Chapter Twenty: An Enchanted Table
Disclaimer: Stories become legends, legends become fairy tales, and fairy tales belong to every child. Lewis wrote the story, the world made it legend, and time made it a fairy tale.
Anything italicized is a direct quote; there are a few times when I left some sentences out, but not many.
A/N: Most of the rest of this story will be more direct quotes than new story, because Lewis uses Lucy's perspective quite often, and there's a lot of dialogue. I'll have a little bit interspersed, and add where I can, but it will be much more Lewis's than mine.
OOOOO
The Dark Island was the most fearful part of their journey so far, and Lucy saw its mark on the sailors and kings alike. She knew the darkest fears teach wisdom to those who remember the moment fear was proved to be only a shadow – the moment the darkness vanished and the sun showed it no longer touched any part of the ship. She made sure to speak of that moment to Edmund in the hearing of the crew. And their eyes grew brighter as they remembered.
But for a few, the memory became a ghost, a reoccurring fright, as they only remembered the nightmares. And for Lord Rhoop, who had lived in nightmares for years, the shadows were stronger than the reality of the sunshine. Lucy spent the most time around him, talking to him of all the things Aslan had done in Narnia during his dark years. But it wasn't enough. For the ones who weren't healed yet, Lucy asked Aslan for sunny days.
And He answered.
The wind never failed but it grew gentler every day till at length the waves were little more than ripples, and the ship glided on hour after hour almost as if they were sailing on a lake. And every night they saw that there rose in the east new constellations which no one had ever seen in Narnia and perhaps, as Lucy thought with a mixture of joy and fear, no living eye had seen at all. Those new stars were big and bright and the nights were warm. Most of them slept on deck and talked far into the night or hung over the ship's side watching the luminous dance of the foam thrown up by their bows.
On an evening of startling beauty, when the sunset behind them was so crimson and purple and widely spread that the very sky itself seemed to have grown larger, they came in sight of land on their starboard bow. Lucy was on deck when the call came from the lookout, and ran to view the island. It came slowly nearer and the light behind them made it look as if the capes and headlands of this new country were all on fire. But presently they were sailing along its coast and its western cape now rose up astern of them, black against the red sky and sharp as if it was cut out of cardboard, and the then they could see better what this country was like. It had no mountains but many gentle hills with slopes like pillows. An attractive smell came from it – what Lucy called "a dim, purple kind of smell", which Edmund said (and Rhince thought) was rot, but Caspian said, "I know what you mean." Lucy didn't have better words for it; but it was a deep, rich smell that exploded on the senses. She made a face at Edmund, but soon forgot about it as they began looking for a place to anchor.
They sailed on a good way, past point after point, hoping to find a nice deep harbour, but had to content themselves in the end with a wide and shallow bay. Though it had seemed calm out at sea there was of course surf breaking on the sand and they could not bring the Dawn Treader as far in as they would have liked.
"It's no good, Your Majesties," Drinian said, frowning a bit. "It's a slope all round, and we don't want to ground her."
"No, of course not," said Caspian. "Tell the men to weigh anchor. We'll take the boat. Who wants to go ashore?"
"I have had enough of islands," said Lord Rhoop (1). He had been standing a little straighter, during those calm sunny days, but he still watched the world around him as if it was dream that would vanish.
"I'll go," said Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, Caspian, and Reepicheep agreeing. Drinian and Rhince wanted to go ashore as well, and the Captain gave the tiller to the third mate, collecting a few sailors along the way. They had a wet and tumbling landing in the boat, but they made it in and rowed ashore. All the time that they remained in this country the sound of the long breakers was in their ears.
Two men were left to guard the boat and Caspian led the others inland, but not far because it was too late for exploring and the light would soon go. But there was no need to go far to find an adventure. The level valley which lay at the head of the bay showed no road or track or other sign of habitation. Underfoot was fine springy turf dotted here and there with a low bushy growth which Edmund and Lucy took for heather. Eustace, who was really rather good at botany, said it wasn't, and he was probably right; but it was something very much of the same kind.
Lucy kept looking around. A memory kept intruding, a memory of a walk down a long hallway on a different island and a magic book. That's it, she thought to herself. It feels like this island is full of magic.
When they had gone less than a bowshot from the shore, Drinian said, "Look! What's that?" and everyone stopped.
"Are they great trees?" said Caspian.
"Towers, I think," said Eustace.
"It might be giants," said Edmund in a lower voice, and Lucy tensed. There were a few (very few) friendly giants, and one had even helped open up the Witch's castle, but most giants weren't.
"The way to find out is to go right in among them," said Reepicheep, drawing his sword and pattering off ahead of everyone else.
Lucy peered ahead, trying to see an enemy before Reep could meet it. The tall figures weren't moving.
"I think it's a ruin," said Lucy when they had got a good deal nearer, and her guess was the best so far. What they now saw was a wide oblong space flagged with smooth stones and surrounded by grey pillars but unroofed. And from end to end of it ran a long table laid with a rich crimson cloth that came down nearly to the pavement. It reminded Lucy of the colors of the banquet hall at Cair Paravel, and she wondered for a moment the hall there had been restored. At either side of the table were many chairs of stone richly carved and with silken cushions upon the seats. But on the table itself there was set out such a banquet as had never been seen, not even when Peter the High King kept his court at Cair Paravel. There were turkeys and geese and peacocks, there were boars' heads and sides of venison, there were pies shaped like ships under full sail or like dragons and elephants, there were ice puddings and bright lobsters and gleaming salmon, there were nuts and grapes, pineapples and peaches, pomegranates and melons and tomatoes (2). There were flagons of gold and silver and curiously-wrought glass; and the smell of the fruit and the wine blew towards them like a promise of all happiness.
"I say!" said Lucy.
They came nearer and nearer, all very quietly.
"But where are the guests?" asked Eustace. And Lucy smiled, because the Eustace who first entered Narnia would have immediately come up with a reason he deserved what was on the table, instead of asking who the guests were it belonged to.
"We can provide that, Sir," said Rhince.
"Look!" said Edmund sharply. They were actually within the pillars now and standing on the pavement. Everyone looked where Edmund had pointed. The chairs were not all empty. At the head of the table and in the two places beside it there was something – or possibly three somethings.
"What are those?" said Lucy in a whisper. "It looks like three beavers sitting on the table," she said, remembering times before the four had commanded lower tables for their smaller subjects, and Mr. and Mrs. Beaver had eaten while sitting on the table itself.
"Or a huge bird's nest," said Edmund.
"It looks more like a haystack to me," said Caspian.
Reepicheep ran forward, jumped on a chair and thence on to the table, and ran along it, threading his way as nimbly as a dancer between jeweled cups and pyramids of fruit and ivory salt-cellars. He ran right up to the mysterious grey mass at the end: peered, touched, and then called out:
"These will not fight, I think."
Lucy went closer, the others moving too, and stood by one of the chairs. It was an odd shape at first, but then she got a glimpse through the grey of a light brown, smooth surface she saw was an arm. She took a closer look, bending forward; the grey was hair, grown so long from their beards and heads that it had covered their faces, their plates, and the goblets, finally falling off the table to the floor. She straightened, pity on her face.
"Dead?" said Caspian.
"I think not, Sire," said Reepicheep, lifting one of their hands out of its tangle of hair in his two paws. This one is warm and his pulse beats.
"This one, too, and this," said Drinian. Lucy watched as the hands fell limply back when Drinian and Reepicheep gently released them.
"Why, they're only asleep," said Eustace.
"It's been a long sleep, though," said Edmund, "to let their hair grow like this."
"It must be an enchanted sleep," said Lucy. "I felt the moment we landed on this island that it was full of magic. Oh! do you think we have perhaps come here to break it?" She wanted to; to see the three set free, woken up and living had broken enchantments before, on the Magician's Island, and then Aslan had banished the Dark Island when they came.
Caspian seemed to catch her fervour. "We can try," he said, and began shaking the nearest of the three sleepers. For a moment everyone thought he was going to be successful, for the mean breathed hard and muttered, "I'll go eastward no more. Out oars for Narnia." But he sank back almost at once into a yet deeper sleep than before: that is, his heavy head sagged a few inches lower towards the table and all efforts to rouse him again were useless. With the second it was much the same. "Weren't born to live like animals. Get to the east while you've a chance – lands behind the sun," and sank down. And the third, whom Lucy and Reepicheep shook, only said, "Mustard, please," and slept hard.
"Out oars for Narnia, eh?" said Drinian.
"Yes," said Caspian, "you are right, Drinian. I think our quest is at an end." Lucy's heart caught. But surely they still had to wake the three? They couldn't leave them like this. But Caspian was still speaking. "Let's look at their rings. Yes, these are their devices. This is the Lord Revilian. This is the Lord Argoz: and this, the Lord Mavramorn."
"But we can't wake them," said Lucy. "What are we to do?"
"Begging your Majesties' pardon all," said Rhince, "but why not fall to while you're discussing it? We don't see a dinner like this every day."
"Not for your life!" said Caspian.
"That's right, that's right," said several of the sailors. "Too much magic about here. The sooner we're back on board the better."
"Depend upon it," said Reepicheep, "it was from eating this food that these three lords came by a seven years' sleep."
"I wouldn't touch it to save my life," said Drinian.
"The light's going uncommon quick," said Rynelf.
"Back to the ship, back to the ship," muttered the men.
"I really think," said Edmund, "they're right." Lucy agreed. But what of the three lords? "We can decided what to do with the three sleepers tomorrow. We daren't eat the food and there's no point in staying here for the night. The whole place smells of magic – and danger."
"I am entirely of King Edmund's opinion," said Reepicheep, "as far as concerns the ship's company in general. But I myself will sit a this table till sunrise."
"Why on earth?" said Eustace.
Oh Reepicheep, Lucy sighed silently. She knew why he was staying. He was good for her courage, she knew, but there were times she wished he wasn't such a good example. She did not want to do this.
But she didn't want to leave the lords helpless either. Even if they had been that way for a long time.
"Because," said the Mouse, answering Eustace's question, "this is a very great adventure, and no danger seems to me so great as that of knowing when I get back to Narnia that I left a mystery behind me through fear."
"I'll stay with you, Reep," said Edmund.
"And I too," said Caspian.
"And me," said Lucy. And then Eustace volunteered also. Lucy couldn't help thinking this was very brave of him because never having read of such things or even heard of them till he joined the Dawn Treader made it worse for him than for the others.
"I beseech your Majesty– " began Drinain.
"No, my Lord," said Caspian. "Your place is with the ship, and you have had a day's work while we five have idled." Drinian argued, indeed, the entire group of sailors chipped in, but Lucy went and took Edmund and Eustace's hands and let Caspian bring order. She knew they would not be leaving that night. In the end Caspian had his way. As the crew marched off to the shore in the gather dusk none of the five watchers, except perhaps Reepicheep, could avoid a cold feeling in the stomach. Lucy looked around. She wandered up and down the table, noticing the others doing the same. Probably everyone had the same reason but no one wanted to say it out loud. For it was really a rather nasty choice. One could hardly bear to sit all night next to those three terrible hairy objects which, if not dead, were certainly not alive in the ordinary sense. Lucy wanted to rescue them, but she didn't necessarily want to be near them. On the other hand, to sit at the far end, so that you would see them less and less as the night grew darker, and wouldn't know if they were moving, and perhaps wouldn't see them at all by about two o'clock – no, it was not to be thought of.
Edmund placed his hand on a chair. "What about here?" Lucy shook her head; it was only a few chairs away from the sleepers.
"Or perhaps a bit further on," she said, and they walked a bit further. At last they settled down somewhere about the middle but nearer to the sleepers than to the other end. Caspian and Reepicheep sat in the two closest chairs; Edmund was next to Lucy, and Eustace across from them. The night was growing dark, and Lucy could barely see the end of the table. Those strange new constellations burned in the east. Lucy would have liked it better if they had been the Leopard and the Ship and other old friends of the Narnian sky. She shivered, and got up to wrap herself in her sea cloak; the others followed suit (3). Then they sat still and waited. At first there was some attempt to talk but it didn't come to much. Lucy knew why. There was a silence that quieted the noise and the expectation took all one's attention. And they sat and sat. And all the time they heard the waves breaking on the beach.
After hours that seemed like ages there came a moment when they all knew they had been dozing a moment before but were all suddenly wide awake. Lucy glanced at the three lords; they were all three unmoving. The stars were all in quite different positions from those they had last noticed. The sky was very black except fro the faintest possible greyness in the east. They were cold, though thirsty, and stiff. And none of them spoke because now at last something was happening.
OOOOO
(1) This isn't a direct quote from the book, but Lewis did write, "The Lord Rhoop remained on board the Dawn Treader. He wished to see no more islands" p. 146.
(2) Well I wasn't hungry before I copied that. But the fruit got to me. (Munches on the nearest snack, which happens to be Chex cereal. Nope, not as good as pineapples, peaches, grapes, and pomegranates sound. But far easier to eat while typing.)
(3) Paraphrased from p. 151