CHAPTER NINE
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ICHS HOUSE AND now of course you want to know what had happeo Edmund. He had eaten his share of the dinner, but he hadnt really e because he was thinking all the time about Turkish Delight - and theres nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food. And he had heard the versation, and hadnt e 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 werent, but he imagi.And then he had listened until Mr Beaver told them about Aslan and until he had heard the whole arra for meeting Aslan at the Stoable. It was then that he began very quietly to edge himself uhe 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 beeing the rhyme about Adams flesh and Adams bone Edmund had been very quietly turning the doorhandle; and just before Mr Beaver had begun telling them that the White Witc<big></big>h wasnt 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 mustnt 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 didnt wao be particularly o them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; but he mao believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldnt 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 isnt true. She was jolly o me, anyway, muicer than they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, shell be better than that awful Aslan!" At least, that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasnt a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really khat the White Witch w?as bad and cruel.
The first thing he realized whe 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 ce of going back to get it now. The hing he realized was that the daylight was almost gone, for it had been nearly three oclock when they sat down to dinner and the winter days were short. He hadnt reed 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 wasnt so slippery sihe snow had fallen) to the far side of the river.
It retty 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 fallerunks, and sliding down steep banks, and barking his shins against rocks, till he was wet and cold and bruised all over.
The silend the loneliness were dreadful. In fact I really think he might have given up the whole plan and gone bad owned up and made friends with the others, if he hadnt happeo say to himself, "When Im King of Narnia the first thing I shall do will be to make some det 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 ema and where the principal railways would run and what laws he would make against beavers and dams and utting the finishing touches to some schemes for keepier in his place, when the weather ged. 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 fusing.
He would never have found his way if the moon hadnt e 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 turo 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 rown with bushes, so that he could not have ma at all in the dark. Even as it was,<u></u> 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 beeers fault.
But at last he came to a part where it was more level and the valley opened out. And there, oher side of the river, quite close to him, in the middle of a little plaiween two hills, he saw what must be the White Witchs House. And the moon was shining brighter thahe 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 dunces caps or sorcerers 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 baow.
He crossed the river on the id walked up to the House. There was nothing stirring; not the slightest sound anywhere. Even his ow made no noise on the deep newly fallen snow. He walked on and on, past er after er of the House, and past turret after turret to find the door. He had to ght 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 ard looked io the courtyard, and there he saw a sight that nearly made his heart stop beating. Just ihe 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 knog 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 dont 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 hadnt 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 couldnt 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 ce 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 lions bad 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, Edmuured to go up to the lion. Even now he hardly dared to touch it, but.. 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 Edmu was so great that in spite of the cold he suddenly got warm all ht 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. Shes caught him already and turned him into stone. So thats the end of all their fine ideas about him! Pooh! Whos afraid of Aslan?”
Aood 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 lions 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, didnt you?" But in spite of the scribbles on it the face of the great sto still looked so terrible, and sad, and aring up in the moonlight, that Edmund didnt 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 stoyrs, and stone wolves, and bears and foxes and cat-amountains of stohere were lovely stone shapes that looked like women but who were really the spirits of trees. There was the great shape of a taur and a winged horse and a long lithe creature that Edmund took to be a dragon. They all looked se standing there perfectly life-like and also perfectly still, in the bright oonlight, 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 fad a shaggy beard and a great club in its right hand. Even though he khat 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 stoeps going up to an open door.
Edmu up them. Across the threshold lay a great wolf.
"Its all right, its all right," he kept saying to himself; "its only a stone wolf. It 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 anbbr></abbr>d said in a growling voice: "Whos there? Whos 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 Im the Son of Adam that Her Majesty met in the wood the other day and Ive e t her the hat my brother and sisters are now in Narnia - quite close, in the Beavers house. She - she wao see them.”
"I will tell Her Majesty," said the Wolf. "Meanwhile, stand still ohreshold, as you value your life." Then it vanished into the house.
Edmund stood and waited, his fingers ag with cold and his heart pounding in his chest, and presently the grey wolf, Maugrim, the Chief of the Witchs Secret Police, came bounding bad said, "e in! e in! Fortunate favourite of the Queen - or else not so fortunate.”
And Edmu 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 he door was a little faun with a very sad expression on its face, and Edmund couldnt help w if this might be Lucys friend. The only light came from a single lamp and close beside this sat the White Witch.
"Im e, your Majesty," said Edmund, rushing eagerly forward.
"How dare you e alone?" said the Wit a terrible voice. "Did I not tell you t the others with you?”
"Please, your Majesty," said Edmund, "Ive dohe best I . Ive brought them quite close. Theyre itle house on top of the dam just up the riverwith Mr and Mrs Beaver.”
A slow cruel smile came over the Witchs 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, Im only repeating what they said," stammered Edmund.
But the Queen, who was no lotending 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.”
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