《魔法師的外甥》第20期:滅絕咒(2)
"This is a terrible woman," thought Polly. "She's strong enough to break my arm with one twist. And now that she's got my left hand I can't get at my yellow ring. If I tried to stretch across and get my right hand into my left pocket I mightn't be able to reach it, before she asked me what I was doing. Whatever happens we mustn't let her know about the rings. I do hope Digory has the sense to keep his mouth shut. I wish I could get a word with him alone."
The Queen led them out of the Hall of Images into a long corridor and then through a whole maze of halls and stairs and courtyards. Again and again they heard parts of the great palace collapsing, sometimes quite close to them. Once a huge arch came thundering down only a moment after they had passed through it. The Queen was walking quickly - the children had to trot to keep up with her but she showed no sign of fear. Digory thought, "She's wonderfully brave. And strong. She's what I call a Queen! I do hope she's going to tell us the story of this place."
She did tell them certain things as they went along:
"That is the door to the dungeons," she would say, or "That passage leads to the principal torture chambers," or "This was the old banqueting hall where my greatgrandfather bade seven hundred nobles to a feast and killed them all before they had drunk their fill. They had had rebellious thoughts."
They came at last into a hall larger and loftier than any they had yet seen. From its size and from the great doors at the far end, Digory thought that now at last they must be coming to the main entrance. In this he was quite right. The doors were dead black, either ebony or some black metal which is not found in our world. They were fastened with great bars, most of them too high to reach and all too heavy to lift. He wondered how they would get out.
The Queen let go of his hand and raised her arm. She drew herself up to her full height and stood rigid. Then she said something which they couldn't understand (but it sounded horrid) and made an action as if she were throwing something towards the doors. And those high and heavy doors trembled for a second as if they were made of silk and then crumbled away till there was nothing left of them but a heap of dust on the threshold.
"Whew!" whistled Digory.
"Has your master magician, your uncle, power like mine?" asked the Queen, firmly seizing Digory's hand again. "But I shall know later. In the meantime, remember what you have seen. This is what happens to things, and to people, who stand in my way."
Much more light than they had yet seen in that country was pouring in through the now empty doorway, and when the Queen led them out through it they were not surprised to find themselves in the open air. The wind that blew in their faces was cold, yet somehow stale. They were looking from a high terrace and there was a great landscape out below them.
女王帶領他們出了塑像廳，來到一條長長的走廊，又接二連三地穿過許多大廳、臺階和院子。他們不斷地聽見那座大宮殿裏傳來坍塌的聲音。有一次，他們剛剛走過，一個巨大的拱門就轟降隆地塌了下來。女王健步疾走——孩子們不得不小跑若才能跟上——而她也並未露出害怕的神色。迪格雷想，“她真是勇敢得出奇，又強壯，這纔是我心目中的女王！要是能讓她講講這兒的故事該多好！”
她邊走邊告訴他們“那道門裏是地牢”,
“那條路通向中心行刑室”，或者“這是以前的宴會斤，我的曾祖父在這裏宴請過七百貴族，在他們吃飽喝足之前就將他們全部殺了。他們想造反”。
最後，他們走進一間比先前見到的所有房間都更大更高的廳堂，從它的規模和盡頭那些大型的門洞來看，迪格雷認爲他們到了主要的入口處。這次，他猜對了。門呈烏黑色，要麼是用烏木，要麼是用一種我們這個世界找不到的黑色金屬做的。門上牢牢地拴着許多大門閂，大多數都高不可及，重不可舉。他感到納悶的是他們如何出去。
女工放開他，舉起手臂，儘量往上挺直，然後，她說了幾句他們聽不懂的話（
但聽起來很恐怖），朝門做了一個扔東西的動作。那些高而重的門像絲織品一樣震顫了一秒鐘便塌了卜來，徹徹底底地毀壞了，門檻七隻剩下一堆灰。
“噓！”迪格雷輕輕地吹了一聲口哨。
“你的魔法師主人，你的舅舅，有我這種力量嗎？”女王又緊緊地抓住了迪格雷的手。“不過我以後會知道的。記住你們今天看見的事。對物如此，對擋住我去路的人也是如此。”
光從敞開的門洞裏射了進來。在這個國家裏，他們還從未見過比這更充足的光線。女王帶着他們穿過門口，當他們發現自己蘭身戶外時並沒有感到驚奇。他們站在一個高高的臺地上，俯瞰着腳下寬廣的景緻。
