deeper magic from before the dawn of time
while the two girls still crouched in the bushes with their hands over their faces, they heard the voice of the witch calling out,
"now! follow me all and we will set about what remains of this war! it will not take us long to crush the human vermin and the traitors now that the great fool, the great cat, lies dead."
at this moment the children were for a few seconds in very great danger. for with wild cries and a noise of skirling pipes and shrill horns blowing, the whole of that vile rabble came sweeping off the hill-top and down the slope right past their hiding-place. they felt the spectres go by them like a cold wind and they felt the ground shake beneath them under the galloping feet of the minotaurs; and overhead there went a flurry of foul wings and a blackness of vultures and giant bats. at any other time they would have trembled with fear; but now the sadness and shame and horror of aslan's death so filled their minds that they hardly thought of it.
as soon as the wood was silent again susan and lucy crept out onto the open hill-top. the moon was getting low and thin clouds were passing across her, but still they could see the shape of the lion lying dead in his bonds. and down they both knelt in the wet grass and kissed his cold face and stroked his beautiful fur - what was left of it - and cried till they could cry no more. and then they looked at each other and held each other's hands for mere loneliness and cried again; and then again were silent. at last lucy said,
"i can't bear to look at that horrible muzzle. i wonder could we take if off?"
so they tried. and after a lot of working at it (for their fingers were cold and it was now the darkest part of the night) they succeeded. and when they saw his face without it they burst out crying again and kissed it and fondled it and wiped away the blood and the foam as well as they could. and it was all more lonely and hopeless and horrid than i know how to describe.
"i wonder could we untie him as well?" said susan presently. but the enemies, out of pure spitefulness, had drawn the cords so tight that the girls could make nothing of the knots.
i hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as susan and lucy were that night; but if you have been - if you've been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you - you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. you feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again. at any rate that was how it felt to these two. hours and hours seemed to go by in this dead calm, and they hardly noticed that they were getting colder and colder. but at last lucy noticed two other things. one was that the sky on the east side of the hill was a little less dark than it had been an hour ago. the other was some tiny movement going on in the grass at her feet. at first she took no interest in this. what did it matter? nothing mattered now! but at last she saw that whatever-it-was had begun to move up the upright stones of the stone table. and now whatever-they-were were moving about on aslan's body. she peered closer. they were little grey things.
"ugh!" said susan from the other side of the table. "how beastly! there are horrid little mice crawling over him. go away, you little beasts." and she raised her hand to frighten them away.
"wait!" said lucy, who had been looking at them more closely still. "can you see what they're doing?"
both girls bent down and stared.
"i do believe -" said susan. "but how queer! they're nibbling away at the cords!"
"that's what i thought," said lucy. "i think they're friendly mice. poor little things - they don't realize he's dead. they think it'll do some good untying him."
it was quite definitely lighter by now. each of the girls noticed for the first time the white face of the other. they could see the mice nibbling away; dozens and dozens, even hundreds, of little field mice. and at last, one by one, the ropes were all gnawed through.
the sky in the east was whitish by now and the stars were getting fainter - all except one very big one low down on the eastern horizon. they felt colder than they had been all night. the mice crept away again.
the girls cleared away the remains of the gnawed ropes. aslan looked more like himself without them. every moment his dead face looked nobler, as the light grew and they could see it better.
in the wood behind them a bird gave a chuckling sound. it had been so still for hours and hours that it startled them. then another bird answered it. soon there were birds singing all over the place.
it was quite definitely early morning now, not late night.
"i'm so cold," said lucy.
"so am i," said susan. "let's walk about a bit."
they walked to the eastern edge of the hill and looked down. the one big star had almost disappeared. the country all looked dark grey, but beyond, at the very end of the world, the sea showed pale. the sky began to turn red. they walked to ands fro more times than they could count between the dead aslan and the eastern ridge, trying to keep warm; and oh, how tired their legs felt. then at last, as they stood for a moment looking out towards they sea and cair paravel (which they could now just make out) the red turned to gold along the line where the sea and the sky met and very slowly up came the edge of the sun. at that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise - a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant's plate.
"what's that?" said lucy, clutching susan's arm.
"i - i feel afraid to turn round," said susan; "something awful is happening."
"they're doing something worse to him," said lucy. "come on!" and she turned, pulling susan round with her.
the rising of the sun had made everything look so different - all colours and shadows were changed that for a moment they didn't see the important thing. then they did. the stone table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no aslan.
"oh, oh, oh!" cried the two girls, rushing back to the table.
"oh, it's too bad," sobbed lucy; "they might have left the body alone."
"who's done it?" cried susan. "what does it mean? is it magic?"
"yes!" said a great voice behind their backs. "it is more magic." they looked round. there, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood aslan himself.
"oh, aslan!" cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad.
"aren't you dead then, dear aslan?" said lucy.
"not now," said aslan.
"you're not - not a - ?" asked susan in a shaky voice. she couldn't bring herself to say the word ghost. aslan stooped his golden head and licked her forehead. the warmth of his breath and a rich sort of smell that seemed to hang about his hair came all over her.
"do i look it?" he said.
"oh, you're real, you're real! oh, aslan!" cried lucy, and both girls flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses.
"but what does it all mean?" asked susan when they were somewhat calmer.
"it means," said aslan, "that though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know: her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. but if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. she would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backwards. and now -"
"oh yes. now?" said lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands.
"oh, children," said the lion, "i feel my strength coming back to me. oh, children, catch me if you can!" he stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the table. laughing, though she didn't know why, lucy scrambled over it to reach him. aslan leaped again. a mad chase began. round and round the hill-top he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. it was such a romp as no one has ever had except in narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten lucy could never make up her mind. and the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.
"and now," said aslan presently, "to business. i feel i am going to roar. you had better put your fingers in your ears."
and they did. and aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. and they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind. then he said,
"we have a long journey to go. you must ride on me." and he crouched down and the children climbed on to his warm, golden back, and susan sat first, holding on tightly to his mane and lucy sat behind holding on tightly to susan. and with a great heave he rose underneath them and then shot off, faster than any horse could go, down hill and into the thick of the forest.
that ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in narnia. have you ever had a gallop on a horse? think of that; and then take away the heavy noise of the hoofs and the jingle of the bits and imagine instead the almost noiseless padding of the great paws. then imagine instead of the black or grey or chestnut back of the horse the soft roughness of golden fur, and the mane flying back in the wind. and then imagine you are going about twice as fast as the fastest racehorse. but this is a mount that doesn't need to be guided and never grows tired. he rushes on and on, never missing his footing, never hesitating, threading his way with perfect skill between tree trunks, jumping over bush and briar and the smaller streams, wading the larger, swimming the largest of all. and you are riding not on a road nor in a park nor even on the downs, but right across narnia, in spring, down solemn avenues of beech and across sunny glades of oak, through wild orchards of snow-white cherry trees, past roaring waterfalls and mossy rocks and echoing caverns, up windy slopes alight with gorse bushes, and across the shoulders of heathery mountains and along giddy ridges and down, down, down again into wild valleys and out into acres of blue flowers.
it was nearly midday when they found themselves looking down a steep hillside at a castle - a little toy castle it looked from where they stood - which seemed to be all pointed towers. but the lion was rushing down at such a speed that it grew larger every moment and before they had time even to ask themselves what it was they were already on a level with it. and now it no longer looked like a toy castle but rose frowning in front of them. no face looked over the battlements and the gates were fast shut. and aslan, not at all slacking his pace, rushed straight as a bullet towards it.
"the witch's home!" he cried. "now, children, hold tight."
next moment the whole world seemed to turn upside down, and the children felt as if they had left their insides behind them; for the lion had gathered himself together for a greater leap than any he had yet made and jumped - or you may call it flying rather than jumping - right over the castle wall. the two girls, breathless but unhurt, found themselves tumbling off his back in the middle of a wide stone courtyard full of statues.
第十五章 太古时代更加高深的魔法
两个女孩子还蹲在灌木丛中，双手掩面的时候，听见妖婆大声叫喊：
“好了！大家都跟着我，我们要去收拾这些残兵败将了！既然这个大笨蛋，这只大猫死了，我们不久就可以打垮这些人渣和叛徒。”
这时姐妹俩有一阵倒是非常危险了，因为只听见阵阵野蛮的叫喊，尖锐的风笛声、号角声响成一片，那帮恶劣的暴徒从山顶上一哄而下，正好经过她们藏身的地方。她们只觉得幽灵像一阵阴风从身边掠过，大地在牛头怪奔驰的蹄声中颤抖了，头顶上一阵猛禽扑翅的腥风，只见黑压压—片都是兀鹰和大蝙蝠。换了别的时候，她们早就害怕得浑身发抖了，但如今阿斯兰一死，她们满脑子悲哀、羞辱和恐怖，简直没想到害怕。
树林里刚刚静下来．苏珊和露茜就爬到空旷的山顶上。贝壳虽快落下，又有片片浮云遮掩，但她们仍然看得出狮王五花大绑横尸那儿的模样。她俩跪在湿漉漉的草地上，亲着它冰凉的脸，抚摸它美丽的毛——剩下来的那点毛——哭到哭不出来为止。随后她们彼此对望着，由于感到凄凉，两人手拉手又哭了起来，接着又一次沉默。最后露茜说：
“我受不了那只可怕的嘴套的样子。不知我们能不能把嘴套拿掉？”
于是她们就试试看。弄了好一阵子之后(因为她们的手指都冰凉，而且这时正是夜里最黑暗的时候)，她们终于拿掉了，等她们看到它脸上没有嘴套了．她们又大哭起来，又是亲吻，又是抚摸，还尽可能把上面的鲜血和泡沫擦掉。这种凄凉、绝望、可怕的情景我真不知怎么描写才好。
“不知我们能不能把它身上的绳子也解开？”不一会儿苏珊说。但敌人出于怨恨把绳子拉得很紧很紧，两个女孩怎么也解不开这些结。我希望本书读者没人像苏珊和露茜那天晚上那么痛苦过；不过如果你曾经有过——如果你整夜没睡，哭得再也哭不出眼泪——你就知道到头来，心境就会有一种平静。你觉得似乎再也不会出什么事了。不管怎么说，这两个女孩子当时的感觉就是这样。时间似乎就在这种麻木的平静中过去了好几个小时，她们简直没注意到自己越来越冷了。但最后露茜总算注意到两件事情。第一点，小山东面的天空比一小时前亮了一点。第二点，她脚边的草地上有些小小的动静。开头她对此毫无兴趣。这又有什么关系呢？现在什么都无所谓了。但她终于看出这不知名的东西开始爬上石桌那四条笔直的腿了。这会儿，那些东西正在阿斯兰身上爬来爬去呢。她凑近仔细看看，原来是些灰不溜秋的小东西。
“嗨！”苏珊在石桌对面说，“多讨厌！爬在它身上的是些讨厌的小老鼠。走开，你们这些小畜生。”她举起手想把它们吓跑。
“等等！”露茜仍然在近处一直看着它们，“你看不出它们在干什么吗？”
两个女孩子都弯下腰，目不转睛地盯着。
“真的，我信了！”苏珊说，“多怪啊，它们正在咬断绳子呢！”
“我也这么想，”露茜说，“我看它们是友好的老鼠。可怜的小东西——它们不知道阿斯兰死了。它们以为把绳子解开会对它有点好处。”
这会儿天亮多了，两个女孩子这才第一次注意到彼此的脸多么苍白。她们看得见那些小老鼠，几十只几十只的，甚至有成百上千只，一口口咬着，最后，那些绳子全被咬断了。这会儿东方的天空已经发白，星星渐渐隐没——只有地平线上还有一颗很大的星星。这时她们觉得比晚上更冷了。那些小老鼠也都爬开了。
姐妹俩把咬断的绳子残屑都清除掉。没有这些绳子，阿斯兰就恢复了原来的模样。天色越来越亮，她们也更看得清，它那张没有生气的脸看上去越来越高贵了。 .
她们背后的林子里有只鸟儿唧喳叫了一声。因为好几个小时以来这里都是一片寂静，这声音把她们吓了一跳。接着另一只鸟儿应和了。不一会儿到处都是鸟儿在歌唱。
这会儿肯定是清晨不是深夜了。
“我真冷。”露茜说。
“我也是，”苏珊说，“我们走走吧。”
她们走到小山的东崖边往下看去。那颗大星星几乎消失了。田野看上去全是深灰色一片，不过在田野外天边的那片大海倒是一片灰白。天空开始转红了。她们在死去的阿斯兰和东面山脊之间来回走了无数次，想法取暖；啊呀，她们的腿有多累啊。于是，她们站了一会儿，眺望大海和凯尔帕拉维尔(这会儿她们才看得出城堡的轮廓)，在海天相连的地平线上，红红的天色终于变成了金黄，太阳冉冉升起来了。就在这时，她们听见背后一声巨响——一声震耳欲聋的巨响，仿佛一个巨人绷裂了铠甲。
“那是什么声音？”露茜说着一把揪住苏珊的胳膊。
“我——我害怕回过头去，”苏珊说，“出了什么可怕的事了。”
“它们对它下毒手啦，”露茜说，“快来吧！”她拉着苏珊一起转过身来。
太阳一升起，这儿一切看上去就大不相同了——所有的色彩和阴影都变了——因此一时间她们并没有看出那件大事。后来她们才看见，原来那张石桌在一声巨响中从头到尾裂成两半；而阿斯兰不见了。
“哦，哦，哦！”两个女孩子哭着奔回石桌。
“哦，这太糟糕了，”露茜呜咽着说，“它们该留下尸体的。”
“这是谁干的呢？”苏珊叫道，“这是什么意思？这又是魔法吗？”
“是的，”她们身后有一个洪亮的声音说，“这又是魔法。”她们回头一看。只见阳光下，站着的正是阿斯兰，个头比她们先前看到更大的，一面还在抖动鬃毛的(显然鬃毛又长出来了)。
“哦，阿斯兰！”姐妹俩都叫了起来。她们目不转睛地看着它，心里又高兴又害怕。 "
“原来你没死，亲爱的阿斯兰？”露茜说。
“这会儿没死。”阿斯兰说。
“你不是一个——不是一个——？”苏珊声音颤抖地问。她不忍心说出那个“鬼”字。
阿斯兰俯下金色的脑袋，舔舔她的额头。它呼出的气是暖烘烘的，鬃毛里似乎发出一股浓浓的香味笼罩着她。
“我像吗？”它说。
“哦，你是真的，你是真的！哦，阿斯兰！”露茜叫着，两个女孩子都扑上前去，把它吻个遍。
“可是这一切都是什么意思呢？”等大家稍微平静了一点，苏珊问道。
“意思是，”阿斯兰说，“虽然妖婆懂得高深魔法，可她不懂得还有更高深一层的魔法。她懂的那一套只到远古时代为止。但如果她能看得更远一点，看到太古时代的寂静和黑暗深处，她就会看到还有一条不同的咒语。她就会知道一个自愿送死的牺牲者，本身没有背叛行为，却被当作一个叛徒而杀害，石桌就要崩裂，死亡就会起反作用。而现在——”
“哦，是啊，现在呢？”露茜跳起来拍着手说。
“哦，孩子们，”狮王说，“我觉得自己的力量又恢复了。哦，孩子们，看看你们能抓住我吗？”它站了一会儿没动，眼睛闪闪发亮，四肢抖个不停，尾巴用力甩啊甩的。接着它一跃而起，跳过她们头顶，落在石桌对面。露茜哈哈大笑，虽然她自己也不知道为什么笑；她赶紧爬过石桌去抓他。阿斯兰又是一跳。一场疯狂的追逐就此开始。它带领她们在山顶上转啊转啊，一会儿让她们够也够不着，一会儿让她们差点抓到它的尾巴，一会儿从她们中间冲过去，一会儿用它美丽而柔软的大爪子把她们抛向半空又接住，一会儿又冷不防停下来，弄得三个嘻嘻哈哈滚成一团，只看见一堆皮毛啊、胳膊啊、腿啊什么的。这场嬉闹除了在纳尼亚，可没人玩过；而且露茜怎么也拿不准，她们究竟是在跟雷雨玩呢，还是在跟小猫玩。有趣的是等他们三个最后一起躺在太阳下喘气的时候，两个女孩子却再也不感到疲劳、饥饿和口渴了。
“好了，”阿斯兰不一会儿就说，“干正经事吧。我觉得我要吼了，你们最好把耳朵堵上。”
她们照办了。阿斯兰站起来，等它张开嘴怒吼时，它的脸变得那么可怕，她们都不敢正眼看它了。而且她们还看见它面前的树随着吼声全部弯下了腰，草也随风弯曲成了一片草场。随后它说：
“我们要走的路长着呢，你们一定得骑在我身上。”于是它趴下了，姐妹俩就爬到它温暖的金色的背上，苏珊坐在前面，紧紧抓住它的鬃毛，露茜坐在后面，紧紧抓住苏珊。它猛一挺身，站起来就飞奔而去，比任何骏马都快，下了小山，进入密林。
这次骑狮也许是她们到纳尼亚以来最美妙的事了。你曾经骑马奔驰过吗？想想吧，然后去掉沉重的马蹄得得声和鞍具的丁当声，只想着那四只大爪子，着地几乎无声无息。再想想黑的、灰的或栗色的马背换成了柔软的金黄色皮毛，鬃毛在风中飞舞。再想想，你比跑得最快的赛马还要快两倍。而且这次骑行既不需要带路的，也决不会疲劳。阿斯兰往前冲啊冲的，从不失足，从不犹豫，它熟练地在树干之间穿过，跳过灌木丛，跳过荆棘丛，跳过小溪，路过小河，游过大河。而且你不是在路上骑行，也不是在公园里，甚至也不是在草原上，而是横穿整个纳尼亚，在春天里，走过条条幽暗的山毛榉林阴路，穿过橡树林间块块向阳的空地，穿过片片有雪白樱树的野生果园，路过水声轰鸣的瀑布、青苔覆盖的岩石、回声不绝的山洞，爬上金雀花丛映照的多风的山坡，穿过有茂密石南的山肩，沿着令人眩晕的山脊，跑下去，跑下去，又一次跑进开阔的山谷，跑进大片的兰花地。
快到中午的时候，他们发现自己正在一片陡峭的山坡上，俯看一座城堡——从他们站的地方望去就像一个小小的玩具城堡——看上去似乎全是尖尖的塔楼。不过狮王正全速冲向城堡，因此城堡也就越来越大，她们还来不及问自己这是哪儿，就已迎面来到城堡前。此刻已不再像玩具城堡，而是阴森森地耸立在她们面前了。城垛上看不见人影，城堡大门也紧紧闭着。阿斯兰却一点没有放慢步子，像一颗子弹似的，笔直朝城堡冲去。
“妖婆的老窝到了！”它叫道，“好了，孩子们，抓紧啊！”
一眨眼，天翻地覆，姐妹俩只觉得五脏六腑都翻了出来，因为狮王振作精神，又跳了一大跳，这一次比它以往任何一次都跳得更高——不妨说它不是跳，而是一直飞过了城堡的墙头。两个女孩子气都喘不过来，但丝毫没受伤，不知不觉中已从狮背上滚了下来，落在一个宽阔的石头院子里，里面全是石像。