Page 15 (1/2)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ASLAN MAKES A DOOR IN THE AIR

AT the sight of Aslan the cheeks of the Telravy, their knees knocked together, and many fell on their faces They had not believed in lions and this reater Even the Red Dwarfs, who knew that he came as a friend, stood with open mouths and could not speak Some of the Black Dwarfs, who had been of Nikabrik&039;s party, began to edge away But all the Talking Beasts surged round the Lion, with purrs and grunts and squeaks and whinneys of delight, fawning on hi hi to and fro under his body and between his legs If you have ever seen a little cat loving a big dog whoood picture of their behaviour Then Peter, leading Caspian, forced his way through the crowd of animals

"This is Caspian, Sir," he said And Caspian knelt and kissed the Lion&039;s paw

"Welcome, Prince," said Aslan "Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?"

"I - I don&039;t think I do, Sir," said Caspian "I&039;m only a kid"

"Good," said Aslan "If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not Therefore, under us and under the High King, you shall be King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands You and your heirs while your race lasts And your coronation - but what have we here?" For at that- eleven Mice, six of who on a litter e atlas No one has ever seen one than these They were plastered with mud some with blood too - and their ears were down and their whiskers drooped and their tails dragged in the grass, and their leader piped on his slender pipe a melancholy tune On the litter lay what seemed little better than a damp heap of fur; all that was left of Reepicheep He was still breathing, but ashed with innumerable wounds, one paw crushed, and, where his tail had been, a bandaged stump

"Now, Lucy," said Aslan

Lucy had her diah only a drop was needed on each of Reepicheep&039;s wounds, the wounds were soand anxious silence before she had finished and the Master Mouse sprang from the litter His hand went at once to his sword hilt, with the other he twirled his whiskers He bowed

"Hail, Aslan!" came his shrill voice "I have the honour - " But then he suddenly stopped

The fact was that he still had no tail - whether that Lucy had forgotten it or that her cordial, though it could heal wounds, could not ain Reepicheep became aware of his loss as hein his balance He looked over his right shoulder Failing to see his tail, he strained his neck further till he had to turn his shoulders and his whole body followed But by that tiht Then he strained his neck looking over his shoulder again, with the same result Only after he had turned completely round three times did he realize the dreadful truth

"I am confounded," said Reepicheep to Aslan "I aence for appearing in this unseemly fashion"

"It becomes you very well, Small One," said Aslan

"All the sa could be done Perhaps her Majesty?" and here he bowed to Lucy

"But what do you ith a tail?" asked Aslan

"Sir," said the Mouse, "I can eat and sleep and die for lory of a Mouse"

"I have sometimes wondered, friend," said Aslan, "whether you do not think too h Kings," said Reepicheep, "permit me to remind you that a very suard our dignity, soh worth by inches) would allow themselves very unsuitable pleasantries at our expense That is why I have been at some pains to make it known that no one who does not wish to feel this sword as near his heart as I can reach shall talk in my presence about Traps or Toasted Cheese or Candles: no, Sir - not the tallest fool in Narnia!" Here he glared very fiercely up at Wie behind everyone else, had not yet discovered as being talked about down at his feet, and so missed the point

"Why have your followers all drawn their swords, h Majesty," said the second Mouse, whose na to cut off our own tails if our Chiefan honour which is denied to the High Mouse"

"Ah!" roared Aslan "You have conquered nity, Reepicheep, but for the love that is between you and your people, and still o when you ate away the cords that boundforgotten it, that you began to be Talking Mice), you shall have your tail again"

Before Aslan had finished speaking the new tail was in its place Then, at Aslan&039;s cohthood of the Order of the Lion on Caspian, and Caspian, as soon as he was knighted, himself bestowed it on Trufflehunter and Trumpkin and Reepicheep, and made Doctor Cornelius his Lord Chancellor, and confiry Bear in his hereditary office of Marshal of the Lists And there was great applause

After this the Telmarine soldiers, firmly but without taunts or bloere taken across the ford and all put under lock and key in the town of Beruna and given beef and beer Theyin the river, for they all hated and feared running water just as much as they hated and feared woods and animals But in the end the nuisance was over: and then the nicest parts of that long day began

Lucy, sitting close to Aslan and divinely co At first she thought they wereround slowly in two circles, one froht to left Then she noticed that they kept throwing so down in the centre of both circles So strands of their hair; at other tiers - but, if so, they had plenty of fingers to spare and it did not hurt theround, it became brushwood or dry sticks Then three or four of the Red Dwarfs caht to the pile, which first crackled, and then blazed, and finally roared as a woodland bonfire on ht to do And everyone sat down in a wide circle round it

Then Bacchus and Silenus and the Maenads began a dance, far wilder than the dance of the trees; not h it was that too) but a ic dance of plenty, and where their hands touched, and where their feet fell, the feast carove with delicious smell, and wheaten cakes and oaten cakes, honey and e and as sranates, pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries pyrareat wooden cups and bowls and mazers, wreathed with ivy, came the wines; dark, thick ones like syrups of mulberry juice, and clear red ones like red jellies liquefied, and yelloines and green wines and yellow-green and greenish-yellow

But for the tree people different fare was provided When Lucy saw Clodsley Shovel and hisup the turf in various places (which Bacchus had pointed out to theave her rather a shudder But when she saw the earths that were actually brought to thean with a rich brown loam that looked almost exactly like chocolate; so like chocolate, in fact, that Edmund tried a piece of it, but he did not find it at all nice When the rich loaer, the trees turned to an earth of the kind you see in Sohter and sweeter At the cheese stage they had a chalky soil, and then went on to delicate confections of the finest gravels powdered with choice silver sand They drank very little wine, and it made the Hollies very talkative: for the hts of led dew and rain, flavoured with forest flowers and the airy taste of the thinnest clouds

Thus Aslan feasted the Narnians till long after the sunset had died away, and the stars had coreat fire, now hotter but less noisy, shone like a beacon in the dark woods, and the frightened Telhtof all about this feast was that there was no breaking up or going away, but as the talk grew quieter and slower, one after another would begin to nod and finally drop off to sleep with feet towards the fire and good friends on either side, till at last there was silence all round the circle, and the chattering of water over stone at the Ford of Beruna could be heard once azed upon each other with joyful and unblinking eyes

Next day ers (ere chiefly squirrels and birds) were sent all over the country with a procla, of course, the prisoners in Beruna They were told that Caspian was now King and that Narnia would henceforth belong to the Talking Beasts and the Dwarfs and Dryads and Fauns and other creatures quite as much as to the ht do so; but for those who did not like the idea, Aslan would provide another hoo there s at the Ford of Beruna by noon on the fifth day Youthe Tel ones, had, like Caspian, heard stories of the Old Days and were delighted that they had co friends with the creatures These all decided to stay in Narnia But most of the older men, especially those who had been important under Miraz, were sulky and had no wish to live in a country where they could not rule the roost "Live here with a lot of bloohosts too," some added with a shudder "That&039;s what those there Dryads really are It&039;s not canny" They were also suspicious "I don&039;t trust &039;em," they said "Not with that awful Lion and all He won&039;t keep his claws off us long, you&039;ll see" But then they were equally suspicious of his offer to give them a new home "Take us off to his den and eat us one by one most likely," they muttered And the more they talked to one another the sulkier and more suspicious they became But on the appointed day more than half of thelade Aslan had caused to be set up two stakes of wood, higher than a hter, piece of as bound across the looked like a doorway from nowhere into nowhere In front of this stood Aslan hiht and Caspian on his left Grouped round them were Susan and Lucy, Trumpkin and Trufflehunter, the Lord Cornelius, Glenstorm, Reepicheep, and others The children and the Dwarfs had ood use of the royal wardrobes in what had been the castle of Miraz and was now the castle of Caspian, and ith silk and cloth of gold, with snowy linen glancing through slashed sleeves, with silver ilt helht to look at Even the beasts wore rich chains about their necks Yet nobody&039;s eyes were on theold of Aslan&039;s mane outshone them all The rest of the Old Narnians stood down each side of the glade At the far end stood the Telhtly and pennants fluttered in the light wind

"Men of Telmar," said Aslan, "you who seek a new land, hear my words I will send you all to your own country, which I know and you do not"

"We don&039;t remember Telmar We don&039;t knohere it is We don&039;t knohat it is like," grumbled the Telmarines

"You came into Narnia out of Telmar," said Aslan "But you ca to this world at all You cao, out of that sas"

At this, half the Tel, "There you are Told you so He&039;s going to kill us all, send us right out of the world," and the other half began throwing out their chests and slapping one another on the back and whispering, "There you are Might have guessed we didn&039;t belong to this place with all its queer, nasty, unnatural creatures We&039;re of royal blood, you&039;ll see" And even Caspian and Cornelius and the children turned to Aslan with looks of amazement on their faces