IN THE WITCHS HOUSE AND now of course you want to know what had happened to Edmund. He had eaten his share of the dinner, but he hadnt really enjoyed it 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 conversation, and hadnt enjoyed it 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 imagined 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 stone steps going up to an open door.

A slow cruel smile came over the Witchs face.

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 chance 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 back and the top of its head were

The first thing he realized when he got 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 chance of going back to get it now. The next thing 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 reckoned on this; but he had to make the best of it. So he turned up his 九-九-藏-書collar and shuffled across the top of the dam (luckily it wasnt so slippery since the snow had fallen) to the far side of the river.

"I will tell Her Majesty," said the Wolf. "Meanwhile, stand still on the threshold, as you value your life." Then it vanished into the house.

He crossed the river on the ice and walked up to the House. There was nothing stirring; not the slightest sound anywhere. Even his own feet made no noise on the deep newly fallen snow. He walked on and on, past corner after corner of the House, and past turret after turret to find the door. He had to go right round to the far side before he found it. It was a huge arch but the great iron gates stood wide open.

The silence and the loneliness were dreadful. In fact I really think he might have given up the whole plan and gone back and owned up and made friends with the others, if he hadnt happened to say to himself, "When Im King of Narnia the first thing I shall do will be to make some decent 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 cinema and where the principal railways would run and what laws he would make against beavers and dams and was putting the finishing touches to some schemes for keeping Peter in his place, when the weather changed. First the snow stopped. Then a wind sprang up and it became freezing cold. Finally, the clouds rolled

"Please, Im only repeating what they said," stammered Edmund.

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, Edmund ventured to go up to the lion. Even now he hardly dared to touch it, but at last he put out his hand, very quickly, and did. It was cold stone. He had been frightened of a mere statue!

Edmund stood and waited, his fingers aching with cold and his heart pounding in his 九九藏書chest, and presently the grey wolf, Maugrim, the Chief of the Witchs Secret Police, came bounding back and said, "Come in! Come in! Fortunate favourite of the Queen - or else not so fortunate.」

"No, your Majesty," said Edmund, and proceeded to tell her all he had heard before leaving the Beavers house.

"Is this all your news?" she asked.

Edmund went up them. Across the threshold lay a great wolf.

And Edmund went in, taking great care not to tread on the Wolfs paws.

"Im come, your Majesty," said Edmund, rushing eagerly forward.

"Its all right, its all right," he kept saying to himself; "its only a stone wolf. It cant 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 and said in a growling voice: "Whos there? Whos there? Stand still, stranger, and tell me who you are.」

But the Queen, who was no longer attending to him, clapped her hands. Instantly the same dwarf whom Edmund had seen with her before appeared.

of Aslan gave him a mysterious and horrible feeling just as it gave the others a mysterious and lovely feeling.

"Please, your Majesty," said Edmund, "Ive done the best I can. Ive brought them quite close. Theyre in the little house on top of the dam just up the riverwith Mr and Mrs Beaver.」

"Make ready our sledge," ordered the Witch, "and use the harness without bells.」

But at last he came to a part where it was more level and the valley opened out. And there, on the other side of the river, quite close to him, in the middle of a little plain between two hills, he saw what must be the White Witchs House. And the moon was shining brighter than ever. The 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.

"If you please, sir," said Edmun九_九_藏_書d, 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 come to bring her the news that my brother and sisters are now in Narnia - quite close, in the Beavers house. She - she wanted to see them.」

"How dare you come alone?" said the Witch in a terrible voice. "Did I not tell you to bring the others with you?」

He found himself in a long gloomy hall with many pillars, full, as the courtyard had been, of statues. The one nearest the door was a little faun with a very sad expression on its face, and Edmund couldnt help wondering if this might be Lucys friend. The only light came from a single lamp and close beside this sat the White Witch.

He would never have found his way if the moon hadnt come 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 turned to 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 overgrown with bushes, so that he could not have managed it at all in the dark. Even as it was, 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 been Peters fault.

"What! Aslan?" cried the Queen, "Aslan! Is this true? If I find you have lied to me -」

Edmund crept up to the arch and looked inside into the courtyard, and there he saw a sight that nearly made his heart stop beating. Just inside the 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 knocking 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九*九*藏*書 for hours.

It was pretty 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 fallen tree-trunks, and sliding down steep banks, and barking his shins against rocks, till he was wet and cold and bruised all over.

And he stood 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 stone beast still looked so terrible, and sad, and noble, staring 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.

But it was too late to think of turning back now.

The relief which Edmund felt was so great that in spite of the cold he suddenly got warm all over right 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?」

Just as Mr Beaver had been repeating 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 Witch 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.

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 confusing.

And then he had listened until Mr Beaver told th九_九_藏_書em about Aslan and until he had heard the whole arrangement for meeting Aslan at the Stone Table. It was then that he began very quietly to edge himself under the curtain which hung over the door. For the mention

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 stone satyrs, and stone wolves, and bears and foxes and cat-amountains of stone. There were lovely stone shapes that looked like women but who were really the spirits of trees. There was the great shape of a centaur and a winged horse and a long lithe creature that Edmund took to be a dragon. They all looked so strange standing there perfectly life-like and also perfectly still, in the bright cold moonlight, 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 face and a shaggy beard and a great club in its right hand. Even though he knew that it was only a stone giant and not a live one, Edmund did not like going past it.

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 want her to be particularly nice to them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; but he managed to 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 nice to me, anyway, much nicer 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 knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.