HOW HELP CAME TO THE KING:
Bur his misery did not last long. Almost at once there came a bump, and then
a second bump, and two children were standing before him. The wood in front of
him had been quite empty a second before and he knew they had not come from
behind his tree, for he would have heard them. They had in fact simply appeared
from nowhere. He saw at a glance that they were wearing the same queer, dingy
sort of clothes as the people in his dream; and he saw, at a second glance, that
they were the youngest boy and girl out of that party of seven.
"Gosh!" said the boy, "that took one's breath away! I thought -"
"Hurry up and get him untied," said the girl. "We can talk, afterwards." Then
she added, turning to Tirian, "I'm sorry we've been so long. We came the moment
we could."
While she was speaking the Boy produced a knife from his pocket and was quickly
cutting the King's bonds: too quickly, in fact, for the King was so stiff and
numb that when the last cord was cut he fell forward on his hands and knees. He
couldn't get up again till he had brought some life back into his legs by a good
rubbing.
"I say," said the girl. "It was you, wasn't it, who appeared to us that night
when we were all at supper? Nearly a week ago."
"A week, fair maid?" said Tirian. "My dream led me into your world scarce ten
minutes since."
"It's the usual muddle about times, Pole," said the Boy.
"I remember now," said Tirian. "That too comes in all the old tales. The time of
your strange land is different from ours. But if we speak of Time, 'tis time to
be gone from here: for my enemies are close at hand. Will you come with me?"
"Of course," said the girl. "It's you we've come to help."
Tirian got to his feet and led them rapidly down hill, Southward and away from
the stable. He knew where he meant to go but his first aim was to get to rocky
places where they would leave no trail, and his second to cross some water so
that they would leave no scent. This took them about an hour's scrambling and
wading and while that was going on nobody had any breath to talk. But even so,
Tirian kept on stealing glances at his companions. The wonder of walking beside
the creatures from another world made him feel a little dizzy: but it also made
all the old stories seem far more real than they had ever seemed before . . .
anything might happen now.
"Now," said Tirian as they came to the head of a little valley which ran down
before them among young birch trees, "we are out of danger of those villains for
a space and may walk more easily." The sun had risen, dew-drops were twinkling
on every branch, and birds were singing.
"What about some grub? - I mean for you, Sir, we two have had our breakfast,"
said the Boy.
Tirian wondered very much what he meant by "grub", but when the Boy opened a
bulgy satchel which he was carrying and pulled out a rather greasy and squashy
packet, he understood. He was ravenously hungry, though he hadn't thought about
it till that moment. There were two hard-boiled egg sandwiches, and two cheese
sandwiches, and two with some kind of paste in them. If he hadn't been so hungry
he wouldn't have thought much of the paste, for that is a sort of food nobody
eats in Narnia. By the time he had eaten all six sandwiches they had come to the
bottom of the valley and there they found a mossy cliff with a little fountain
bubbling out of it. All three stopped and drank and splashed their hot faces.
"And now," said the girl as she tossed her wet hair back from her forehead,
"aren't you going to tell us who you are and why you were tied up and what it's
all about?"
"With a good will, damsel," said Tirian. "But we must keep on the march." So
while they went on walking he told them who he was and all the things that had
happened to him. "And now," he said at the end, "I am going to a certain tower,
one of three that were built in my grandsire's time to guard Lantern Waste
against certain perilous outlaws who dwelled there in his day. By Aslan's good
will I was not robbed of my keys. In that tower we shall find stores of weapons
and mail and some victuals also, though no better than dry biscuit. There also
we can lie safe while we make our plans. And now, prithee, tell me who you two
are and all your story."
"I'm Eustace Scrubb and this is Jill Pole," said the Boy. "And we were here once
before, ages and ages ago, more than a year ago by our time, and there was a
chap called Prince Rilian, and they were keeping this chap underground, and
Puddleglum put his foot in -"
"Ha!" cried Tirian, "are you then that Eustace and that Jill who rescued King
Rilian from his long enchantment?"
"Yes, that's us," said Jill. "So he's King Rilian now, is he? Oh of course he
would be. I forgot-"
"Nay," said Tirian, "I am the seventh in descent from him. He has been dead over
two hundred years."
Jill made a face. "Ugh!" she said. "That's the horrid part about coming back to
Narnia." But Eustace went on.
"Well now you know who we are, Sire," he said. "And it was like this. The
Professor and Aunt Polly had got all us friends of Narnia together -"
"I know not these names, Eustace," said Tirian.
"They're the two who came into Narnia at the very beginning, the day all the
animals learned to talk."
"By the Lion's Mane," cried Tirian. "Those two! The Lord Digory and the Lady
Polly! From the dawn of the world! And still in your place? The wonder and the
glory of it! But tell me, tell me."
"She isn't really our aunt, you know," said Eustace. "She's Miss Plummer, but we
call her Aunt Polly. Well those two got us all together partly just for fun, so
that we could all have a good jaw about Narnia (for of course there's no one
else we can ever talk to about things like that) but partly because the
Professor had a feeling that we were somehow wanted over here. Well then you
came in like a ghost or goodness-knows-what and nearly frightened the lives out
of us and vanished without saying a word. After that, we knew for certain there
was something up.
The next question was how to get here. You can't go just by wanting to. So we
talked and talked and at last the Professor said the only way would be by the
Magic Rings. It was by those Rings that he and Aunt Polly got here long, long
ago when they were only kids, years before we younger ones were born. But the
Rings had all been buried in the garden of a house in London (that's our big
town, Sire) and the house had been sold. So then the problem was how to get at
them. You'll never guess what we did in the end! Peter and Edmund - that's the
High King Peter, the one who spoke to you - went up to London to get into the
garden from the back, early in the morning before people were up. They were
dressed like workmen so that if anyone did see them it would look as if they'd
come to do something about the drains. I wish I'd been with them: it must have
been glorious fun. And they must have succeeded for next day Peter sent us a
wire - that's a sort of message, Sire, I'll explain about it some other time -
to say he'd got the Rings. And the day after that was the day Pole and I had to
go back to school - we're the only two who are still at school and we're at the
same one. So Peter and Edmund were to meet us at a place on the way down to
school and hand over the Rings. It had to be us two who were to go to Narnia,
you see, because the older ones couldn't come again. So we got into the train
that's a kind of thing people travel in in our world: a lot of wagons chained
together - and the Professor and Aunt Polly and Lucy came with us. We wanted to
keep together as long as we could. Well there we were in the train. And we were
just getting to the station where the others were to meet us, and I was looking
out of the window to see if I could see them when suddenly there came a most
frightful jerk and a noise: and there we were in Narnia and there was your
Majesty tied up to the tree."
"So you never used the Rings?" said Tirian.
"No," said Eustace. "Never even saw them. Aslan did it all for us in his own way
without any Rings."
"But the High King Peter has them," said Tirian.
"Yes," said Jill. "But we don't think he can use them. When the two other
Pevensies - King Edmund and Queen Lucy - were last here, Aslan said they would
never come to Narnia again. And he said something of the same sort to the High
King, only longer ago. You may be sure he'll come like a shot if he's allowed."
"Gosh!" said Eustace. "It's getting hot in this sun. Are we nearly there, Sire?"
"Look," said Tirian and pointed. Not many yards away grey battlements rose above
the tree-tops, and after a minute's more walking they came out in an open grassy
space. A stream ran across it and on the far side of the stream stood a squat,
square tower with very few and narrow windows and one heavy-looking door in the
wall that faced them.
Tirian looked sharply this way and that to make sure that no enemies were in
sight. Then he walked up to the tower and stood still for a moment fishing up
his bunch of keys which he wore inside his hunting-dress on a narrow silver
chain that went round his neck. It was a nice bunch of keys that he brought out,
for two were golden and many were richly ornamented: you could see at once that
they were keys made for opening solemn and secret rooms in palaces, or chests
and caskets of sweet-smelling wood that contained royal treasures. But the key
which he now put into the lock of the door was big and plain and more rudely
made. The lock was stiff and for a moment Tirian began to be afraid that he
would not be able to turn it: but at last he did and the door swung open with a
sullen creak.
"Welcome friends," said Tirian. "I fear this is the best palace that the King of
Narnia can now offer to his guests."
Tirian was pleased to see that the two strangers had been well brought up. They
both said not to mention it and that they were sure it would be very nice.
As a matter of fact it was not particularly nice. It was rather dark and smelled
very damp. There was only one room in it and this room went right up to the
stone roof: a wooden staircase in one corner led up to a trap door by which you
could get out on the battlements. There were a few rude bunks to sleep in, and a
great many lockers and bundles. There was also a hearth which looked as if
nobody had lit a fire in it for a great many years.
"We'd better go out and gather some firewood first thing, hadn't we?" said Jill.
"Not yet, comrade," said Tirian. He was determined that they should not be
caught unarmed, and began searching the lockers, thankfully remembering that he
had always been careful to have these garrison towers inspected once a year and
to make sure that they were stocked with all things needful. The bow strings
were there in their coverings of oiled silk, the swords and spears were greased
against rust, and the armour was kept bright in its wrappings. But there was
something even better. "Look you!" said Tirian as he drew out a long mail shirt
of a curious pattern and flashed it before the children's eyes.
"That's funny-looking mail, Sire," said Eustace.
"Aye, lad," said Tirian. "No Narnian Dwarf smithied that. 'Tis mail of Calormen,
outlandish gear. I have ever kept a few suits of it in readiness, for I never
knew when I or my friends might have reason to walk unseen in The Tisroc's land.
And look on this stone bottle. In this there is a juice which, when we have
rubbed it on our hands and faces, will make us brown as Calormenes."
"Oh hurrah!" said Jill. "Disguise! I love disguises."
Tirian showed them how to pour out a little of the juice into the palms of their
hands and then rub it well over their faces and necks, right down to the
shoulders, and then on their hands, right up to the elbows. He did the same
himself.
"After this has hardened on us," he said, "we may wash in water and it will not
change. Nothing but oil and ashes will make us white Narnians again. And now,
sweet Jill, let us go see how this mail shirt becomes you. 'Tis something too
long, yet not so much as I feared. Doubtless it belonged to a page in the train
of one of their Tarkaans."
After the mail shirts they put on Calormene helmets, which are little round ones
fitting tight to the head and having a spike on top. Then Tirian took long rolls
of some white stuff out of the locker and wound them over the helmets till they
became turbans: but the little steel spike still stuck up in the middle. He and
Eustace took curved Calormene swords and little round shields. There was no
sword light enough for Jill, but he gave her a long, straight hunting knife
which might do for a sword at a pinch.
"Hast any skill with the bow, maiden?" said Tirian.
"Nothing worth talking of," said Jill, blushing. "Scrubb's not bad."
"Don't you believe her, Sire," said Eustace. "We've both been practising archery
ever since we got back from Narnia last time, and she's about as good as me now.
Not that either of us is much."
Then Tirian gave Jill a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The next business was
to light a fire, for inside that tower it still felt more like a cave than like
anything indoors and set one shivering. But they got warm gathering wood - the
sun was now at its highest - and once the blaze was roaring up the chimney the
place began to look cheerful. Dinner was, however, a dull meal, for the best
they could do was to pound up some of the hard biscuit which they found in a
locker and pour it into boiling water, with salt, so as to make a kind of
porridge. And of course there was nothing to drink but water.
"I wish we'd brought a packet of tea," said Jill.
"Or a tin of cocoa," said Eustace.
"A firkin or so of good wine in each of these towers would not have been amiss,"
said Tirian.