纳尼亚传奇:凯斯宾王子评价 《凯斯宾王子》第11章:雄狮长啸

《凯斯宾王子》第11章:雄狮长啸  

WHEN the whole party was finally awake Lucy had to tell her story for the fourth time. The blank silence which followed it was as discouraging as anything could be.
"I can't see anything
" said Peter after he had stared his eyes sore. "Can you
Susan?"
"No
of course I can't
" snapped Susan. "Because there isn't anything to see. She's been dreaming. Do lie down and go to sleep
Lucy."
"And I do hope
" said Lucy in a tremulous voice
"that you will all e with me. Because - because I'll have to go with him whether anyone else does or not."
"Don't talk nonsense
Lucy
" said Susan. "Of course you can't go off on your own. Don't let her
Peter. She's being downright naughty."
"I'll go with her
if she must go
" said Edmund. "She's been right before."
"I know she has
" said Peter. "And she may have been right this morning. We certainly had no luck going down the ge. Still - at this hour of the night. And why should Aslan be invisible to us? He never used to be. It's not like him. What does the D.L.F. say?"
"Oh
I say nothing at all
" answered the Dwarf. "If you all go
of course
I'll go with you; and if your party splits up
I'll go with the High King. That's my duty to him and King Caspian. But
if you ask my private opinion
I'm a plain dwarf who doesn't think there's much chance of finding a road by night where you couldn't find one by day. And I have no use for magic lions which are talking lions and don't talk
and friendly lions though they don't do us any good
and whopping big lions though nobody can see them. It's all bilge and beanstalks as far as I can see."
"He's beating his paw on the ground for us to hurry
" said Lucy. "We must go now. At least I must."
"You've no right to try to force the rest of us like that. It's four to one and you're the youngest
" said Susan.
"Oh
e on
" growled Edmund. "We've got to go. There'll be no peace till we do." He fully intended to back Lucy up
but he was annoyed at losing his night's sleep and was making up for it by doing everything as sulkily as possible.
"On the march
then
" said Peter
wearily fitting his arm into his shield-strap and putting his helmet on. At any other time he would have said something nice to Lucy
who was his favourite sister
for he knew how wretched she must be feeling
and he knew that
whatever had happened
it was not her fault. But he couldn't help being a little annoyed with her all the same.
Susan was the worst. "Supposing I started behaving like Lucy
" she said. "I might threaten to stay here whether the rest of you went on or not. I jolly well think I shall."
"Obey the High King
your Majesty
" said Trumpkin
"and let's be off. If I'm not to be allowed to sleep
I'd as soon march as stand here talking."
And so at last they got on the move. Lucy went first
biting her lip and trying not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she fot them when she fixed her eyes on Aslan. He turned and walked at a slow pace about thirty yards ahead of them. The others had only Lucy's directions to guide them
for Aslan was not only invisible to them but silent as well. His big cat-like paws made no noise on the grass.
He led them to the right of the dancing trees - whether they were still dancing nobody knew
for Lucy had her eyes on the Lion and the rest had their eyes on Lucy - and nearer the edge of the ge. "Cobbles and kettledrums!" thought Trumpkin. "I hope this madness isn't going to end in a moonlight climb and broken necks."
For a long way Aslan went along the top of the precipices. Then they came to a place where some little trees grew right on the edge. He turned and disappeared among them. Lucy held her breath
for it looked as if he had plunged over the cliff; but she was too busy keeping him in sight to stop and think about this. She quickened her pace and was soon among the trees herself. Looking down
she could see a steep and narrow path going slanise down into the ge beeen rocks
and Aslan descending it. He turned and looked at her with his happy eyes. Lucy clapped her hands and began to scramble down after him. From behind her she heard the voices of the others shouting
"Hi! Lucy! Look out
for goodness' sake. You're right on the edge of the ge. Come back - "and then
a moment later
Edmund's voice saying
"No
she's right. There is a way down."
Half-way down the path Edmund caught up with her.
"Look!" he said in great excitement. "Look! What's that shadow crawling down in front of us?"
"It's his shadow
" said Lucy.
"I do believe you're right
Lu
" said Edmund. "I can't think how I didn't see it before. But where is he?"
"With his shadow
of course. Can't you see him?"
"Well
I almost thought I did - for a moment. It's such a rum light."
"Get on
King Edmund
get on
" came Trumpkin's voice from behind and above: and then
farther behind and still nearly at the top
Peter's voice saying
"Oh
buck up
Susan. Give me your hand. Why
a baby could get down here. And do stop grousing."
In a few minutes they were at the bottom and the roaring of water filled their ears. Treading delicately
like a cat
Aslan stepped from stone to stone across the stream. In the middle he stopped
bent down to drink
and as he raised his shaggy head
dripping from the water
he turned to face them again. This time Edmund saw him. "Oh
Aslan!" he cried
darting forward. But the Lion whisked round and began padding up the slope on the far side of the Rush.
"Peter
Peter
" cried Edmund. "Did you see?"
"I saw something
" said Peter. "But it's so tricky in this moonlight. On we go
though
and three cheers for Lucy. I don't feel half so tired now
either."
Aslan without hesitation led them to their left
farther up the ge. The whole journey was odd and dream-like the roaring stream
the wet grey grass
the glimmering cliffs which they were approaching
and always the glorious
silently pacing Beast ahead. Everyone except Susan and the Dwarf could see him now.
Presently they came to another steep path
up the face of the farther precipices. These were far higher than the ones they had just descended
and the journey up them was a long and tedious zig-zag. Fortunately the Moon shone right above the ge so that neither side was in shadow.
Lucy was nearly blown when the tail and hind legs of Aslan disappeared over the top: but with one last effort she scrambled after him and came out
rather shaky-legged and breathless
on the hill they had been trying to reach ever since they left Glasswater. The long gentle slope (heather and grass and a few very big rocks that shone white in the moonlight) stretched up to where it vanished in a glimmer of trees about half a mile away. She knew it. It was the hill of the Stone Table:
With a jingling of mail the others climbed up behind her. Aslan glided on before them and they walked after him.
"Lucy
" said Susan in a very small voice.
"Yes?" said Lucy.
"I see him now. I'm sorry."
"That's all right."
"But I've been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him - he
I mean - yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him tonight
when you woke us up. I mean
deep down inside. Or I could have
if I'd let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and - and - oh
I don't know. And what ever am I to say to him?"
"Perhaps you won't need to say much
" suggested Lucy.
Soon they reached the trees and through them the children could see the Great Mound
Aslan's How
which had been raised over the Table since their days.
"Our side don't keep very good watch
" muttered Trumpkin. "We ought to have been challenged before now -"
"Hush!" said the other four
for now Aslan had stopped and turned and stood facing them
looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid
and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad. The boys strode forward: Lucy made way for them: Susan and the Dwarf shrank back.
"Oh
Aslan
" said King Peter
dropping on one knee and raising the Lion's heavy paw to his face
"I'm so glad. And I'm so sorry. I've been leading them wrong ever since we started and especially yesterday morning."
"My dear son
" said Aslan.
Then he turned and weled Edmund. "Well done
" were his words.
Then
after an awful pause
the deep voice said
"Susan." Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. "You have listened to fears
child
" said Aslan. "Come
let me breathe on you. Fet them. Are you brave again?"
"A little
Aslan
" said Susan.
"And now!" said Aslan in a much louder voice with just a hint of roar in it
while his tail lashed his flanks. "And now
where is this little Dwarf
this famous swordsman and archer
who doesn't believe in lions? Come here
son of Earth
e HERE!" - and the last word was no longer the hint of a roar but almost the real thing.
"Wraiths and wreckage!" gasped Trumpkin in the ghost of a voice. The children
who knew Aslan well enough to see that he liked the Dwarf very much
were not disturbed; but it was quite another thing for Trumpkin
who had never seen a lion before
let alone this Lion. He did the only sensible thing he could have done; that is
instead of bolting
he tottered towards Aslan.
Aslan pounced. Have you ever seen a very young kitten being carried in the mother cat's mouth? It was like that. The Dwarf
hunched up in a little
miserable ball
hung from Aslan's mouth. The Lion gave him one shake and all his armour rattled like a tinker's pack and then - heypresto - the Dwarf flew up in the air. He was as safe as if he had been in bed
though he did not feel so. As he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother's arms and set him (right way up
too) on the ground.
"Son of Earth
shall we be friends?" asked Aslan.
"Ye - he - he - hes
" panted the Dwarf
for it had not yet got its breath back.
"Now
" said Aslan. "The Moon is setting. Look behind you: there is the dawn beginning. We have no time to lose. You three
you sons of Adam and son of Earth
hasten into the Mound and deal with what you will find there."
The Dwarf was still speechless and neither of the boys dared to ask if Aslan would follow them. All three drew their swords and saluted
then turned and jingled away into the dusk. Lucy noticed that there was no sign of weariness in their faces: both the High King and King Edmund looked more like men than boys.
The girls watched them out of sight
standing close beside Aslan. The light was changing. Low down in the east
Aravir
the morning star of Narnia
gleamed like a little moon. Aslan
who seemed larger than before
lifted his head
shook his mane
and roared.
The sound
deep and throbbing at first like an an beginning on a low note
rose and became louder
and then far louder again
till the earth and air were shaking with it. It rose up from that hill and floated across all Narnia. Down in Miraz's camp men woke
stared palely in one another's faces
and grasped their weapons. Down below that in the Great River
now at its coldest hour
the heads and shoulders of the nymphs
and the great weedy-bearded head of the river-god
rose from the water. Beyond it
in every field and wood
the alert ears of rabbits rose from their holes
the sleepy heads of birds came out from under wings
owls hooted
vixens barked
hedgehogs grunted
the trees stirred. In towns and villages mothers pressed babies close to their breasts
staring with wild eyes
dogs whimpered
and men leaped up groping for lights. Far away on the northern frontier the mountain giants peered from the dark gateways of their castles.
What Lucy and Susan saw was a dark something ing to them from almost every direction across the hills. It looked first like a black mist creeping on the ground
then like the stormy waves of a black sea rising higher and higher as it came on
and then
at last
like what it was woods on the move. All the trees of the world appeared to be rushing towards Aslan. But as they drew nearer they looked less like trees; and when the whole crowd
bowing and curtsying and waving thin long arms to Aslan
were all around Lucy
she saw that it was a crowd of human shapes. Pale birch-girls were tossing their heads
willowwomen pushed back their hair from their brooding faces to gaze on Aslan
the queenly beeches stood still and adored him
shaggy oak-men
lean and melancholy elms
shockheaded hollies (dark themselves
but their wives all bright with berries) and gay rowans
all bowed and rose again
shouting
"Aslan
Aslan!" in their various husky or creaking or wave-like voices.
The crowd and the dance round Aslan (for it had bee a dance once more) grew so thick and rapid that Lucy was confused. She never saw where certain other people came from who were soon capering about among the trees. One was a youth
dressed only in a fawn-skin
with vine-leaves wreathed in his curly hair. His face would have been almost too pretty for a boy's
if it had not looked
so extremely wild. You felt
as Edmund said when he saw him a few days later
"There's a chap who might do anything absolutely anything." He seemed to have a great many names - Bromios
Bassareus
and the Ram were three of them. There were a lot of girls with him
as wild as he. There was even
unexpectedly
someone on a donkey. And everybody was laughing: and everybody was shouting out
"Euan
euan
eu-oi-oi-oi."
"Is it a Romp
Aslan?" cried the youth. And apparently it was. But nearly everyone seemed to have a different idea as to what they were playing. It may have been Tig
but Lucy never discovered who was It. It was rather like Blind Man's Buff
only everyone behaved as if they were blindfolded. It was not unlike Hunt the Slipper
but the slipper was never found. What made it more plicated was that the man on the donkey
who was old and enormously fat
began calling out at once
"Refreshments! Time for refreshments
" and falling off his donkey and being bundled on to it again by the others
while the donkey was under the impression that the whole thing was a circus and tried to give a display of walking on its hind legs. And all the time there were more and more vine leaves everywhere. And soon not only leaves but vines. They were climbing up everything. They were running up the legs of the tree people and circling round their necks. Lucy put up her hands to push back her hair and found she was pushing back vine branches. The donkey was a mass of them. His tail was pletely entangled and something dark was nodding beeen his ears. Lucy looked again and saw it was a bunch of grapes. After that it was mostly grapes overhead and underfoot and all around.
"Refreshments! Refreshments
" roared the old man.
Everyone began eating
and whatever hothouses your people may have
you have never tasted such grapes. Really good grapes
firm and tight on the outside
but bursting into cool sweetness when you put them into your mouth
were one of the things the girls had never had quite enough of before. Here
there were more than anyone could possibly want
and rib table-manners at all. One saw sticky and stained fingers everywhere
and
though mouths were full
the laughter never ceased nor the yodelling cries of Euan
euan
eu-oi-oi-oi-oi
till all of a sudden everyone felt at the same moment that the game (whatever it was)
and the feast
ought to be over
and everyone flopped down breathless on the ground and turned their faces to Aslan to hear what he would say next.
At that moment the sun was just rising and Lucy remembered something and whispered to Susan

"I say
Su
I know who they are."
"Who?"
"The boy with the wild face is Bacchus and the old one on the donkey is Silenus. Don't you remember Mr Tumnus telling us about them long ago?"
"Yes
of course. But I say
Lu "
"What?"
"I wouldn't have felt safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we'd met them without Aslan."
"I should think not
" said Lucy.