Chapter 34

Later neither could agree on how long their journey took. Lucy always said she thought a few hours, while Jo insisted it was only a few minutes. Regardless, both became aware that they had stopped moving. Lucy cautiously opened one eye. "It's ok Jo," she said. "Look!" Jo opened her eyes. She and Lucy were standing at the very end of a silvery beach, at the very edge of the sea. It was very early in the morning and deathly quiet. "It's Cair Paravel," whispered Lucy. "There's the castle behind us. It's all just as I remember it."

"Why are you whispering?" whispered Jo back. "I don't know," admitted Lucy. "It's just so quiet."

"It is quiet, isn't," said Jo, wrinkling her brows. "I mean, I can't even hear any birds or animals moving around, can you?" "No," said Lucy soberly "and I remember early mornings at Cair Paravel in our time. There were always lots of birds singing quite noisily." She giggled. "What?" said Jo curiously. "Oh, it's just that the birds used to really irritate some of our courtiers. Dear Mr Tumnus was often at court and he used to complain constantly about the noise the birds made. Once he threw his shaving mirror out of the castle window at them."

"Who is Mr Tumnus?" asked Jo. "He was my very first friend in Narnia," said Lucy. "I suppose," (sadly) "that he's long dead now".

Jo was about to ask some more about the mysterious Mr Tumnus, but she never had the chance. An ominous rumbling sounded in the distance and turning around, the girls saw a huge army bearing down upon them. There was no time for speech – as one, the girls threw themselves into the sea and swam rapidly around the peninsula upon which Cair Paravel stood. An enormous rock hung out over the water; they hid behind it.

"They must have been hiding in the woods," panted Lucy. "Do you think we were seen?" Jo shook her head. "I don't believe so," she said. "They were riding straight for the castle. But who are they?" Both girls peered around the rock. A horrible sight met their eyes. An enormous group of fierce-looking men and women, heavily armed and garbed all in black, was attacking Cair Paravel. As they watched, a woman, who appeared to be the leader, approached the wall and raised both her arms. She cried out something (Lucy did not understand the language, but it sounded horrid) and the castle wall shimmered and dissolved into dust.

With savage howls of triumph, the army rode forward, crushing everything beneath its path. Screams of terror now resounded from inside the castle walls, as the army moved swiftly inside, slaughtering all in its path. "The princess," gasped Lucy, rising from her hiding spot. Jo grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her down again. "Don't be stupid," she hissed. "If we go in there, we'll be killed too."

"But you heard Aslan," cried Lucy. "We must save her." "We don't even know who she is or what she looks like," pointed out Jo reasonably. "We can't just dash in there. We have to be smart about this, or we can't help her." Lucy saw the sense of this. "What can we do then?" she asked helplessly. Jo thought for a few moments. "Is there some kind of back entrance to your castle?" she asked. "One that not many people would know about?"

"Why yes," said Lucy in surprise. "There is one, but it's tiny. They used it for stocking the kitchens. I think it comes out into a kind of pantry."

"Well, can you find it again?" asked Jo urgently. "I'm sure I can," said Lucy. "Let's go then," said Jo. Silently, the girls hoisted themselves out of the water and made a beeline for the back wall of the castle. There, thick ivy covered the walls. Lucy ran frantic trembling hands over it, until she found what she was looking for.

"Quick Jo!" gasped Lucy, "help me move the ivy, so we can open the door." Jo glimpsed a low narrow door just in front of her. She grasped the thick ivy fronds with a muffled "ow" and began to tear at them, ignoring the sundry cuts and scratches to her hands. Lucy began to tug desperately at the little door. It had obviously not been used for many years and the wood was beginning to rot at the bottom. Just as both girls were beginning to give up, the door began to move forward. Jo stopped tearing ivy away and added her strength to Lucy's. The door opened wide, revealing the narrow opening.

"It's so low down," commented Jo. "You people must have had very tiny cooks and servants." Lucy gave her a rather peculiar smile but made no remark. Time enough for Jo to discover that there were very few humans living in Narnia, she thought. Jo was about to fling herself forward and through the door, but Lucy held her back.

"We should be careful," she said quietly. "We don't know who may be on the other side of that door." Jo nodded.

"You're right," she said. "I was ready to dash in there. I didn't think of that."

"I think I should go first," said Lucy. "At the beginning of our adventures in Narnia, I sort of got used to crawling quietly. I'll go in a little way and make sure it's safe." Jo agreed to this, so Lucy dropped to her knees and very carefully lowered herself into the opening. Crawling forward on her hands and knees, she recalled that other desperate flight from the Beavers' house and how they had been forced to take shelter in Mr Beaver's hideout. That passage had been much lower and narrower than this one, Lucy thought. Just ahead of her she could see the empty pantry. She could hear no sound. Turning her head, she called back to Jo in the softest voice she could manage. "I think it's safe Jo. Come in and follow me through. Try not to make any noise."

She did not wait to see if Jo had heard, but continued on down the little passageway, until she found herself inside the castle pantry.

Lucy looked around her quickly. Inside the pantry it was very quiet and cool. A dim light came from the windows, which were partially screened with ivy fronds. A sturdy wooden table took up most of the room. The walls were lined with shelves and cupboards, neatly stacked with kitchen provisions. A slight scuffling sound announced Jo's arrival and her head emerged from a cupboard near the floor. Lucy put her finger to her lips and extended her hand to help Jo to her feet.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone here," she commented quietly.

"How are we going to find the princess?" whispered Jo.

Lucy shushed her immediately. "Don't whisper," she said in a low voice. "A whisper will carry a long way and we don't know who might be listening."

"How do you know?" asked Jo, copying Lucy's low tones.

"Let's just say I've had some experience in hiding out," said Lucy grimly. "Now, from memory, this pantry opens into another storage area and from there into the main kitchens. There isn't any other option, we'll just have to go that way and hope we don't run across anyone else."

The two girls moved cautiously to the doorway and walked quietly into another storage area. Again, it was strangely quiet. They continued on through the kitchens. These too were strangely deserted, only a few pots and pans scattered on the floor betraying the fact that someone had fled from there recently.

Over the past few months Lucy had often dreamed of a joyous return to Narnia. She had remembered the hustle and bustle of the castle kitchens with a kind of nostalgia. As the youngest of the four monarchs, she had spent many happy hours there, listening to the folk tales of the various cooks and cooks' assistants. She remembered the gleaming brass kettles, the crackling of wood fires and immaculately scrubbed wooden tables, always laden with a tempting array of delicacies in anticipation of her arrival. She gulped. This was not exactly how she had envisioned her return to Narnia. Then she gave herself a mental shake. There was no time for this. They had to find the princess.

"How will we find the princess?" murmured Jo, almost as if she had heard Lucy's thoughts.

"I'm not sure," said Lucy slowly. "But perhaps it won't be too hard. I mean, she should look something like us."

"Yes, but so will everyone else," said Jo in amazement.

Lucy shook her head. "Not necessarily," she said, "not if it's the Narnia I remember and for our sakes I hope I'm right." Jo wondered what she meant by this, but there was no time to ask. They were approaching the stairs leading out of the kitchen regions, up to the main body of the castle. The screams Lucy had heard earlier were becoming louder and there was no doubt that a fierce battle was being waged directly above their heads. If they ventured out, they would find themselves right in the middle of it, but if they stayed down below there was no chance of finding the princess and saving her, as Aslan had instructed.

"What do we do now?" hissed Jo. "Well, we have to go up there," answered Lucy. "We'll just have to try and avoid being seen." Jo eyed her dubiously, but couldn't think of anything better and followed Lucy cautiously up the stairs.

"Isn't there another way out?" asked Jo. "I don't think we'll have a chance if we stroll up the stairs – they will see us straight away. How do they get all the food upstairs, for instance? Surely they don't traipse upstairs with it all!"

"I'm an idiot!" cried Lucy. "Of course, they don't! We can use the dumb waiter and pull ourselves up." She ran quickly to what Jo had assumed was a small black cupboard in the wall. As Lucy pushed up the door, Jo could see a space, just large enough for two people, if they were squashed very tightly together. A rope and pulley system hung down. Lucy was already scrambling inside; she reached out to give Jo a hand up.

"This is how they get the food up. I can't believe I didn't think of it. Of course, they normally pull it up from the top, but we should be able to hoist ourselves up. This comes out in an antechamber to the great dining hall. There used to be a great tapestry hanging in front of it. I just hope the tapestry is still there."

Once both girls were inside, Jo managed to get the door closed again and Lucy began to haul on the rope to begin the climb out of the kitchen regions. It was slow, hard work. Two hefty girls are a lot heavier than several platters of the best venison!

"Perhaps you shouldn't have eaten all those extra bread twists in the mornings," suggested Jo brightly, by way of lightening the tension. A stony silence greeted her words.

"Just in case you were wondering," remarked Lucy icily, "I'm glaring at you right now, for all I'm worth and the only reason that I haven't subjected you to a royal tirade is that I need all my breath for pulling on this rope! And if it comes to that, just who was it who was having extra dessert the last couple of months?"

Jo grinned in the darkness, thankful that Lucy couldn't see her. "Fair enough," she acknowledged imperturbably. "Would you like me to take a turn?"

"No, I think I'd better keep on going," said Lucy, sounding slightly mollified. "We could risk plummeting back into the kitchens and that might attract the sort of attention we want to avoid."

"I'll just think light-weight thoughts then," chuckled Jo.

"You do that," retorted Lucy and they continued their way up the shaft in a companionable silence. Jo sat quietly in the darkness thinking about all that had happened since their surprising arrival in Narnia. So much had happened in such a short space of time, yet she found herself accepting it all more and more readily. She knew that potentially their lives were in great danger, yet she did not dwell on this, her adventurous spirit revelling in the excitement of the unknown. Somehow, she knew that Lucy felt the same way and she realised that they were similar in many ways.

"I wonder if that's why I didn't like you at first," she wondered out loud.

"What?" said Lucy, startled. "Oh, I was just thinking," began Jo, only to be interrupted by a low chuckle. "I thought it was the pulley making that grinding noise, but now I know better!"

"Idiot!" said Jo. "No, I was thinking about how it was when you first came to school. I've just realised how similar we are in lots of ways. Maybe that's one of the reasons I was so jealous of you."

"Perhaps," said Lucy diffidently, as she pulled valiantly on the rope. "I say Jo, I think we're there." In confirmation of this, there was a muffled bump, as the top of the dumb waited connected with the very top of the lift shaft. Jo cautiously pushed up the door and peered out.

"Well?" demanded Lucy impatiently. "I can't see anyone," said Jo. "I think it's safe." The two girls scrambled out of the dumb waiter and closed the door. Fortunately, Lucy's memory had served her well. A heavy wall-length tapestry hung directly in front of them.