Chapter 16 Chapter 15 More advanced magic in the ancient times

When the two girls were still squatting in the bushes, covering their faces with their hands, they heard the witch shouting loudly: "Okay! Everyone follow me, we are going to deal with these remnants and defeated soldiers! Now that this big idiot and this big cat are dead, we will soon be able to defeat these scumbags and traitors." At this moment the sisters were in great danger, for there was only savage shouting, shrieking of bagpipes, and blasting of horns, as the vile mob came rushing down from the top of the hill, just past their hiding place.They only felt that ghosts passed by like a gust of wind, the ground trembled under the hoofbeats of the Minotaur, and there was a wind of raptors flapping their wings above their heads, and all they could see was black vultures and giant bats.At any other time they would have trembled with fear, but now that Aslan was dead, they were so full of sorrow and humiliation and terror that they scarcely thought of being afraid.

The woods just fell silent.Susan and Lucy climbed to the top of the open hill.Although the shells were about to fall, and there were pieces of clouds covering them, they could still see the appearance of the dead body of the lion king.They knelt on the wet grass, kissed its cold face, stroked its beautiful fur—what was left of it—and wept until they could no longer cry.Then they looked at each other, held hands in desolation, and wept again, and again there was silence.At last Lucy said: "I can't stand the look of that horrible muzzle. Wonder if we can take the muzzle off?" So they try it.After a while (for their fingers were cold and it was the darkest part of the night) they finally took it off, and when they saw it had no muzzle on its face.Again they wept, kissed, stroked, and wiped off as much blood and foam as they could.I really don't know how to describe this desolate, hopeless, terrible scene.

"I wonder if we can untie the rope on him too?" Susan said after a while.But the enemy pulled the rope very tight out of resentment, and the two girls couldn't untie the knots.I hope no reader of this book has been in as much pain as Susan and Lucy did that night; but if you have -- if you've been up all night crying so hard you can't cry anymore -- you know that, in the end, the state of mind is There will be a calm.You feel as though nothing will ever happen again.Anyway, that's how the two girls felt at the time.Hours seemed to pass in this numb calm, barely noticing that they were growing colder.But finally Lucy noticed two things.First, the sky to the east of the hill is a little brighter than it was an hour ago.Second, there was a little movement in the grass at her feet.At first she had no interest in it.What does it matter?Nothing matters now.But at last she saw that the unknown thing was beginning to climb up the four straight legs of the stone table.Now those things were crawling up and down Aslan.She took a closer look, and it turned out to be some small gray things.

"Hi!" said Susan from across the stone table. "What a nuisance! Those nasty little mice are crawling on it. Go away, you little brutes." She held up her hand to scare them away. "Wait!" Lucy was still watching them all the time, "Can't you see what they are doing?" Both girls bent down, staring intently. "Really, I believe it!" said Susan. "How strange they are biting the rope!" "I thought so, too," said Lucy. "They were friendly mice, I reckoned. Poor little thing—they didn't know Aslan was dead. They thought it would do him some good to untie the string." It was getting brighter, and for the first time the two girls noticed how pale each other's faces were.They could see those little mice, dozens of them, or even hundreds of them, biting each bite, and finally, the ropes were all bitten off.The eastern sky had turned white now, and the stars were fading away—only one large star remained on the horizon.Then they felt colder than at night.The little mice also crawled away.

The sisters removed the bits of rope that had been bitten off.Without these ropes, Aslan returned to his original form.It was getting brighter and they could see more clearly, and its lifeless face looked more and more noble. A bird chirped in the woods behind them.For hours there had been silence, and the sound startled them.Then another bird agreed.Soon there were birds singing everywhere. It must be early in the morning and not late at night. "I'm so cold," said Lucy. "Me too," said Susan, "let's go." They walked to the east edge of the hill and looked down.The big star has almost disappeared.The fields looked all dark gray, but beyond the fields the sea was gray and white.The sky is starting to turn red.They walked back and forth between dead Aslan and the eastern ridge, trying to keep warm; oh, how tired their legs were.So they stood for a while looking out to sea and Cair Paravel (now they could just see the outline of the castle), and on the horizon where sea and sky met, at last the red sky turned to gold, and the sun came up. up.At this moment, they heard a loud noise behind them—a deafening loud noise, as if a giant had cracked its armor.

"What's that sound?" said Lucy, grabbing Susan's arm. "I—I'm afraid to look back," said Susan, "something terrible has happened." "They've got their hands on him," said Lucy. "Come on!" and she turned Susan round with her. As soon as the sun came up, everything looked different here--all the colors and shades changed--so that for a moment they did not see the great thing.Then they saw that the stone table had been split in two with a loud noise from end to end; and Aslan was gone. "Oh, oh, oh!" The two girls cried and ran back to the stone table.

"Oh, it's too bad," sobbed Lucy, "they should have left bodies." "Who did this?" cried Susan. "What does it mean? Is it magic again?" "Yes," said a loud voice behind them, "it's magic again." They looked back.In the sun, standing there was Aslan, bigger than they had seen before, with his mane still shaking (obviously the mane had grown again). "Oh, Aslan!" exclaimed both sisters.They stared at it intently, with joy and fear in their hearts. "So you're not dead, dear Aslan?" said Lucy. "Not dead now," said Aslan.

"Aren't you a--not a--?" Susan asked tremulously.She couldn't bear to say the word "ghost". Aslan bent down his golden head and licked her forehead.Its breath was warm, and a strong fragrance seemed to envelope her from its mane. "Do I look like it?" it said. "Oh, you're real, you're real! Oh, Aslan!" cried Lucy, and both girls rushed forward and kissed it all over. "But what does all this mean?" Susan asked when everyone had calmed down a little. "It means," said Aslan, "that although the Witch knows high magic, she doesn't know that there is a higher level of magic. She knows only as far as ancient times. But if she can see farther At one point, looking into the silent and dark depths of primordial times, she would see a different spell. She would know a willing victim, who had committed no treason herself, but was slain as a traitor, The Stone Table will crumble, and death will backfire. And now—"

"Oh yes, now?" said Lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands. "Oh, boys," said the Lion, "I feel my strength come back. Oh, boys, will you see if you can catch me?" It stood still for a moment, its eyes shining, and its limbs trembling. He kept on shaking his tail vigorously.Then it jumped up, jumped over their heads, and landed on the opposite side of the stone table.Lucy laughed, though she did not know why; she hurried across the stone table to catch him.Aslan jumped again.A crazy chase begins.He led them around and around the top of the hill, now out of reach, now almost caught by his tail, now dashed between them, now threw them into the air with his big beautiful soft paws He caught it again, and stopped suddenly after a while, making the three laughing and rolling into a ball, only seeing a pile of fur, arms, legs and so on.This romp was never played by anyone but in Narnia; and Lucy was never quite sure whether they were playing with the thunderstorm, or with the kitten.Interestingly, when the three of them finally lay together in the sun panting, the two girls no longer felt tired, hungry or thirsty.

"Now," said Aslan presently, "get down to business. I think I'm going to yell, and you'd better plug your ears." They complied.Aslan stood up, and when it opened its mouth to roar, its face became so terrible that they dared not look at it.And they also saw that the trees in front of it all bent down with the roar, and the grass also bent with the wind to form a meadow.Then it says: "We have a long way to go, you must ride on me." So he lay down, and the sisters climbed on his warm golden back, Susan sat in front, holding on to his mane Mao, Lucy sat in the back, holding on to Susan tightly.It stood up suddenly, stood up and galloped away, faster than any horse, down the hill and into the dense forest.

This lion ride was perhaps the best thing they had ever done in Narnia.Have you ever ridden a horse?Think about it, and remove the heavy clatter and jingle of the saddle and just think of those four big paws, landing almost silently.Think of a black, gray or sorrel horse with a soft blond fur whose mane flutters in the wind.Think again, you're twice as fast as the fastest racehorse.And this ride neither needs to lead the way, nor will it be tiring.Aslan rushed on and on, never stumbling, never hesitating, running expertly between tree trunks, jumping over bushes, jumping over bramble bushes, jumping over streams, past small rivers, and swam across great ones.And you don't ride on the road, or in the park, or even on the meadows, but across all of Narnia, in the spring, through dark beech lanes, through oak woods Sunny clearings, through wild orchards with snow-white cherry trees, through roaring waterfalls, moss-covered rocks, echoing caves, up windy slopes mirrored by gorse bushes, through There are shoulders of dense heather, along dizzying ridges, down, down, and again into open valleys, into fields of orchids. Towards noon they found themselves on a steep hill overlooking a castle - from where they stood it looked like a small toy castle - what seemed to be all pointed towers.But the Lion was rushing towards the castle at full speed, so that the castle grew bigger and bigger, and before they had time to ask themselves where it was, they were in front of the castle.Now it no longer looked like a toy castle, but stood eerie before them.There was no one to be seen on the battlements, and the gates of the castle were tightly shut.Aslan did not slow down at all, and rushed straight towards the castle like a bullet. "The Witch's Den is here!" it cried. "Now, children, hurry up!" In the blink of an eye, the world was turned upside down, and the sisters felt that their internal organs were turned out, because the lion king cheered up and jumped again, this time jumping higher than he had ever done before—it can be said that it is not a jump, but a jump. It has been flying over the castle wall.The two girls, out of breath but not injured at all, rolled off the lion's back without knowing it, and landed in a wide stone courtyard full of stone statues.