Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Higher and Deeper Road

"Warrior kings," said Imes, "ladies whose beauty shines on the universe, I tell you that I am Imes, the first son of 'Tekan' Hapan of the city of Tishishban in the west of the Great Desert. Seven generations of descendants. I was the last to enter Narnia with twenty-nine Calormene soldiers under the command of Rishda the 'Tycan'. Said I was glad when I first heard that I was going to Narnia Yes, for I have heard much of your lands, and would have liked to have fought you in battle. But when I found we were going disguised as merchants (to a warrior, a son of 'Tykhan' , it's a disgrace to wear a merchant's clothes) and work on lies and scheming, the joy left me. Most annoying of all, I found we had to serve an ape and started talking about Tash and Aspen When Lan is two in one, the world becomes dark to my eyes. Because, since my childhood, I have always believed in the god Tash, and it is one of my great wishes to know more about Tash. Do, see God Tash face to face if possible. But Aslan's name loathes me.

"You've seen, night after night, we're all summoned outside that thatched hut, and a bonfire is lit. The ape leads out of the hut a four-legged thing that I can't see very well. Men and beasts alike bowed to it. But I thought the 'Tykhan' was tricked by the ape. For this thing that was brought out of the stable was neither Tash nor any other god. But when I looked carefully' When I looked at the face of Taycan, and watched every word he said to the monkey, my mind changed: for I saw that Taycan himself did not believe what he said. Then I understood: He didn't believe in Tash at all, because if he did, how could he have the audacity to mock Tash?

"When I knew this, I was furious, and I wondered why the real Tash didn't strike the apes and the 'Tykhan' with fire from heaven? Yet, I hid my anger, and kept silent, waiting Let's see how this thing ends. However, last night, as some of you also know, the monkey didn't lead the yellow thing out of the stable, but said that anyone who wanted to see Tashlan—they put two names on purpose Blend into one name, pretend the two are one - have to go to the stables one by one.So I said to myself, no doubt, this is another hoax.But when the cat went into the stable and came out again in a frenzy of terror, I said to myself now, the real Tash must be among us, and they call on Tash, but God Tash is ignorant or has no belief, and God Tash will avenge himself.Although my heart has been overwhelmed by the greatness and terror of Tash God, my desire is stronger than my fear. I try to restrain the shaking of my knees and the chattering of my teeth, and I am determined to see Tash's face face, though Tash would kill me.So of my own accord I begged to go into the thatched hut; and Taikan, though unwilling, had to let me in.

"As soon as I walked through the door, the first miracle I found myself in was this great sunshine (as we all are now), and although the thatched hut looked dark from the outside, I had no time to Surprised, because I was immediately forced to fight our own for the sake of my own head. As soon as I saw him, I understood that the monkey and the 'Taikan' had put him there to kill anyone who was not involved in the process. Kill the man who breaks into the shed: so he too is a liar and mocker, not a faithful servant of Tash. I resolved to fight him; Throw it out. "Then I looked around, and I saw the sky and the vast land, and smelt a fragrance. Then I said, Gods behold, this is a good place: perhaps I have entered the land of Tash. So I began in Roam in this strange land, looking for the god Tash.

So I walked through many meadows and many flowers, and wandered among all kinds of strong and pleasant trees, and lo! at last in the narrow path between two large rocks, I met a lion of great size, who moved as swiftly as an ostrich. , whose body is as huge as an elephant, whose hair is like pure gold, and whose eyes are as bright as molten gold in a furnace. He was more terrifying than the Flaming Mountains of Lagor, and yet more beautiful than anything in the world, even as a rose in full bloom surpasses the dust of the desert.I fell at his feet and thought, Surely, my time has come, for the lion (the god worthy) will know: I have served Tash and not him all my days past .However, it is better to die seeing Aslan than to be the Tithrock of the world, living without seeing Aslan.But the glorious lion bowed his golden head, licked my forehead with his tongue, and said: Son, you are welcome.But I said: Well, Lion, I am not your son, but Tash's servant.He replied, My son, I regard all your devotion and service to Tash as devotion and service to me.Then, as I longed for wisdom and enlightenment, I overcame my fears and asked the glorious Lion King, and I said, Lion King, so the Ape says you and Tash are two in one , is it right? The lion roared so loudly that the earth shook (but his wrath was not directed at me), and he said: This is wrong.Not because he and I are two in one, but because we are diametrically opposed, and I take your devotion and service to him, because I am fundamentally different from him: any vile and shameless service, neither one Nothing can be given to me; no service that can be given to Tash but is vile.So if anyone swears in Tash's name, and keeps his oath for the sake of the oath, he swears to me, though he doesn't know it himself, and it's me who rewards him.If anyone, in my name, has done a cruel thing, then, though he speaks of Aslan, he is in the service of Tash, and it is Tash who accepts his offering.Do you understand, child? I said, Lion, you know I understand.But I also say (because the truth compels me to say it) that I've been looking for Tash in the old days.The glorious Lion replied: My dear, unless your wish is to find me, you will not seek so sincerely and for so long.Because all people can find what they are really looking for.

"So he breathed on me, and took the trembling out of my limbs, and set me on my feet. After this, he didn't say much, except that we shall meet again, and that I must go higher and deeper Go. Then, in a golden storm, he turned and fled suddenly." "O kings and ladies, I have been running here and there ever since to find him, and my happiness is so great. It even makes me weak like a pain. It is a miracle of miracles," he contended. I'm 'darling', and I'm just like a dog—" "Huh? What's that?" said one of the dogs. "Sir," said Imes, "this is but a rhetoric popular among us Calormenes."

"Come, I can't say I like the figure of speech very much," said the dog. "He meant no harm," said an older dog. "After all, we call our puppies good boys when they don't behave properly." "That's what we call," said the first dog, "or, call 'em good girls." "Hee, hee!" said the older dog, "that's not a good word. You must remember it wherever you go." "Look!" said Jill suddenly.An animal was coming, timidly, to meet them; four-legged, graceful, silver-gray.They stared at it for a full ten seconds, before five or six voices suddenly said, "Ah, this is old Delusion!" They had never seen him shed his lion's fur in the light of day, This is very different.Now it was what it was: a beautiful donkey with a soft gray coat and a gentle, honest face.If you saw it, you would do what Jill and Lucy did—running forward, wrapping your arms around its neck, kissing its nose, stroking its ears.

They asked where he had been, and he said he had come in the door with the other animals, but he had been—well, to tell you the truth, he had avoided them and Aslan as much as he could.Because seeing the real Lion King made him ashamed of the absurd trick of wearing a lion's fur, and he didn't know what face he had to meet everyone.But when he saw all his friends running off to the west, after eating a mouthful or two of grass ("I have never tasted such delicious grass in my life," said Puzzled), he took courage and followed them in. up. "But, if I should really have to meet Aslan, I believe I don't know what to do myself," it added.

"When you do see Aslan, you'll find it's a happy ending," said Queen Lucy. So they walked on together, always westward, for that was what Aslan seemed to mean when he cried "Go higher and deeper."Many other animals walked slowly on the same path, but the grassy country was wide and uncrowded. It still seemed early and there was a freshness of morning in the air.They are always stopping, looking around, and looking back, partly because of the beauty of the scene, and partly because there is something in it that they don't understand. "Peter," said Lucy, "what is this place, what do you suppose it is?"

"I don't know," said the High King, "it reminds me of a place, but I can't name it. Maybe it's the place where we spent a day's vacation when we were very young?" "It's got to be a pretty fun and happy holiday then," said Eustace, "and I'll bet there's nowhere else in our world like that. Ever look at the colors? In our You can't find such a blue color on those high mountains in the world." "Isn't this Aslan's land?" asked Tirian. "It's not like Aslan's land on top of the high mountains at the East End of the World," said Jill. "I've been there."

"If you ask me," said Edmund, "it looks like a place in the world of Narnia. Look at the mountains ahead—and the great icebergs behind them. No doubt they are very much like we are used to." The mountains seen in Narnia, the mountains rising westward behind the Great Falls." "Yes, it's like that," said Peter, "but the mountains are bigger." "I don't think the hills are very much like those in Narnia," said Lucy, "but look there." She pointed to the south to their left, and they all stopped and turned to listen see. "These mountains," said Lucy, "the pleasant wooded mountains and the blue mountains beyond - don't they resemble the southern frontier of Narnia?" "Like!" exclaimed Edmund, after a moment's silence, "yeah, they're so like, exactly alike. Look, there's Peel's Peak facing each other, and that's the Pass into Archenland and all!" "And yet they're not like," said Lucy, "they're different. They're more coloured, and seem more distant than I remember. They're more...more...ah, I don't know... ..." "More like the real thing," murmured Lord Digory. The clairvoyant eagle suddenly spread its wings, soared at a height of thirty or forty yards above the ground, circled once, and perched on the ground again. "Kings and queens," the eagle reported loudly, "we've all been blind. We're only just beginning to see where we are. I've seen it all from high above—Eddings Moor, Beaver Dam, the Great River, Cair Paravel still shines on the East Sea. Narnia is not dead. This is Narnia." "But how is it possible?" said Peter, "because Aslan told us older folks that we would never go back to Narnia; and now we are in Narnia." "Yes," said Eustace, "we saw Narnia all destroyed, and the sun extinguished." "And it's totally different," said Lucy. "The Eagle is right," said Lord Digory. "Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you would never return to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that Not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was but a shadow or facsimile of the real Narnia, was and always will be, as is our own world, England and the nations of the world , but a shadow or a copy of something in Aslan's world. Lucy, you need not mourn for Narnia. Everything important in old Narnia, everything lovely, has been taken by That door leads into the real Narnia. It is different, of course, as a real thing is different from its shadow. Or as waking life is different from a dream." When As he spoke these words, his voice sounded like a trumpet; but, when he added in a low voice: "It's all in Plato's book, it's all in Plato's book: My God, what do they teach in those schools!" The older ones all laughed.It was exactly the same speech as they had heard him say long ago in another world, only in that world his beard was grey, not blond.He knew why they laughed, and he himself joined in the laughter.But they soon become serious again because, as you know, there is a sense of bliss and magic that makes you take it seriously.This state is so good that you are reluctant to waste it on jokes. It's hard to explain how the sun-kissed land differs from old Narnia, any more than it's impossible to tell you how the fruit in this land tastes different.If you think about it this way, maybe you will get some inspiration.You may have been in a room whose windows looked on to a lovely bay or a green valley winding among the mountains.There may be a mirror on the wall facing the window in the room.When you turn from the window, you suddenly see the bay or the valley in the mirror and look at them all over again.And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, is in a sense exactly the same as the real sea or valley.And yet somehow different at the same time: really deeper, more magical, more like a place in a story—a story you've never heard but want to know.The difference between old Narnia and new Narnia is like this.The new Narnia was a deeper land, and every stone, every flower, every blade of grass seemed to mean more.I can't describe it any more concretely, but if you go there you'll know what I mean. What sums up everyone's feelings is the unicorn.It stamped its front hooves on the ground, neighed, and then cried out, "I'm home at last! This is my true land! Here I belong. This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I've Why do we love old Narnia? The reason is that it sometimes looks a little like this new Narnia. Bree hee hee hee hee! Go higher and deeper!" The unicorn shakes its mane, leaps forward, and then gallops in the air—in our world, a unicorn gallops like this, and then it runs out of sight in a flash.But then a very strange thing happened.The other men and beasts also started to run, and to their own astonishment they could keep up with the Unicorn: not only dogs and men, but fat little Donkey and Poggin the dwarf. .The wind was blowing in their faces as if they were in a speeding car with no windshield.The countryside flew past them as they had seen it from the windows of the express train.They ran faster and faster, but none of them felt overheated, tired or out of breath.