Singing Paeans to the Stars

by ilysia

A repository of small tales that span the entirety of Narnia's history, in no chronological order. Twenty-four: Narnia loses many things in its hundred years of sleep, and she is one of them.

12. In the Early Days

When Narnia was still young, indeed, when she was just hours old, and the first King and Queen had been crowned beneath the Tree, and the Lord Digory and the Lady Polly had returned to their own world, and Jadis the Half-Giant had fled far from the good and strong borders of the land, the Lion walked in darkness in the North.

The North was cold, cold, and bitter; frozen and flat beneath the dance of the singing stars, and the Lion walked alone in the bitter cold, and He did not sing. His great paws fell soft as velvet and His breath misted in the frigid air and all was silent as the Lion walked in the North, for the Lion had come on behalf of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea.

And so alone and silent walked the Lion across the frozen flat North, until he came to the Hill.

The Hill stood alone in the darkness beneath the stars, and the cold of the North did not touch it, and green grass grew from base to peak, and on the peak of the Hill stood the Stones. Tall they were, tall and blacker than the darkness of the North as they stood on the grassy Hill beneath the stars in the early days of the world.

And the Lion climbed the Hill, and a whisper of wind stirred the grass from base to peak as he climbed it, and the Stones stood tall and black as the Lion looked upon them. And it was for this task that the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea had sent the Lion to walk in the frozen North beneath the stars.

Tall, tall, the Stones rose, blacker than the blackness of the night, but the Lion was great and mighty beside the tallness. The Lion stood at the base of the Stones on the peak of the green Hill in the far North, and he brought with him golden light, so that the blackness of the Stones was like unto fire beneath the singing stars.

And the Lion breathed a mighty breath.

And the breath of the Lion touched the Stones gently, gently, and as it touched the Stones letters appeared there; great letters, as of fire, on the black tallness of the Stones, and the letters were cut deep, deeper than the length of a spear, and the deep letters glowed with the fire of the sun in the country of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea.

And the Lion looked upon the fire-letters that he had breathed upon the Stones that stood upon the grassy Hill in the frozen North beneath the singing stars and he said, "It has begun."

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In the far, cold North, beneath the singing stars, there is a grassy Hill that remains untouched by time. On the Hill stand the Stones, and on the Stones are inscribed the letters of fire.

And in the far, frozen North, the Stones on the Secret Hill spell out the Deep Magic that is written on the Scepter of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, and it was for this task that the Lion walked in darkness beneath the singing stars in the early days of the world.

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"Tell you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones on the Secret Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the scepter of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea?"