Chapter 31

"The future!" exclaimed Jo excitedly. "Why then, you can tell me what has happened, in history, you know!"

Lucy shook her head gravely. "That wouldn't be a good idea at all," she said. "Please don't ask me what is in the future, because I won't tell you. This is the first time I've ever thought about, I suppose you'd call it time travel, but I'm sure it's not wise for people to know what might happen in the future. They might try to change things and make them worse, or they might try to make other things happen sooner." She finished firmly and looked away, remembering the frightening events of a wartime London and her fear, until her Mother and Father had sent them all away. Father, she remembered, had come back from his big ship to help Mother see them all off. Mother was working in the Red Cross and had often come in late from meetings, pale and tired, but determined to continue in the work. Lucy wondered if they were both safe and a lump came into her throat. No, she decided, it was better that Jo didn't know about the war, or anything else.

Jo eyed her curiously, but seeing Lucy was determined on that point, let it go. "Tell me then," she asked, "what is the cordial, anyway?"

"It's a very special cordial," replied Lucy. It was given to me the first time I was in Narnia. It comes from the juice of fire flowers. It has magical healing properties. When Edmund was badly injured in a big battle, it saved his life. I used it often, when I was a queen here."

"Queen!" exclaimed Jo. "So that was you!"

Lucy stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"Look, I got the cordial and this horn from an enormous tree, somewhere behind us. They were both hanging up on it and there was a sign too. The sign said they were treasures that had belonged to Queen Susan and Queen Lucy."

Lucy blushed. "Yes," she said quietly, "we were both queens, Susan and I. Peter and Edmund were kings. Peter was High King over all of us. Aslan crowned us, at Cair Paravel, the castle by the sea." She said this with a dreamy expression in her eyes, for all at once, she could see the place she had loved so, which had been home to her in Narnia for so many happy years.

Jo sighed. It was all a bit much to take in. First the terrifying fall and then their arrival in this place, which seemed to be part of something called Narnia. Then finally the revelation that this girl she had disliked so much was some kind of royalty, in Narnia, at any rate.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked somewhat helplessly.

"Start walking again," said Lucy promptly. "I'm sure if we keep on, we'll come to a house or people or something and we can find out where in Narnia we are, for this isn't a part I recognise at all, you know. And I'm longing to see Aslan again. I'm sure he's quite close, I can almost feel it."

"Who is Aslan?" asked Jo. "You keep on talking about him."

"Aslan is the great king of Narnia. He comes and goes as he pleases. He's a lion," at Jo's puzzled expression. "The great lion."

"Aren't you scared of him?" said Jo. "I mean, he's a lion."

"No, not exactly scared," said Lucy slowly. "I mean, I love him, he's my king too. I'm not scared of him, but I try to do as he says, you know. I guess it's respect and honour, you know."

OK, one more bit.

Jo didn't quite understand, but she supposed that it might make sense if she actually met Aslan and saw for herself. Assuming that he didn't eat her first. With that comforting thought, she followed Lucy out of the clearing, past the fountain and along a paved pathway.

Noticing that the path was yellow Lucy and Jo immediately began to skip and sing (oh sorry, wrong story).

Ahem. Back to the real story.

Jo caught up to Lucy and they walked for a while in silence. Suddenly Lucy spoke.

"Why do you hate me so much Jo?"

Jo gasped at the direct question. "I don't hate you," she responded rather primly. "It's wrong to hate people."

Lucy sighed. "All right then," she said patiently, "I'll re-phrase it. Why don't you like me?"

"What do you mean," cried Jo, playing for time and hoping something else might happen to distract Lucy.

"What I mean is that from the very first moment that we were introduced, properly introduced I mean, you have shown your dislike of me. You cold-shouldered me, you were rude, sometimes you even turned your back on me. Every time you had to speak to me you it was obvious that you didn't want to. I'm not the only person who noticed it: a lot of other people did too. I could see them looking and sometimes whispering to one another when something like that happened. What I don't understand is why. After the first couple of times I went out of my way to avoid you whenever possible. As far as I know I was never rude to you and I never did anything to deserve the way you've treated me. How do you think it made me feel, every time you spoke to me so coldly, or snubbed me in front of everyone?" Lucy finished reasonably, glad to have the chance to put her point to Jo at last.