Or else something strohan himself keeps him back.
And if he did e - how do we know hed be our friend? He was not always a good friend to Dwarfs by all thats told. Not even to all beasts. Ask the Wolves. And anyway, he was in Narnia only ohat I ever heard of, and he didnt stay long. You may drop Aslan out of the reing. I was thinking of someone else.”
There was no answer, and for a few mi was so still that Edmund could hear the wheezy and snuffling breath of the Badger.
"Who do you mean?" said Caspian at last.
"I mean a power so much greater than Aslans that it held Narnia spellbound for years and years, if the stories are true.”
"The White Witch!" cried three voices all at once, and from the er guessed that three people had leaped to their feet.
"Yes," said Nikabrik very slowly and distinctly, "I meach. Sit down again. Dont all take fright at a name as if you were children. ower: and we want a power that will be on our side. As for power, do not the stories say that the Witch defeated Aslan, and bound him, and killed him on that very stone which is over there, just beyond the light?”
"But they also say that he came to life again," said the Badger sharply.
"Yes, they say," answered Nikabrik, "but youll notice that we hear precious little about anything he did afterwards. He just fades out of the story. How do you explain that, if he really came to life? Isnt it much more likely that he didnt, and that the stories say nothing more about him because there was nothing more to say?”
"He established the Kings and Queens," said Caspian.
"A King who has just won a great battle usually establish himself without the help of a perf lion," said Nikabrik. There was a fierce growl, probably from Trufflehunter.
"And anyway," Nikabrik tinued, "what came of the Kings and their reign? They faded too. But its very different with the Witch. They say she ruled for a hundred years: a hundred years of wiheres power, if you like. Theres something practical.”
"But, heaven ah!" said the King, "havent we always been told that she was the worst enemy of all? Wasnt she a tyraimes worse than Miraz?”
"Perhaps," said Nikabrik in a cold voice. "Perhaps she was for you humans, if there were any of you in those days. Perhaps she was for some of the beasts. She stamped out the Beavers, I dare say; at least there are none of them in Narnia now. But she got on all right with us Dwarfs. Im a Dwarf and I stand by my own people. Were not afraid of the Witch.”
"But youve joined with us," said Trufflehunter.
"Yes, and a lot of good it has done my people, so far," snapped Nikabrik. "Who is sent on all the dangerous !, raids? The Dwarfs. Who goes short wheions fail? The Dwarfs. Who -?”
"Lies! All lies!" said the Badger.
"And so," said Nikabrik, whose voiow rose to a scream, "if you t help my people, Ill go to someone who .”
"Is this open treason, Dwarf?" asked the King.
"Put that sword ba its sheath, Caspian," said Nikabrik. "Murder at cil, eh? Is that yame? Dont be fool enough to try it. Do you think Im afraid of you? Theres three on my side, and three on yours.”
"e on, then," srufflehunter, but he was immediately interrupted.
"Stop, stop, stop," said Doctor elius. "You go on too fast. The Witch is dead. All the stories agree on that. What does Nikabrik mean by calling och?”
That grey and terrible voice which had spoken only once before said, "Oh, is she?”
And then the shrill, whining voice began, "Oh, bless his heart, his dear little Majesty mind about the White Lady - thats what we call her - being dead. The Worshipful Master Doctor is only making game of a poor old woman like me when he says that.
Sweet Mastery Doctor, learned Master Doctor, who ever heard of a witch that really died? You always get them back.”
"Call her up," said the grey voice. "We are all ready. Draw the circle. Prepare the blue fire.”
Above the steadily increasing growl of the Badger and eliuss sharp "What?" rose the voice of King Caspian like thunder.
"So that is your plan, Nikabrik! Black sorcery and the calling up of an accursed ghost.
And I see who your panions are-a Hag and a Werewolf!”
The minute or so was very fused. There was an animal r, a clash of steel; the boys and Trumpkin rushed ier had a glimpse of a horrible, grey, gaunt creature, half man and half wolf, in the very act of leaping upon a boy about his own age, and Edmund saw a badger and a Dwarf rolling on the floor in a sort of cat fight. Trumpkin found himself face to face with the Hag. Her nose and stuck out like a pair of nut-crackers, her dirty grey hair was flying about her fad she had just got Doctor elius by the throat. At one slash of Trumpkins sword her head rolled on the floor.
Then the light was knocked over and it was all swords, teeth, claws, fists, and boots for about sixty seds. Then silence.
"Are you all right, Ed?”
"I - I think so," panted Edmund. "Ive got that brute Nikabrik, but hes still alive.”
"Weights and water-bottles!" came an angry voice. "Its me youre sitting o off.
Youre like a young elephant.”
"Sorry, D.L.F.," said Edmund. "Is that better?”
"Ow! No!" bellowed Trumpkin. "Youre putting your boot in my mouth. Go away." ` "Is King Caspian anywhere?" asked Peter.
"Im here," said a rather faint voice. "Something bit me.”
They all heard the noise of someoriking a match. It was Edmund. The little flame showed his face, looking pale and dirty. He blundered about for a little, found the dle (they were no longer using the lamp, for they had run out of oil), set it oable, and lit
it. When the flame rose clear, several people scrambled to their feet. Six faces bli one another in the dlelight.
"We doo have any enemies left," said Peter. "Theres the Hag, dead." (He turned his eyes quickly away from her.) "And Nikabrik, dead too. And I suppose this thing is a Werewolf. Its so long since Ive seen one. Wolfs head and mans body. That means he was just turning from man into wolf at the moment he was killed. And you, I suppose, are King Caspian?”
"Yes," said the other boy. "But Ive no idea who you are.”
"Its the High King, Kier," said Trumpkin.
"Your Majesty is very wele," said Caspian.
"And so is your Majesty," said Peter. "I havent e to take your place, you know, but to put you into it." , "Your Majesty," said another voice at Peters elbow. He turned and found himself face to face with the Badger.
Peter leaned forward, put his arms round the beast and kissed the furry head: it wasnt a girlish thing for him to do, because he was the High King.
"Best of badgers," he said. "You never doubted us all through.”
"No credit to me, your Majesty," said Trufflehunter. "1m a beast and we dont ge.
Im a badger, whats more, and we hold on.”
"I am sorry for Nikabrik," said Caspian, "though he hated me from the first moment he saw me. He had gone sour inside from long suffering and hating. If we had won quickly he might have bee a good Dwarf in the days of peace. I dont know which of us killed him. Im glad of that.”
"Youre bleeding," said Peter.
"Yes, Im bitten," said Caspian. "It was that - that wolf thing." ing and bandaging the wound took a long time, and when it was dorumpkin said, "Now. Before everything else we want some breakfast.”
"But not here," said Peter.
"No," said Caspian with a shudder. "And we must send someoo take away the bodies.”
"Let the vermin be flung into a pit," said Peter. "But the Dwarf we will give to his people to be buried in their own fashion.”
They breakfasted at last in another of the dark cellars of Aslans How. It was not such a breakfast as they would have chosen, for Caspian and elius were thinking of venison pasties, aer and Edmund of buttered eggs and hot coffee, but what everyo was a little bit of cold bear-meat (out of the boys pockets), a lump of hard cheese, an onion, and a mug of water. But, from the way they fell to, anyone would have supposed it was delicious.
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