Chapter 8- What Happened After Dinner

“And now,” said Lucy, “please tell us what’s happened to Mr. Tumnus.”

“Ah, that’s bad,” said Mr. Beaver, shaking his head. “That’s a very, very bad business. There’s no doubt he was taken off by the police. I heard that from a bird who saw it happen.”

“But where has he been taken to?” asked Lucy.

“Well they were heading northwards when they were last seen, and we all know what that means.”

“No, we don’t,” said Susan. Mr. Beaver shook his head in a very gloomy way.

“I’m afraid it means they were taking him to her house,” he said.

“But what’ll they do to him, Mr. Beaver?” gasped Lucy.

“Well,” said Mr. Beaver, “you can’t really say for sure. But there are not many who are taken in there that ever come out again. Statues. They say it is all full of statues- in the courtyard and up the stairs and in the hall. People she’s turned” – he paused and shuddered – “turned into stone.”

“But, Mr. Beaver,” said Lucy, “can’t we – I mean, we must do something to save him. It’s too dreadful and it’s all on my account.”

“I believe you’d save him if you could, dearie,” said Mrs. Beaver, “but you have no chance of getting into that house against her will and ever coming out alive.”

“Couldn’t we have some plan?” said Peter, “I mean, couldn’t we dress up as something and wait until she went out – or – oh, there must be some way. This Faun saved my sister, Mr. Beaver. We can’t just leave him to be – to have that done to him.”

“It’s no good, Son of Adam,” said Mr. Beaver, “no good your trying, of all people. But now that Aslan is on the move -”

“Oh, yes! Tell us about Aslan!” said several voices at once, for once again that strange feeling, like the first signs of spring, like good news – had come over them.

“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.

“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s the Lord of the whole wood, but he’s not here very often. Never in my life or my father’s. But we’ve heard that he’s come back. He’s in Narnia at this moment. He’ll get the White Witch. It is him, not you, who will save Mr. Tumnus.”

“She won’t turn him into stone too?” said Edmund.

“What a simple thing to say, Son of Adam!” answered Mr. Beaver with a great laugh. “Turn him into stone! I’ll be surprised if she can even stand on her own feet in front of him. No, no. He make it all right, like it says in an old rhyme from around here:


Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight.
At the sound of his roar, sadness will be no more.
When he shows his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we’ll have spring again.

You’ll understand when you see him.”

“But will we see him?” asked Susan.

“Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m supposed to take you to where you’ll meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.

“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.

“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. He is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan. “I thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I’ll feel quite nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If anyone can stand before Aslan without being afraid, they are either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “didn’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver told you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King.”

“I really want to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened.”

“That’s right, Son of Adam,” said Mr. Beaver, “and you will. You are to meet him tomorrow if you can, at the Stone Table.”

“Where’s that?” said Lucy.

“I’ll show you,” said Mr. Beaver. “It’s down the river, a good distance from here. I’ll take you to it!”

“But what about poor Mr. Tumnus?” said Lucy.

“The quickest way to help him is by going to meet Aslan,” said Mr. Beaver. “Once he’s with us, then we can begin doing things. Not that we don’t need you too. That’s another of the old rhymes:

When Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone
Sits at Cair Paravel in throne
The evil time will be over and done

So it must be getting to the end now that he’s come and you’ve come. We’ve heard of Aslan coming into these parts before – long ago. But there’s never been any of your race here before.”

“That’s what I don’t understand, Mr. Beaver,” said Peter. “I mean isn’t the Witch human?”

“She’d like us to believe it,” said Mr. Beaver, “and that’s how she is trying to call herself Queen. But she’s no Daughter of Eve. She comes from your father Adam’s first wife, Lilith. She was one of the Jinn. On the other side she comes from the giants. No, there isn’t a drop of real human blood in the Witch.”

“That’s why she’s so bad, Mr. Beaver,” said Mrs. Beaver.

“True enough, Mrs. Beaver,” he replied. “And that’s why the Witch is always on the lookout for any humans in Narnia. She’s been watching for you many years, and if she knew there were four of you she’d be even more dangerous.”

“Why?”

“Because of another prophesy,” said Mr. Beaver. “Down at Cair Paravel – that’s the castle on the sea coast that ought to be the capital – there are four thrones, and it’s a saying in Narnia that when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit on those four thrones, then it will be the end of the White Witch’s rule and her life.”

All the children had been listening so closely to Mr. Beaver that they had noticed nothing else for a long time. Then Lucy suddenly said:

“Where’s Edmund?”

There was a dreadful pause, and then everyone began asking, “Who saw him last? How long has he been missing? Is he outside?” and they all rushed to the door to look out. The snow was falling everywhere. They all ran out and around the house in every direction. “Edmund! Edmund!” they called. But there was not even an echo to answer them.

“How dreadful!” said Susan as they finally went back to the house. “Oh, how I wish we’d never come.”

“What should we do, Mr. Beaver?” said Peter.

“Do?” said Mr. Beaver, who was already putting on his snow-boots. “Do? We must leave at once. We haven’t a moment to spare!”

“We’d better make four search-parties,” said Peter, “and all go in different directions. Whoever finds him must come back here and -”

“Search parties, Son of Adam?” said Mr. Beaver, “Why?”

“To look for Edmund, of course!”

“There’s no point looking for him,” said Mr. Beaver.

“What do you mean?” said Susan. “He can’t be very far away yet, and we’ve got to find him. What do you mean there’s no use looking for him?”

“The reason,” said Mr. Beaver, “is that we already know where he’s gone!” Everyone stared in amazement. “Don’t you understand?” said Mr. Beaver. “He’s gone to her, to the White Witch. He has betrayed us all.”

“What!” said Susan. “He can’t have done that!”

“Can’t he?” said Mr. Beaver, looking very hard at the three children, and each felt suddenly very sure that this was exactly what Edmund had done.

“But will he know the way?” said Peter.

“Has he been in this country before?” asked Mr. Beaver. “Has he ever been here alone?”

“Yes,” said Lucy, almost in a whisper. “I’m afraid he has.”

“And did he tell you what he’d done or who he’d met?”

“Well, no, he didn’t,” said Lucy.

“Then trust me,” said Mr. Beaver, “he has already met the White Witch and joined her side,
and been told where she lives. I didn’t want to say it before, since he is your brother, but the moment I set eyes on him I said to myself ‘untrustworthy’. He had the look of someone who has been with the Witch and eaten her food.”

“Even so,” said Peter in a small voice, “we’ll still have to go and look for him. He is our brother, after all, even if he is a bit of a beast. And he’s only a kid.”

“Go to the Witch’s house?” said Mrs. Beaver. “The only chance of saving him or you is to stay away from her!”

“Why?” said Lucy.

“All she wants is to get the four of you (she’s always thinking of the four thrones at Cair Paravel). Once you were all in her house it would be over, and there would be four new statues in her collection. But she’ll keep him alive as long as he’s the only one she has. She’ll want to use him as bait, to catch the rest of you with.”

“Oh, can no one help us?” cried Lucy.

“Only Aslan,” said Mr. Beaver. “We must go and meet him. That’s our only chance now.”

“It seems to me, my dears,” said Mrs. Beaver, “that it is very important to know when he left. How much he can tell her depends on how much he heard. Had we started talking about Aslan before he left? If not, then she won’t know Aslan has come to Narnia, and she’ll be off her guard as far as that is concerned.”

“I don’t remember him being here when we were talking about Aslan -” began Peter, but Lucy interrupted him.

“Oh yes, he was,” she said miserably. “Don’t you remember, he asked if the Witch could turn Aslan to stone too?”

“Worse and worse,” said Mr. Beaver, “Was he still here when I told you that we were meeting Aslan at the Stone Table?”

Of course no one knew the answer to this question.

“Because if he was,” continued Mr. Beaver, “then she’ll simply go down in that direction and get between us and the Stone Table and catch us on our way. We’ll be cut off from Aslan.”

“But that isn’t what she’ll do first,” said Mrs. Beaver. “The moment that Edmund tells her that we’re here, she’ll set out to catch us tonight. If he’s been gone about half an hour, she’ll be here in another twenty minutes.”

“You’re right, Mrs. Beaver, said her husband, “we must all get away from here. There’s not a moment to lose.”