29. "There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends."
Mr. Tumnus looked at the Witch, her eyes burning with fury, the echoes of her threat—the Daughter of Eve or your own life—still hanging in the air.
Mr. Tumnus realised it was a greater choice than that. He chose Aslan, and the Witch's wand flared.
He was there, brought back to life by the Lion's breath, when the story of Aslan's sacrifice was told, and when people asked the sobbing Faun why the story touched him so deeply, he couldn't articulate—couldn't say—
He knew the kind of love that laid its own life down, and now he knew the Lion loved His own like that. Even the traitors.
Shasta heard Aravis scream, the scream that comes from pain and fear. He knew he couldn't face a lion on his own, but he rolled himself off Bree and ran back, all the same. He had to do something.
He did something quite idiotic, he realised later. He stood there and yelled at a hunting lion, utterly defenceless before its hunger, yelling in defence of someone else.
Later he would hear of how the Lion made Himself defenceless before a much crueller foe, years before Shasta was born, and Cor, Prince of Archenland, bowed his head and felt. For he knew what kind of love impelled an action like that.
You would think Eustace was used to it, by now—sticking his head into a situation he didn't understand. Going somewhere he hadn't been before. But he never got used to that feeling, and he didn't like it.
Still, Jill had vanished, and they'd heard her shout, and whatever came to him, he was going to go after her. He was the only one that fit. He had his sword, and he would do his best, whatever came.
Thousands of years later, he did the same—and he was once more taken somewhere he didn't know, dragged through a stable door and thrown in.
On the other side, he found his family, his country, and the Lion who welcomed all who came to Him—who loved them enough to chase them, herd them, teach them, change them—and die for them.
Eustace found the land where love made all things familiar.
Tirian loved Narnia, as all Aslan's Kings did. He never thought of leaving it, of going to Archenland. He never thought of saving himself and leaving his people to their fate. Even though he guessed it would cost him his life.
He never regretted that choice, either. His life was Aslan's and Narnia's, and he would spend it for them with no regrets.
He walked through a door like death and met the horrible god he fought; he met more of Aslan's kings, and finally, he met the Lion Himself. The King above all High Kings, who had also died for His people.
And the Lion looked on His own, and loved them.