《獅子女巫與魔衣櫥》第15章:太古時代更加高深的魔法
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.
“好了！大家都跟着我，我們要去收拾這些殘兵敗將了！既然這個大笨蛋，這隻大貓死了，我們不久就可以打垮這些人渣和叛徒。”
這時姐妹倆有一陣倒是非常危險了，因爲只聽見陣陣野蠻的叫喊，尖銳的風笛聲、號角聲響成一片，那幫惡劣的暴徒從山頂上一鬨而下，正好經過她們藏身的地方。她們只覺得幽靈像一陣陰風從身邊掠過，大地在牛頭怪奔馳的蹄聲中顫抖了，頭頂上一陣猛禽撲翅的腥風，只見黑壓壓—片都是兀鷹和大蝙蝠。換了別的時候，她們早就害怕得渾身發抖了，但如今阿斯蘭一死，她們滿腦子悲哀、羞辱和恐怖，簡直沒想到害怕。
樹林裏剛剛靜下來．蘇珊和露茜就爬到空曠的山頂上。貝殼雖快落下，又有片片浮雲遮掩，但她們仍然看得出獅王五花大綁橫屍那兒的模樣。她倆跪在溼漉漉的草地上，親着它冰涼的臉，撫摸它美麗的毛——剩下來的那點毛——哭到哭不出來爲止。隨後她們彼此對望着，由於感到淒涼，兩人手拉手又哭了起來，接着又一次沉默。最後露茜說：
“我受不了那隻可怕的嘴套的樣子。不知我們能不能把嘴套拿掉？”
於是她們就試試看。弄了好一陣子之後(因爲她們的手指都冰涼，而且這時正是夜裏最黑暗的時候)，她們終於拿掉了，等她們看到它臉上沒有嘴套了．她們又大哭起來，又是親吻，又是撫摸，還儘可能把上面的鮮血和泡沫擦掉。這種淒涼、絕望、可怕的情景我真不知怎麼描寫纔好。
“不知我們能不能把它身上的繩子也解開？”不一會兒蘇珊說。但敵人出於怨恨把繩子拉得很緊很緊，兩個女孩怎麼也解不開這些結。我希望本書讀者沒人像蘇珊和露茜那天晚上那麼痛苦過；不過如果你曾經有過——如果你整夜沒睡，哭得再也哭不出眼淚——你就知道到頭來，心境就會有一種平靜。你覺得似乎再也不會出什麼事了。不管怎麼說，這兩個女孩子當時的感覺就是這樣。時間似乎就在這種麻木的平靜中過去了好幾個小時，她們簡直沒注意到自己越來越冷了。但最後露茜總算注意到兩件事情。第一點，小山東面的天空比一小時前亮了一點。第二點，她腳邊的草地上有些小小的動靜。開頭她對此毫無興趣。這又有什麼關係呢？現在什麼都無所謂了。但她終於看出這不知名的東西開始爬上石桌那四條筆直的腿了。這會兒，那些東西正在阿斯蘭身上爬來爬去呢。她湊近仔細看看，原來是些灰不溜秋的小東西。
“嗨！”蘇珊在石桌對面說，“多討厭！爬在它身上的是些討厭的小老鼠。走開，你們這些小畜生。”她舉起手想把它們嚇跑。
“等等！”露茜仍然在近處一直看着它們，“你看不出它們在幹什麼嗎？”
兩個女孩子都彎下腰，目不轉睛地盯着。
“真的，我信了！”蘇珊說，“多怪啊，它們正在咬斷繩子呢！”
“我也這麼想，”露茜說，“我看它們是友好的老鼠。可憐的小東西——它們不知道阿斯蘭死了。它們以爲把繩子解開會對它有點好處。”
這會兒天亮多了，兩個女孩子這才第一次注意到彼此的臉多麼蒼白。她們看得見那些小老鼠，幾十只幾十只的，甚至有成百上千只，一口口咬着，最後，那些繩子全被咬斷了。這會兒東方的天空已經發白，星星漸漸隱沒——只有地平線上還有一顆很大的星星。這時她們覺得比晚上更冷了。那些小老鼠也都爬開了。
姐妹倆把咬斷的繩子殘屑都清除掉。沒有這些繩子，阿斯蘭就恢復了原來的模樣。天色越來越亮，她們也更看得清，它那張沒有生氣的臉看上去越來越高貴了。 .
她們背後的林子裏有隻鳥兒唧喳叫了一聲。因爲好幾個小時以來這裏都是一片寂靜，這聲音把她們嚇了一跳。接着另一隻鳥兒應和了。不一會兒到處都是鳥兒在歌唱。
這會兒肯定是清晨不是深夜了。
“我真冷。”露茜說。
“我也是，”蘇珊說，“我們走走吧。”
她們走到小山的東崖邊往下看去。那顆大星星幾乎消失了。田野看上去全是深灰色一片，不過在田野外天邊的那片大海倒是一片灰白。天空開始轉紅了。她們在死去的阿斯蘭和東面山脊之間來回走了無數次，想法取暖；啊呀，她們的腿有多累啊。於是，她們站了一會兒，眺望大海和凱爾帕拉維爾(這會兒她們纔看得出城堡的輪廓)，在海天相連的地平線上，紅紅的天色終於變成了金黃，太陽冉冉升起來了。就在這時，她們聽見背後一聲巨響——一聲震耳欲聾的巨響，彷彿一個巨人繃裂了鎧甲。
“那是什麼聲音？”露茜說着一把揪住蘇珊的胳膊。
“我——我害怕回過頭去，”蘇珊說，“出了什麼可怕的事了。”
“它們對它下毒手啦，”露茜說，“快來吧！”她拉着蘇珊一起轉過身來。
太陽一升起，這兒一切看上去就大不相同了——所有的色彩和陰影都變了——因此一時間她們並沒有看出那件大事。後來她們纔看見，原來那張石桌在一聲巨響中從頭到尾裂成兩半；而阿斯蘭不見了。
“哦，哦，哦！”兩個女孩子哭着奔回石桌。
“哦，這太糟糕了，”露茜嗚咽着說，“它們該留下屍體的。”
“這是誰幹的呢？”蘇珊叫道，“這是什麼意思？這又是魔法嗎？”
“是的，”她們身後有一個洪亮的聲音說，“這又是魔法。”她們回頭一看。只見陽光下，站着的正是阿斯蘭，個頭比她們先前看到更大的，一面還在抖動鬃毛的(顯然鬃毛又長出來了)。
“哦，阿斯蘭！”姐妹倆都叫了起來。她們目不轉睛地看着它，心裏又高興又害怕。 "
“原來你沒死，親愛的阿斯蘭？”露茜說。
“這會兒沒死。”阿斯蘭說。
“你不是一個——不是一個——？”蘇珊聲音顫抖地問。她不忍心說出那個“鬼”字。
阿斯蘭俯下金色的腦袋，舔舔她的額頭。它呼出的氣是暖烘烘的，鬃毛裏似乎發出一股濃濃的香味籠罩着她。
“我像嗎？”它說。
“哦，你是真的，你是真的！哦，阿斯蘭！”露茜叫着，兩個女孩子都撲上前去，把它吻個遍。
“可是這一切都是什麼意思呢？”等大家稍微平靜了一點，蘇珊問道。
“意思是，”阿斯蘭說，“雖然妖婆懂得高深魔法，可她不懂得還有更高深一層的魔法。她懂的那一套只到遠古時代爲止。但如果她能看得更遠一點，看到太古時代的寂靜和黑暗深處，她就會看到還有一條不同的咒語。她就會知道一個自願送死的犧牲者，本身沒有背叛行爲，卻被當作一個叛徒而殺害，石桌就要崩裂，死亡就會起反作用。而現在——”
“哦，是啊，現在呢？”露茜跳起來拍着手說。
“哦，孩子們，”獅王說，“我覺得自己的力量又恢復了。哦，孩子們，看看你們能抓住我嗎？”它站了一會兒沒動，眼睛閃閃發亮，四肢抖個不停，尾巴用力甩啊甩的。接着它一躍而起，跳過她們頭頂，落在石桌對面。露茜哈哈大笑，雖然她自己也不知道爲什麼笑；她趕緊爬過石桌去抓他。阿斯蘭又是一跳。一場瘋狂的追逐就此開始。它帶領她們在山頂上轉啊轉啊，一會兒讓她們夠也夠不着，一會兒讓她們差點抓到它的尾巴，一會兒從她們中間衝過去，一會兒用它美麗而柔軟的大爪子把她們拋向半空又接住，一會兒又冷不防停下來，弄得三個嘻嘻哈哈滾成一團，只看見一堆皮毛啊、胳膊啊、腿啊什麼的。這場嬉鬧除了在納尼亞，可沒人玩過；而且露茜怎麼也拿不準，她們究竟是在跟雷雨玩呢，還是在跟小貓玩。有趣的是等他們三個最後一起躺在太陽下喘氣的時候，兩個女孩子卻再也不感到疲勞、飢餓和口渴了。
“好了，”阿斯蘭不一會兒就說，“幹正經事吧。我覺得我要吼了，你們最好把耳朵堵上。”
她們照辦了。阿斯蘭站起來，等它張開嘴怒吼時，它的臉變得那麼可怕，她們都不敢正眼看它了。而且她們還看見它面前的樹隨着吼聲全部彎下了腰，草也隨風彎曲成了一片草場。隨後它說：
“我們要走的路長着呢，你們一定得騎在我身上。”於是它趴下了，姐妹倆就爬到它溫暖的金色的背上，蘇珊坐在前面，緊緊抓住它的鬃毛，露茜坐在後面，緊緊抓住蘇珊。它猛一挺身，站起來就飛奔而去，比任何駿馬都快，下了小山，進入密林。
這次騎獅也許是她們到納尼亞以來最美妙的事了。你曾經騎馬奔馳過嗎？想想吧，然後去掉沉重的馬蹄得得聲和鞍具的丁當聲，只想着那四隻大爪子，着地幾乎無聲無息。再想想黑的、灰的或栗色的馬背換成了柔軟的金黃色皮毛，鬃毛在風中飛舞。再想想，你比跑得最快的賽馬還要快兩倍。而且這次騎行既不需要帶路的，也決不會疲勞。阿斯蘭往前衝啊衝的，從不失足，從不猶豫，它熟練地在樹幹之間穿過，跳過灌木叢，跳過荊棘叢，跳過小溪，路過小河，遊過大河。而且你不是在路上騎行，也不是在公園裏，甚至也不是在草原上，而是橫穿整個納尼亞，在春天裏，走過條條幽暗的山毛櫸林陰路，穿過橡樹林間塊塊向陽的空地，穿過片片有雪白櫻樹的野生果園，路過水聲轟鳴的瀑布、青苔覆蓋的岩石、回聲不絕的山洞，爬上金雀花叢映照的多風的山坡，穿過有茂密石南的山肩，沿着令人眩暈的山脊，跑下去，跑下去，又一次跑進開闊的山谷，跑進大片的蘭花地。
快到中午的時候，他們發現自己正在一片陡峭的山坡上，俯看一座城堡——從他們站的地方望去就像一個小小的玩具城堡——看上去似乎全是尖尖的塔樓。不過獅王正全速衝向城堡，因此城堡也就越來越大，她們還來不及問自己這是哪兒，就已迎面來到城堡前。此刻已不再像玩具城堡，而是陰森森地聳立在她們面前了。城垛上看不見人影，城堡大門也緊緊閉着。阿斯蘭卻一點沒有放慢步子，像一顆子彈似的，筆直朝城堡衝去。
“妖婆的老窩到了！”它叫道，“好了，孩子們，抓緊啊！”
一眨眼，天翻地覆，姐妹倆只覺得五臟六腑都翻了出來，因爲獅王振作精神，又跳了一大跳，這一次比它以往任何一次都跳得更高——不妨說它不是跳，而是一直飛過了城堡的牆頭。兩個女孩子氣都喘不過來，但絲毫沒受傷，不知不覺中已從獅背上滾了下來，落在一個寬闊的石頭院子裏，裏面全是石像。
