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任务什么 《银椅》第2章:吉尔接受任务
《银椅》第2章:吉尔接受任务 WITHOUT a gla ce at Jill the lio ro e to it feet a d gave o e la t low. The a if ati

《银椅》第2章:吉尔接受任务
WITHOUT a glance at Jill the lion rose to its feet and gave one last blow. Thenas if satisfied with its work
it turned and stalked slowly away
back into the forest.
"It must be a dream
it must
it must
" said Jill to herself. "I'll wake up in a moment." But it wasn't
and she didn't.
"I do wish we'd never e to this dreadful place
" said Jill. "I don't believe Scrubb knew any more about it than I do. Or if he did
he had no business to bring me here without warning me what it was like. It's not my fault he fell over that cliff. If he'd left me alone we should both be all right." Then she remembered again the scream that Scrubb had given when he fell
and burst into tears.
Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later
and then you still have to decide what to do. When Jill stopped
she found she was dreadfully thirsty. She had been lying face downward
and now she sat up. The birds had ceased singing and there was perfect silence except for one small
persistent sound
which seemed to e from a good distance away. She listened carefully
and felt almost sure it was the sound of running water.
Jill got up and looked round her very carefully. There was no sign of the lion; but there were so many trees about that it might easily be quite close without her seeing it. For all she knew
there might be several lions. But her thirst was very bad now
and she plucked up her courage to go and look for that running water. She went on tiptoes
stealing cautiously from tree to tree
and stopping to peer round her at every step.
The wood was so still that it was not difficult to decide where the sound was ing from. It grew clearer every moment and
sooner than she expected
she came to an open glade and saw the stream
bright as glass
running across the turf a stone's throw away from her. But although the sight of the water made her feel ten times thirstier than before
she didn't rush forward and drink. She stood as still as if she had been turned into stone
with her mouth wide open. And she had a very good reason; just on this side of the stream lay the lion.
It lay with its head raised and its o fore-paws out in front of it
like the lions in Trafalgar Square. She knew at once that it had seen her
for its eyes looked straight into hers for a moment and then turned away - as if it knew her quite well and didn't think much of her.
"If I run away
it'll be after me in a moment
" thought Jill. "And if I go on
I shall run straight into its mouth." Anyway
she couldn't have moved if she had tried
and she couldn't take her eyes off it. How long this lasted
she could not be sure; it seemed like hours. And the thirst became so bad that she almost felt she would not mind being eaten by the lion if only she could be sure of getting a mouthful of water first.
"If you're thirsty
you may drink."
They were the first words she had heard since Scrubb had spoken to her on the edge of the cliff. For a second she stared here and there
wondering who had spoken. Then the voice said again
"If you are thirsty
e and drink
" and of course she remembered what Scrubb had said about animals talking in that other world
and realized that it was the lion speaking. Anyway
she had seen its lips move this time
and the voice was not like a man's. It was deeper
wilder
and stronger; a sort of heavy
golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened than she had been before
but it made her frightened in rather a different way.
"Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I'm dying of thirst
" said Jill.
"Then drink
" said the Lion.
"May I - could I - would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk
she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
"Will you promise not to - do anything to me
if I do e?" said Jill.
"I make no promise
" said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that
without noticing it
she had e a step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?" she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys
women and men
kings and emperors
cities and realms
" said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting
nor as if it were sorry
nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't e and drink
" said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst
" said the Lion.
"Oh dear!" said Jill
ing another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."
"There is no other stream
" said the Lion.
It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion - no one who had seen his stern face could do that - and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do
but she went forward to the stream
knelt down
and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest
most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn't need to drink much of it
for it quenched your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now
she realized that this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all. She got up and stood there with her lips still wet from drinking.
"Come here
" said the Lion. And she had to. She was almost beeen its front paws now
looking straight into its face. But she couldn't stand that for long; she dropped her eyes.
"Human Child
" said the Lion. "Where is the Boy?"
"He fell over the cliff
" said Jill
and added
"Sir." She didn't know what else to call him
and it sounded cheek to call him nothing.
"How did he e to do that
Human Child?"
"He was trying to stop me from falling
Sir."
"Why were you so near the edge
Human Child?"
"I was showing off
Sir."
"That is a very good answer
Human Child. Do so no more. And now" (here for the first time the Lion's face became a little less stern) "the boy is safe. I have blown him to Narnia. But your task will be the harder because of what you have done."
"Please
what task
Sir?" said Jill.
"The task for which I called you and him here out of your own world."
This puzzled Jill very much. "It's mistaking me for someone else
" she thought. She didn't dare to tell the Lion this
though she felt things would get into a dreadful muddle unless she did.
"Speak your thought
Human Child
" said the Lion.
"I was wondering - I mean - could there be some mistake? Because nobody called me and Scrubb
you know. It was we who asked to e here. Scrubb said we were to call to - to Somebody - it was a name I wouldn't know - and perhaps the Somebody would let us in. And we did
and then we found the door open.'
"You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you
" said the Lion.
"Then you are Somebody
Sir?" said Jill.
"I am. And now hear your task. Far from here in the land of Narnia there lives an aged king who is sad because he has no prince of his blood to be king after him. He has no heir because his only son was stolen from him many years ago
and no one in Narnia knows where that prince went or whether he is still alive. But he is. I lay on you this mand
that you seek this lost prince until either you have found him and brought him to his father's house
or else died in the attempt
or else gone back into your own world."
"How
please?" said Jill.
"I will tell you
Child
" said the Lion. "These are the signs by which I will guide you in your quest. First; as soon as the Boy Eustace sets foot in Narnia
he will meet an old and dear friend. He must greet that friend at once; if he does
you will both have good help. Second; you must journey out of Narnia to the north till you e to the ruined city of the ancient giants. Third; you shall find a writing on a stone in that ruined city
and you must do what the writing tells you. Fourth; you will know the lost prince (if you find him) by this
that he will be the first person you have met in your travels who will ask you to do something in my name
in the name of Aslan."
As the Lion seemed to have finished
Jill thought she should say something. So she said
"Thank you very much. I see."
"Child
" said Aslan
in a gentler voice than he had yet used
"perhaps you do not see quite as well as you think. But the first step is to remember. Repeat to me
in order
the four signs."
Jill tried
and didn't get them quite right. So the Lion corrected her
and made her repeat them again and again till she could say them perfectly. He was very patient over this
so that
when it was done
Jill plucked up courage to ask:
"Please
how am I to get to Narnia?"
"On my breath
" said the Lion. "I will blow you into the west of the world as I blew Eustace."
"Shall I catch him in time to tell him the first sign? But I suppose it won't matter. If he sees an old friend
he's sure to go and speak to him
isn't he?"
"You will have no time to spare
" said the Lion. "That is why I must send you at once. Come. Walk before me to the edge of the cliff."
Jill remembered very well that if there was no time to spare
that was her own fault. "If I hadn't made such a fool of myself
Scrubb and I would have been going together. And he'd have heard all the instructions as well as me
" she thought. So she did as she was told. It was very alarming walking back to the edge of the cliff
especially as the Lion did not walk with her but behind her - making no noise on his soft paws.
But long before she had got anywhere near the edge
the voice behind her said
"Stand still. In a moment I will blow. But
first
remember
remember
remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night
and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you
let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly
I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain
the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia
the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look
when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters. And now
daughter of Eve
farewell -"
The voice had been growing softer towards the end of this speech and now it faded away altogether. Jill looked behind her. To her astonishment she saw the cliff already more than a hundred yards behind her
and the Lion himself a speck of bright gold on the edge of it. She had been setting her teeth and clenching her fists for a terrible blast of lion's breath; but the breath had really been so gentle that she had not even noticed the moment at which she left the earth. And now
there was nothing but air for thousands upon thousands of feet below her.
She felt frightened only for a second. For one thing
the world beneath her was so very far away that it seemed to have nothing to do with her. For another
floating on the breath of the Lion was so extremely fortable. She found she could lie on her back or on her face and ist any way she pleased
just as you can in water (if you've learned to float really well). And because she was moving at the same pace as the breath
there was no wind
and the air seemed beautifully warm. It was not in the least like being in an aeroplane
because there was no noise and no vibration. If Jill had ever been in a balloon she might have thought it more like that; only better.
When she looked back now she could take in for the first time the real size of the mountain she was leaving. She wondered why a mountain so huge as that was not covered with snow and ice - "but I suppose all that sort of thing is different in this world
" thought Jill. Then she looked below her; but she was so high that she couldn't make out whether she was floating over land or sea
nor what speed she was going at.
"By Jove! The signs!" said Jill suddenly. "I'd better repeat them." She was in a panic for a second or o
but she found she could still say them all correctly. "So that's all right
" she said
and lay back on the air as if it was a sofa
with a sigh of contentment.
"Well
I do declare
" said Jill to herself some hours later
"I've been asleep. Fancy sleeping on air. I wonder if anyone's done it before. I don't suppose they have. Oh bother - Scrubb probably has! On this same journey
a little bit before me. Let's see what it looks like down below."
What it looked like was an enormous
very dark blue plain. There were no hills to be seen; but there were biggish white things moving slowly across it. "Those must be clouds
" she thought. "But far bigger than the ones we saw from the cliff. I suppose they're bigger because they're nearer. I must be getting lower. Bother this sun."
The sun which had been high overhead when she began her journey was now getting into her eyes. This meant that it was getting lower
ahead of her. Scrubb was quite right in saying that Jill (I don't know about girls in general) didn't think much about points of the pass. Otherwise she would have known
when the sun began getting in her eyes
that she was travelling pretty nearly due west.
Staring at the blue plain below her
she presently noticed that there were little dots of brighter
paler colour in it here and there. "It's the sea!" thought Jill. "I do believe those are islands." And so they were. She might have felt rather jealous if she had known that some of them were islands which Scrubb had seen from a ship's deck and even landed on; but she didn't know this. Then
later on
she began to see that there were little wrinkles on the blue flatness: little wrinkles which must be quite big ocean waves if you were down among them. And now
all along the horizon there was a thick dark line which grew thicker and darker so quickly that you could see it growing. That was the first sign she had had of the great speed at which she was travelling. And she knew that the thickening line must be land.
Suddenly from her left (for the wind was in the south) a great white cloud came rushing towards her
this time on the same level as herself. And before she knew where she was
she had shot right into the middle of its cold
wet fogginess. That took her breath away
but she was in it only for a moment. She came out blinking in the sunlight and found her clothes wet. (She had on a blazer and sweater and shorts and stockings and pretty thick shoes; it had been a muddy sort of day in England.) She came out lower than she had gone in; and as soon as she did so she noticed something which
I suppose
she ought to have been expecting
but which came as a surprise and a shock. It was Noises. Up till then she had travelled in total silence. Now
for the first time
she heard the noise of waves and the crying of seagulls. And now
too
she smelled the smell of the sea. There was no mistake about her speed now. She saw o waves meet with a smack and a spout of foam go up beeen them; but she had hardly seen it before it was a hundred yards behind her. The land was getting nearer at a great pace. She could see mountains far inland
and other nearer mountains on her left. She could see bays and headlands
woods and fields
stretches of sandy beach. The sound of waves breaking on the shore was growing louder every second and drowning the other sea noises.
Suddenly the land opened right ahead of her. She was ing to the mouth of a river. She was very low now
only a few feet above the water. A wave-top came against her toe and a great splash of foam spurted up
drenching her nearly to the waist. Now she was losing speed. Instead of being carried up the river she was gliding in to the river bank on her left. There were so many things to notice that she could hardly take them all in; a smooth
green lawn
a ship so brightly coloured that it looked like an enormous piece of jewellery
towers and battlements
banners fluttering in the air
a crowd
gay clothes
armour
gold
swords
a sound of music. But this was all jumbled. The first thing that she knew clearly was that she had alighted and was standing under a thicket of trees close by the river side
and there
only a few feet away from her
was Scrubb.
The first thing she thought was how very grubby and untidy and generally unimpressive he looked. And the second was "How wet I am!"
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