Sorry it's been forever guys. This is a really long chapter, and I was on a ship in Alaska, so I didn't have time to put it up.

But anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please review! I'll try to update again soon, but school starts tomorrow so it's gonna be hectic :P

Chapter Nineteen

~Eustace~

I turned around the corner of the gym, following the path that ran between the wall and the hedge, whistling an old tune that came from a Narnian ballad. I was caught up in trying to remember the words that went with the next part, and so nearly tripped over the girl who sat in my path.

"Can't you look where you're going?" she snapped at me as she jumped to her feet. Her eyes were rimmed in red, but I ignored that as I grew irritated at how she'd addressed me.

"All right, you needn't start—" I stopped though, because I saw that she was blinking very hard and fast and her mouth was turned down with lips pressed together tightly. Frowning again, I asked, "I say, Pole, what's up?"

She was Jill Pole, who I didn't know too well, but that was in the same form as me. She had dark hair, almost black, with light blue eyes, which looked as if they were threatening to spill over again.

"It's Them, I suppose—as usual," I stated darkly, pushing my hands into my pockets.

Jill nodded, looking at her feet, swallowing hard.

I sighed. "Now look here, there's no good for us all—" I began to lecture, but she interrupted me.

Her face turned red and she began to rant. "Oh, go away and mind your own business," she spat at me. "Nobody asked you to come barging in, did they? And you're a nice person to start telling us what we all ought to do, aren't you? I suppose you mean we ought to spend all our time sucking up to Them, and currying favor, and dancing attendance on Them like you do!"

Surprised and a little angry, I sat down on the grass, only to jump back up again when I realized it was wet. Brushing off my backside, I said, "Pole! Is that fair? Have I been doing anything of the sort this term? Didn't I stand up to Carter about the rabbit? And didn't I keep the secret about Spivvins—under torture too? And didn't I—"

Now she was crying in earnest. She turned away from me, arms crossed and said, her voice wavering, "I d-don't know and I don't care."

Looking at her for a moment, I sighed. Reaching into my pocket, I withdrew two peppermints and offered her one. After a few moments of sucking on the sweet, she seemed to calm down.

"I'm sorry, Scrubb. I wasn't fair. You have done all that—this term," she said, wiping her eyes.

Pleased I had gotten somewhere, I said, "Then wash out last term if you can. I was a different chap then. I was—gosh, what a little git I was!"

Jill gave a small smile. "Well, honestly you were."

"You think there's been a change, then?" I asked hopefully.

"It's not only me," said Jill, digging her toe into the grass. "Everyone's been saying so. They've noticed it. Eleanor Blakiston heard Adela Pennyfather talking about it in our changing room yesterday. She said, 'Someone's got hold of that Scrubb bloke. He's quite unmanageable this term. We shall have to attend to him next.'"

I gave a little shudder. Though I had faced far more terrifying things than Adela Pennyfather and Them, I would like to avoid being 'attended to' all the same.

We were both quiet for a moment, just looking around the gloomy grounds and listening to water drip off the leaves.

Then Jill asked, "Why were you so different last term?"

I gave a small smile, remembering my experiences in Narnia. "A lot of queer things happened to me over the holidays," I answered cryptically.

"What sort of things?"

I was quiet for a few moments. Should I tell her? I thought I could trust her. But I was afraid she'd laugh at me, or think I was crazy. The same way I'd done to Lucy and Edmund.

"Look here, Pole, you and I hate this place about as much as anybody can hate anything, don't we?" I said.

She nodded and said, "I know I do."

I took a breath. "Then I really think I can trust you."

Jill raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Damn good of you."

"Yes, but this is a really terrific secret. Pole, I say, are you good at believing things? I mean, things that everyone here would laugh at?" I asked hesitantly. I didn't want her to laugh at me.

Jill looked thoughtful, which was good. She was considering this seriously. "I've never had the chance, but I think I would be."

I took another breath and steeled myself. "Could you believe me if I said I'd been right out of the world—outside this world—last holidays?"

"I wouldn't what you meant."

"Well, let's not bother about worlds then. Supposing I told you I'd been in a place where animals can talk and where there are—er—enchantments and dragons—and, well, all the sorts of things you have in fairy-tales." I felt awkward and embarrassed; I shouldn't have brought it up. She'd laugh at me for sure. I could feel my face turning bright red.

But Jill merely asked, rather shyly, "How did you get there?"

Our voices were growing quieter. I continued, relieved she wasn't laughing yet, and said, "By the only way you can—by Magic. I was with two cousins of mine. We were just... whisked away. They'd been there before."

To my intense relief, it seemed Jill believed me. She had leaned in closer, and her blue eyes were shining. But then, something seemed to occur to her and she jumped back, her eyes now fierce.

"If I find you've been pulling my leg I'll never speak to you again; never, never, never!" She threatened.

Afraid I'd lost her trust, I shook my head vigorously. "I'm not! I swear I'm not. I swear by—by everything."

Jill considered me through narrowed eyes. "All right. I'll believe you," she said slowly.

"And tell nobody?"

She looked offended. "What do you take me for?"

I smiled and she smiled back. But as we looked around the grounds again and took in the dull, overcast sky and the wet leaves and damp ground, the hopelessness of Experiment House sank in. We still had eleven weeks of the term left, and They were always around to torture us.

Jill shared my thoughts. Bitterly, she said, "But after all, what's the good? We're not there, we're here. And we jolly well can't get there." She glanced sideways at me. "Or can we?"

My heart began to race. "That's what I've been wondering. When we came back from That Place, Someone said that the two Pevensie kids, that's my two cousins, could never go there again. It was their third time, you see. I suppose they've had their share. But He never said that I couldn't! Surely he would have said so, unless he meant that I was to go back? And I can't help wondering, can we—could we-?"

Jill's eyes were sparkling again, she looked hopeful, and I knew my expression mirrored hers. "Do you mean, do something to make it happen?"

I nodded.

Jill looked as if she were thinking hard. Her brow furrowed and she looked at the ground. "You mean we might draw a circle on the ground, and write queer letters in it, and stand inside, and recite charms and spells?"

It was my turn to think. I had given it much thought about how to get Aslan to let me go back, and I had considered things like Jill's suggestion. But now that I thought more about it...

"Well," I started, "I believe that was the sort of thing I was thinking of, though I never did it. But now that it comes to the point, I've an idea that all those circles and things are a bunch of rot. I don't think He'd like them. It would look as if we thought we could make Him do things. But really, we can only ask Him."

"Who is this person you keep on talking about?" Jill wanted to know.

"They call Him Aslan in That Place," I said softly, thinking of the Great Lion.

"What a curious name!" Jill exclaimed.

"Not half so curious as himself," I said solemnly. "But let's get on. It can't do any harm, just asking." Thinking on my feet, I said, " Let's stand side by side, like this." I positioned myself next to Jill. "And we'll hold out our arms in front of us, with the palms down: like they did in Ramandu's Island—"

"Whose island?"

"I'll tell you about that another time," I said, eager to continue. "And He might like us to face the east. Let's see, where is the east?" I looked at the gray sky, trying to determine the position of the sun.

"I don't know," said Jill.

I shook my head. "It's an extraordinary thing about girls that they never know the points of the compass," I scoffed.

Jill was indignant. "You don't know it either!"

"Yes I do, if only you didn't keep on interrupting." I turned around in a circle, looking at the sky. "I've got it now. That's the east, facing up into the laurels." I pointed.

I turned to look at her. "Now, will you say the words after me?"

"What words?"

I sighed impatiently. "The words I'm going to say, of course!" I shook my head. "Now—"

I began, making it up as I went along. "Aslan, Aslan, Aslan!" And Jill repeated it.

"Please let us two go into—" I started to continue, but at that moment we heard a voice from the other side of the gym. "Pole? Yes, I know where she is. She's blubbing behind the gym. Shall I fetch her out?"

Jill and I shared a terrified glance at each other, and then we dove under the shrubs, scrambling up the steep, damp bank.

We paused for a moment near the top, panting and listening below. We heard more voices and knew they were after us.

I looked around desperately for an escape, but we were against the ivy- covered stone wall that ran all the way around the perimeter of the Experiment House grounds.

"If only the door were open again!" I exclaimed in frustration. It was nearly always locked, but there had been a few times, or maybe only once, in which it had been opened in the past. It led out onto the open moor, and would grant us escape.

"Well, it's worth a try!" Jill said, and we ran up to the door.

I gripped the handle, saying, "It's sure to be no good—" and turned it.

The door swung open, but instead of racing through as we had intended out onto the moor, we were frozen as still as statues.

Instead of gray heather and rolling hills meeting the gray sky, bright sunshine met our eyes. On our side of the wall, everything glittered as if sprinkled in diamonds as the sunshine caught the water droplets on the vegetation. Once our eyes adjusted to the brightness, we could see smooth, green turf and bright azure sky through the canopy of huge trees. Jewel-bright things flittered between the branches.

I looked over at Jill, whose face was frozen in wonder and fear. "Come on, Pole," I said breathlessly.

She hesitated, asking, "Can we get back? Is it safe?"

But then a voice shouted from just behind, threatening us again.

"Quick!" I said, grabbing hold of her hand, which was damp and dirty from our scramble through the laurels. "Here, hold hands. We musn't get separated."

And before she could resist, I pulled her through the doorway and into another world entirely.

XXX

The voices behind us were cut off suddenly, and the ivy-covered wall and door vanished from behind us. They were replaced by that rather park-like landscape of smooth grass and towering trees. The jewel-bright things swooping overhead turned out to be birds, and they filled the silence with their complex musical calls.

The air was still and fresh, and I felt invigorated.

Jill's hand still in mine, I walked forward, looking around. The huge trees, rather like cedars were venly spaced apart and there was no undergrowth to impede us. This allowed me to look ahead through the thick trunks to see blue sky.

We walked forward to that blueness, until we came to the edge of the highest cliff I had ever stood upon. I jerked Jill back, saying, "Look out!" as she had nearly walked right off.

I staggered back a bit, my heart pounding. It was a very long way down.

Jill wrenched her hand out of mine and turned to glare at me. "What's the matter?" she taunted, stepping to the very edge again. Then she looked down.

Way down the cliff, hundreds and hundreds of feet, were small, white puffs that I realized were clouds. Beyond them, I couldn't make out the ground. Jill's face turned from fearless and haughty to rather nervous, and she looked as if she wanted to take a few steps back. But when she tried to move, she began to wobble.

Fear raced through my veins and I shouted to her, "What are you doing, Pole? Come back—blithering little idiot!"

She began to lean over the edge, her face pale and faint, and I lunged to grab her. I tried to pull her back, but dizzy and senseless, she tore herself out of my grasp once again.

I felt myself knocked off balance by her sudden, violent movements, and as I put a foot out to steady myself, it caught nothing but air.

And then I screamed, because I was falling, falling down past that endless, towering cliff to the bottom that might not even be there.

But then I felt myself being lifted, up and out, away from the cliff face, by a warm, strong breeze. It cushioned me like a pillow, and I caught a glimpse of two specks on the edge of the cliff, one black and tiny, the other a bright, shining gold.