THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE BBC

PART 9
IN THE WITCH'S HOUSE.

PREVIOUSLY: After dinner with the beavers and Chirp, the animals fill the children in on recent events in Narnia and how they have led to this moment. They tell them of the nature of Mr. Tumnus' arrest, of the White Witch and her terrible house, of Aslan the Great Lion, the true King of Narnia, and finally of the prophecy of the two sons of Adam and the two daughters of Eve, who, sitting on the four thrones of Cair Paravel, would put an end to the rule of the White Witch and her life and would restore peace to Narnia. The animals make it clear to the children that since there are four of them, as the prophecy says, they have been chosen to save Narnia from the White Witch with the help of Aslan. However, during the conversation, Edmund sneaks away unnoticed. The animals deduce that he has gone to the Witch's house and correctly guess that Edmund had betrayed them all to the White Witch! Anticipating an obvious raid from the Witch, the beavers and the children prepare for the journey for the Stone Table where Aslan is waiting for them, while Mr. Beaver sents Chirp to spy the Witch's house for the Witch or the Secret Police which will be soon sent after them.


More than half an hour earlier.

During the dinner with the Beavers, Edmund had eaten hs own share of the food like the others, but he hadn't really enjoyed at all because he was thinking all the time about Turkish Delight and their magically sweet taste, which had spoiled his taste of good ordinary food.

Edmund also hadn't enjoyed listening the conversation between them and the beavers and Robin about that arrested Faun that Lucy met, the Prophecy about the two Sons of Adam and the two Daughters of Eve, and he hadn't particularly liked the way how the animals were talking about both Aslan and the Witch respectively.

When it was about Aslan, they constantly spoke only well of him, held him in high regard and acknowledged him as the "true" King of Narnia, even though Narnia already had a ruler, the White Witch... and soon her future heir and prince, and the King of Narnia, he himself, which made Edmund to view him as a phony usurper.

He also didn't like hearing of Aslan's name all of time, because it constantly gave him a mysterious and rather uneasy, even fearful feeling, while it gave the others a mysterious, relaxed, and lovely feeling.

And it didn't make him feel any better about Aslan when he was revealed to be a lion and that he wasn't safe.

And when Mr. beaver had mention about the arrangement for meeting with Aslan at the Stone Table, Edmund had felt himself overcome with sudden terror at the thought of meeting a lion that might as well pounce on you and bite your head off when you least expect it.

Such a thought made him feel so uneasy and scared that he didn't even want to meet him at all, and was simultaneously dismayed when Peter, Susan and Lucy expressed their keen enthusiasm and eagerness to meet Aslan as soon as possible.

*Of course they are so interested about the subject of Aslan that none of them appears to even notice me.*

And when it came to the Witch, Edmund was very annoyed to how they held her with disdain, hated her, called her many mean things, accused her of supposedly doing a lot of horrible things to everyone, and even dared to claim she was not a real Queen of Narnia just because she had not a drop of human blood in her but was half-Jinn and half-Giant.

It also made Edmund to realize that everyone in this country, that Faun, these beavers, that robin, and all like them were against her.

Remembering her being so nice, sweet, hospitable and downright praising towards him, and driven by her promises for more Turkish Delight and making him the King of Narnia, Edmund flatly refused to believe the Witch being all bad, horrible and cruel person.

*Nothing but a fabricated lies.*

Edmund also bitterly compared the Witch's good treatment of him to what his siblings have been giving to him of late, claiming that the Witch was much nicer to him than they were.

*Peter's constantly yelling in my face, criticizing me, threatening me, bossing me around, and he called me "poisonous little beast".*

*Susan's always 'unfairly' siding with either Peter or Lucy against me on any matter, but never siding with me.*

*And Lucy's no any better. She exposed me before Peter and Susan that that I knew about that lamppost and that I've been here before. So it's entirely her fault that everyone has been giving me the cold shoulder. And besides that, she so "blindly" and "naively" believes all the nasty things that Faun and these animals say about the Witch, but she never gave my own opinions about her even a single thought.*

Finally, Edmund couldn't bear hearing more bad things about the White Witch any longer.

And so, driven by his obsessive desire for all those promised Turkish Delight and to become prince and King of Narnia, and to avoid the meeting with Aslan at this Stone Table-thingy out of fear and disdain, Edmund decided to take his chance and fulfil his own end of the deal with the Witch by going to her house to tell her where his siblings were.

As his siblings and the animals were too caught by their conversation, Edmund had very, very quietly and without anyone's notice got up from his stool, fetched his coat from the rack and put it on before sneaking towards the door.

There he had quietly turned the door handle and opened the door slightly ajar so that he could sneak outside and cautiously closed the door behind him.

After leaving the house, Edmund took note that the daylight was almost gone. It must have been hours since they sat down to dinner with the Beavers', which he calculated to be somewhere around three o'clock, but of course it wasn't a big surprise since the winter days were usually short, even in the magical countries.

Another thing that Edmund took notice was the weather: it was snowing so thickly that it hindered the visibility, and the wind was blowing the snow everywhere.

But Edmund paid a very little mind to either and instead turned to look towards the two hills behind the woods.

Now that he knew that the Witch's house was close by, only a mile's walk from here to the north, Edmund believed that if he just walked straight forward the whole time, he would get there in less than half an hour.

With that, Edmund walked away from the beaver's house along the dam's boardwalk - which wasn't anymore so slippery thanks to the layer of the new snow - to the opposite bank of the river and set out from there to direct his way towards the two hills.

Soon enough, the river and the beaver dam were left far, and Edmund was walking awkwardly and clumsily in the thick snow in the middle of a snow-covered woods.

A heavy snowfall fell on him so that the snow began to accumulate on his arms, shoulders and, since he had not taken a hat with him after leaving the wardrobe, on his bare head, leaving his hair wet. The wind was also blowing against him, and the hundreds of cold snowflakes, which swirled around him with the wind, prickled his face, nose, ears, and eyes so unpleasantly that Edmund was forced to shield his face from the wind and snow with his arm. He also had to adjust the thick furry collar of his coat around his neck and head to keep the falling snow out from the area of his neck.

Soon the dark fell over the woods, making it even harder for Edmund to see where he was going, but he stick up to his plan and kept pushing forward nonetheless.

In the dark, the trees above him were like a pitch-black canopy over him, and the only light he had was only a very dimly glowing bluish-white layer of snow in the forest floor.

Edmund admitted that he would've liked to have either lantern or even a flashlight, because he couldn't see in the dark and the heavy snow that where he was putting his foot in each step.

Another thing Edmund would've liked was a ready road instead of walking through uneven terrain covered in thick snow, since he kept slipping into deep drifts of snow, skidding on frozen puddles, tripping over fallen tree-trunks, sliding down steep banks, and barking his shins against rocks.

Not to mention that one time when he walked under of the tree, something moved above of him in its branches - some bird or squirrel - which caused the snow slide off the branch in great loads and fall onto him, covering him with snow.

These setbacks left Edmund very annoyed, and he was already in a very foul mood, but he took it out on his siblings, bitterly calling them out for not treating him the way he believed he deserved. Edmund even blamed it all on them and their new friends, because from his own point of view this was all their fault rather than his.

"I'll show them. To all of them." Edmund muttered to himself as he walked.

"Those beavers, robin, that Faun and all like them are the real evil ones for picking on the Queen, and saying all those mean things about her being evil, horrible and cruel. Bah! What do they know? And what about that prophecy-thingy? "Adam's flesh and Adam's bone, Sits at Cair Paravel in throne, The evil time will be over and done". Whatta rubbish! And this stupid Aslan of theirs. Who he thinks he is compared to the Queen? "The True King of Narnia" huh? Bah! Nothing but an usurper after my future kingdom. Lucy's always wanting to be right about everything, like she wanted to be with this country's excistence, and all the lies that mean Faun fed her about the Queen. Well, now I'll prove her wrong, as well as all of them. Susan is always taking either hers or Peter's side but never even for once my side. Well, I'll show her that she'd chosen a wrong side. And Peter... Peter thinks that he can boss me around and punish me the way he likes just because he's the oldest of us. I hate him. I even wish he wasn't my brother."

Finally, tired, wet, cold and bruised all over, Edmund decided to take a short break and leaned with his hand against the next tree he had stopped by.

And as he rested there, Edmund began to think of all the things he could do once he was Prince of Narnia and later King. One of those things was getting back on Peter particularly for his constant "degrading treatment" and him calling him a "beast".

"Serves them all right if she makes me a prince. Then I have the power to boss them around and punish Peter instead. That'll pay him out for the things he said about me." Edmund said to himself, almost cruelly liking an idea to have Peter punished somehow.

Suddenly, as Edmund looked forward, he gasped in startlement as he found himself staring at a figure that had suddenly appeared before him out of nowhere, whose entire form was completely translucent and surrounded by the aura of dim gray light like a ghost, except that it looked a lot like him.

For a moment, Edmund and this "other Edmund" just stood there staring at each other without saying a word, with the "other" Edmund staring at the "real" Edmund with a rather reprimanding look, until Edmund gathered some courage to say something... to make some sense of this, as he had began to think if the cold had messed up with his head that he was seeing an halluzinations.

"Who... who are you? What are you?" Edmund asked, confused and slightly afraid.

"I am you, silly." the "other" Edmund answered gently, with his voice echoing in the air. "More specifically, I am the manifestation of your conscience, your inner voice, and I'm speaking to you from within."

Edmund blinked in astonishment that this strange manifestation was actually his own conscience mimicking his own appearance to speak to him face to face.

"My conscience? I don't have a conscience. Never had." Edmund eventually scoffed with downright denial of having such a thing like a conscience. "Now begone!"

"Yes you have. Otherwise I wouldn't be here now." the "other" Edmund shot back. "Even now you're wondering deep down if going to her is wise or right thing to do, or if it is out of pure spite towards your family."

"What about it?" Edmund asked rather indifferently.

"You've been told what she can do. Do you really want the White Witch to turn your brother and your sisters into stone?" the "other" Edmund questioned.

"I didn't say that. She wouldn't do that." Edmund said, unwilling to believe that she wouldn't do anything so bad to them.

"You know she wants to capture them. If she doesn't turn them into stone, what will she do?" the "other" Edmund questioned again.

Edmund shrugged. "I don't know. I don't suppose she'll be very nice to them, but it'll serve them right. All these people that say nasty things about her are her enemies. Probably half of it isn't true. She was jolly nice to me. MUCH nicer than they are." Edmund said bitterly.

"Nice to you?!" the "other" Edmund exclaimed as if he had lost his mind. "She's the Witch!"

"She's the Queen of this country. I'll bet she's the real Queen, rightful Queen, not that awful Aslan." Edmund stated firmly and with disdain.

"Are you even listening to yourself? Why do you think she is whatever you want to believe about her just because you've only met her once?" the "other" Edmund challenged.

Not wanting to be proven wrong again, not even to himself, Edmund made an excuse to justify himself, even if it didn't sound a very good excuse.

"She said I can have as much Turkish Delight as I liked. She's also going to make me a prince. So one day I'll be king and I'll rule all of this. So go away!" Edmund demanded sharply, not wanting to waste his time talking to his conscience-self.

With this, Edmund resumed his journey towards the Witch's house.

But, much to his chagrin, the manifestation of his conscience did not go away as he had demanded, but followed him, never taking its reproachful glance from Edmund, who tried to avoid it.

"Didn't I told you to go away?" Edmund snapped as he kept walking without looking back at himself.

"I can't go away because I'm your conscience. Wherever you go, I follow you there too." the "other" Edmund said.

"Then disappear! Whatever! Just be gone." Edmund demanded.

"Even if I do so, you'll still be able to hear me inside of your head." the "other" Edmund said again, making it perfectly clear that whether he appeared or disappeared, he would still be around in his head, whether he liked it or not.

Edmund groaned in annoyance, thinking sarcastically out loud his next words.

"Oh, isn't it just wonderful? I have to listen to my stupid conscience telling me everyone else is right but me so that he can try to talk me out of this. But that's not going to happen. I've made my mind and that's..."

However, at the very next step Edmund took while his thoughts were elsewhere resulted his foot slipping away from under and he fell flat on his face in the snow. He pushed himself up afterwards, shaking his head and spitting the snow out of his mouth, before he wiped the snow off his face with his wet and cold hand.

The manifestation of his conscience just stood there, doing nothing to even help him up (Of course, it wasn't even possible for him to do that since he was just a manifestation rather than a physical being).

"The first thing I'll do, when I'm King of Narnia, is to make some decent roads." Edmund declared, annoyed and fed up with these setbacks.

Edmund then looked up at his conscience, who was looking down at him almost like pleadingly.

"What are you looking at?" he asked rudely.

"It's not too late to reconsider. You can still go back to the beavers', back to your family, make things up with them and be friends again." the "other" Edmund suggested. "That would be better than just sitting here alone in this weather and the dark, thinking what you're doing."

These words had some effect on Edmund, for he looked again at the forest around him. The darkness, the thick snowfall and the snow-dusting wind still worsened the visibility and only the snow that had fallen to the ground still illuminated the outlines of the dark trunks of the trees, but otherwise he couldn't see anything else.

All this surrounding darkness, the silence and the feeling of loneliness - including the feeling of being watched from the darkness - were outright dreadful, and for a moment he really considered of giving up from this whole thing and turn back to the Beaver dam, to explain himself and asking for their forgiveness.

But Edmund was quick to put these thoughts and the whole idea aside, as he convinced himself that going back would only mean giving in and having to admit that once again he'd been wrong about everything, and that all he would get from his brother and sisters would be yet another round of scolding, yelling, threats, and more cold shoulder. It was also reinforced by his own belief that the Queen was anything but what they had been told.

"And suffer yet another scolding from them, especially Peter? Admit I was wrong again? To be called a "fool" for even considering something like this? Being threatened with a horsewhip again? Or have to listen to all the nasty things about the Queen or their lion again? Forget it!"

With that, Edmund pushed himself up from the snow and resumed his journey, with his conscience following after him.

###

A little later, according to his calculations, Edmund had already walked for more than half an hour, and he still hadn't found the Witch's house.

Of course, the journey had to take longer than he had initially thought because of the difficult terrain, the darkness and the bad weather, as if all three of them together wanted to prevent him from reaching his goal.

This left him annoyed and frustrated. And in top of it all, his conscience was still giving him unwanted company, urging him with his bugging presence to let go of this and turn back for his own sake, but Edmund refused to even acknowledge him.

But the farther north he went, Edmund noticed to his great surprise that the weather suddenly began to change: Little by little and fairly quickly, the snow stopped and turned into a soft thin drizzle and the clouds rolled away in the sky, allowing the moon to finally come out.

It was a full moon, pale bluish-white one instead of golden, and its light shone on all that snow so that it made everything almost as bright as day.

But with the clouds clearing up, the wind suddenly sprang up and it became freezing cold than before.

The cold wind then hit Edmund in the seconds, leaving his cheeks and hands flushed from the biting frost, and making him shiver from the chilling air, that he wrapped his coat tightly around his body to keep himself warm as possible.

Otherwise, Edmund had to thank his luck that the clouds had cleared, because if the moon hadn't come out to enlighten his way, he would'be only lost his way in this dark, cold and snow-covered terrain and he wouldn't have ever noticed the small frozen river to his right side.

Edmund remembered having seen that river (when they first arrived to the beavers') flowing down from the north - and from the direction of the two hills - to that great river that flowed into the beavers' dam.

Thinking that this must be the river the Witch had spoken of the day they met and told him to follow it on its left side, Edmund set off to follow the river north.

And after following the river for some more time, Edmund noticed that he had finally reached his destination.

There they were, two hills standing side by side, between which the river came.

*Almost there.*

On reaching the two hills at last, Edmund found there to be a small valley, at the bottom of which the river flowed down from the valley, and the snowy slopes surrounding it were much steeper and rockier than in the valley where the beavers' house was, and they were overgrown with snow-covered bushes.

And after walking a little further, Edmund came to a place where the valley opened out to a level and snow-covered plain between two hills, across of which a frozen river flowed. The moon was shining now brighter than ever, which illuminated the whole valley with the bright bluish-white light.

And there, on the other side of the river, quite close to him and in the middle of the plain stood something that must be the White Witch's house.

Looking more closely, Edmund realized that the Witch's house was actually a small castle, with a citadel crowned with small towers and the tallest tower standing next to it (which had long pointed spires on them, sharp as needles that shone in the moonlight) towering prominently above the grove of trees between it, the river and Edmund.

The moonlight silhouetted the house so that its shadowy side was facing Edmund, making it look quite a bit more menacing than Edmund had originally imagined it to be. And there was light shining from only two supposed windows, which on the shadow side of the castle looked just like glowing eyes staring right at Edmund.

Edmund began to tremble in fear of the house, and even the manifestation of his conscience shared his uneasiness when they stared at the house.

"I don't like the look of her house." the "other" Edmund told his real self.

"Well, it's too late to turn back now." Edmund declared, deciding to push forward despite the house's frightening look.

Edmund then walked into the plain, the manifestation of his conscience following after him, crossed the icy river and walked up to the house.

Reaching there, Edmund was then met with the high stone walls that surrounded the house, and since he could not see the entrance on the side he was on, he had to go right round to the far side to find it.

It was eerie silence. There was not the slightest sound anywhere. Even his own feet made no noise on the deep newly fallen snow, which made him feel uncomfortable.

He walked on and on, past corner after corner of the house, until he finally found a huge archway flanked by two turrets. This was the gateway into the house he'd been looking for.
And even though its great iron gates stood closed, it had a small doorway that was left open as if he'd been expected.

Edmund then stood there for a moment, gazing at the iron gates, the parapet, and the turrets for a moment before he would step inside.

However, he hesitated to enter the gates right away, as there were rather grotesque stone faces carved on the edge of the archway around the gate and beneath the parapet above, which depicted a demonic faces, ferocious dragons, and even terrifying female faces with snakes in their hair. They were all staring down at Edmund as if warning him to stay away.

Edmund was then startled when something all of the sudden swooped down towards him from the open dark windows of the turrets. Something that looked like a four oversized black bats, whose sharp-toothed mouths were twisted into a wicked smirks and their red eyes were full of malice!

Edmund was forced to duck down as the screeching bats flew over his head, making Edmund to feel the gust of wind following in the bats' wake touching his base neck.

The bats remained to harash Edmund by circling him around with gliding zigzagging movements like the vultures above the dying or dead animal, divebombing him for a few times, forcing Edmund to try to defend himself by swinging his arms at the bats to keep them at bay.

This, however, only provoked the bats into doubling their attacks on him.

But before they could do any serious harm on him, they were suddenly halted by the harsh-sounding hooting that came from above.

HOO! HOO! HOO! HOO!

Both Edmund and the bats looked up and saw a snowy owl perched on the parapet next to the left turret, which looked very hard to the bats with its in the dark glowing eyes.

Edmund recognized the owl immediately, for it was the same owl who had accompanied the Witch in the woods when they'd met.

*This must be Snowstorm that robin was talking about.*

The snowy owl, Snowstorm, hooted once again to the bats, who were still flapping their huge wings just above of Edmund's head, in such of the manner as if telling them to do something... something what Edmund hoped to be like "leaving him alone".

To Edmund's relief, this seemed to be the case, as the Bats immediately scrammed and glided back into the windows of the turrets, which apparently were they guard posts, leaving Edmund alone.

Left a bit shaken from such of experience but otherwise fine, Edmund looked up at Snowstorm and gave him somewhat a grateful smile.

The owl, however, stared at Edmund with a stoic and emotionless look that almost resembled a frown, before he wordlessly moved his head to the left - his gaze still on Edmund - and towards the castle as if beckoning him to come inside. But right after that, the owl rather curtly turned his back to him and took flight, disappearing behind the wall and flying away towards the castle.

Although Edmund still hesitated a little, he didn't dare to disobey in fear of another attack from those nasty bats and stepped forward.

Edmund then entered through the door in the gate, with the manifestation of his conscience still following him, and shut it behind him.

But when he turned around and looked inside into the courtyard, he saw there a sight that nearly made his heart stop beating.

In front of him, with the moonlight shining on it, stood an enormous lion - in its regular animal form - with its huge maw open and teeth bared as if it was growling at him.

"AH!" Edmund gasped, slamming himself against the gates and stayed within the shadows of the archway, afraid to move (neither forward nor out of the door), his breathing shaking, his knees knocking together, his teeth chattering with fear and not just with cold, staring at the lion.

However, after some time, Edmund didn't know how long, though it felt like hours, Edmund began to wonder why the lion was just standing so still and hadn't sprung towards him.

In fact, the lion hadn't moved one inch since he first set eyes on it.

Confused, Edmund ventured a little closer to it, but still kept in the shadows of the archway, expecting the lion to become aware of him the moment he stepped into the moonlight (briefly forgetting that the lions have an excellent sense of smell and night vision). But the lion still did not react to his presence and never moved.

Taking a closer look at the lion, Edmund noticed that the lion's back and the top of its head were covered with snow and a row of icicles dangled from its mane, lower jaw, and its flanks.

*No animal, at least living one, would have let itself get covered with snow like this.*

Now Edmund remembered what the others had said about the White Witch, that she was able to turn people into stone. This made him to deduce that perhaps this was only a stone lion.

Then very slowly, with his heart beating as if it would burst, Edmund ventured out into the moonlight and up to the lion until he was standing right in front of its face. To be sure that the lion was what he thought it to be, Edmund put out his hand to touch it. He did it! He put his hand over the lion's muzzle and felt the sensation of the cold stone in his palm.

Now that it was confirmed that the lion was only a statue, Edmund chuckled to himself, feeling a great deal of relief within him and little silly that he'd been frightened of a mere statue!

"Stone cold. That's it! It's stone." Edmund said, switching his sense of relief and silliness into a spiteful teasing. "Yeah, it can't hurt me!"

A manifestation of his conscience just stared at him with disapproval of his behavior, crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head.

As Edmund looked at the stone lion, there came into his head what seemed a perfectly lovely idea.

"I bet this is their so-called Great Lion Aslan. So that beaver was wrong. She's caught him already and turned him into stone. So much for all their fine talks and ideas about him! Hah! Who's afraid of Aslan?"

As he stood there gloating over the stone lion, Edmund's eye caught a campfire near the gate, which had been recently used. And as he looked at the charred stick and then at the lion, he grinned as he came up with something very silly and childish.

His "other" self looked at him with wide-eyed frown, downright disgusted with him and what he was going to do.

"You wouldn't dare!" he warned, but Edmund wasn't listening.

Edmund then went to fetch one of the charred sticks from the campfire before coming back to the lion and scribbled a moustache on the lion's upper lip and then a pair of spectacles on its eyes. Then the backed away and gloated to the lion in arrogant sense of pride for his deed.

"Hah! Silly old Aslan! How do you like being a stone? You thought yourself mighty fine, didn't you?"

Disgusted, his "other" self then spoke to him in the similar manner to Peter's, one which Edmund could no longer ignore.

"You poisonous little beast! Always being beastly to those weaker than you. Maybe Peter was right about that all along. You just like to deny the truth about yourself."

Edmund turned to look at his "other" self with annoyed frown. But before he was about to say something to justify himself, but his "other" self was no longer having his excuses.

"Look at this lion! Take a closer look at its face! Just look at it!" the "other" Edmund demanded.

Reluctantly, Edmund did as his "other" self demanded him to do and took a closer look of the lion's face.

In spite of the scribbles on its face, the great stone beast didn't look so fierce or scary as Edmund had initially thought. Instead, its so noble and at the same time terrible-looking face looked like they were wrapped in pure terror, and its empty stone-gray eyes looked sad and pleading. Even the frozen water in the corner of its eye looked like tears.

Edmund stepped away from the lion in awkward silence, all of the sudden taken aback by the look on its face and no longer finding any fun out of jeering at it. He almost felt... pity for the lion.

"That was indeed a stupid thing to do." the "other" Edmund chided him angrily. "You know what has befallen to this poor creature, but you are just spiteful enough to dare to mock and disrespect it for it. It would serve you right if it came to life and bit your head off."

Now feeling too uncomfortable to even be near of this lion because of his deed, Edmund turned away and began to cross the courtyard.

The courtyard, like the castle itself, wasn't very big but it was still a spacious area enough that a fairly large number of people could fit there to stand before the castle that stood in Edmund's left. In middle of the courtyard stood on top of the rounded steps a well-like frozen fountain with the dome-like cage upon it and serpentine ornaments round it. This courtyard was apparently not the only one in the whole place, as there appeared to be two large and dark archways at the corners of this courtyard, which probably led to other courtyards surrounding the castle. And there at the foot of the castle was a pair of flight of stone steps leading up to the open doorways that led to the two parts of the castle on its opposite sides. And just like he had seen outside the castle, there was a dim light showing out of the castle's windows on the courtyard's side, as well as from the doorways.

But as he walked past the stone lion to the courtyard, an inconsolably grim sight awaited him in there.

There were statues! The entire courtyard was full of lifeless, snow- and ice-covered stone statues of animals and creatures, that were standing like the chess pieces on a board in half way through the game.

Each statue stood in variant pose, most of which appeared to be shielding themselves with their hands, covering as if in fear, clutching into each other, trying to run away or even to fight back. And some of the stone animals were either in their anthropomorphic forms or in their normal animal forms.

There were numerous stone Dwarfs, Fauns, Satyrs and Dryads. There were a stone dogs (an Irish Wolfhound, an English Sheepdog, and a number of Foxhounds), a fairly large stone bear, a stone fox, a stone lioness, a stone goat, a stone horse (a regular horse with the rope around its neck held by a stone Dryad), a large stone elk, pair of stone reindeer and several family groups of five stone squirrels, four stone badgers, eight stone rabbits and three stone hedgehogs. There were two great stone Centaurs, a winged stone horse, and at least a seven tall and very tree-like, but graceful and beautiful women (they were Hamadryads, tree-like spirits).

On the crest of the wall sat a flock of six stone doves, and a stone falcon, and a great stone bald eagle, and a large stone swan that appeared to be taking flight.

At the left corner of the wall to Edmund's right stood two stone elephants (both cow and bull elephant, that appeared to be slightly smaller than the Earth's elephants), and at the opposite corner stood a stone unicorn in a galloping stance with its head and horn lowered down, and next to it stood on its hind legs a great stone tiger, with bird-like wings growing from its back, and finally a winged creature resembling a great stag, with a long feathered tail and hind legs like the talons of bird of prey, called Peryton

In front of the stairs stood a great stone Dragon that sat like a dog and as tall as an elephant. It had a medium-sized bat-like wings, claws like those of a bird of prey, a long flexible neck and a long serpentine tail that was wrapped around its feet. It had a frilly cheeks, pointed ears, and a line of dorsal fins running from the back of its neck to the tip of its tail.

And in the very corner of the courtyard to Edmund's left stood a huge man, a Giant, tall as a tree, with a fierce-looking face and a shaggy beard, a great club in its right hand raised high in the air and the left hand held out towards the ground.

As Edmund walked across the courtyard, he eyed cautiously all the statues he passed by, which all looked so perfectly lifelike and yet so perfectly still.

In the bright and cold moonlight, Edmund could see their faces, mostly frozen in a deep and disturbingly impactful expressions of terror, sadness and pleading, just like that lion's.

But the longer he stäred at their faces and their frozen shapes, they began to look quite frightening that it made Edmund's heart beat wildly with the growing anxiety in his chest.

And he also began to imagine that he could either hear or see things around him.

The stone Hamadryads' faces, frozen into shocked, expressions, looked quite eerie. Edmund could almost hear the echoes of their horrified screams in his head.

*Women's high-pitched screaming!*

The stone bear stood on its hind legs, clawed paws raised up and a fierce expression on its face. Edmund could swear that he heard the bear's menacing growl.

*Bear's growling!*

Looking at the stone horse, he could hear the echo of its panicked neighing.

*Horse's neighing!*

The stone Irish Wolfhound was making face at him, showing him its stone teeth in threatening manner and barking aggressively in his head.

*Dog's barking and growling!*

Edmund almost gasped out loud in startlement when he ran into one of the stone Centaurs, which was holding a broad shield in front of it and a great sword over its head as if it was ready to strike him with it.

*Centaur's war-cry!*

Edmund moved away from the Centaur, and almost screamed when he came face-to-face with the teeth of the stone lioness with the growling expression on its face.

*Lioness' roar!*

As he looked at the petrified family groups, he saw a hedgehog couple and beaver family clinging to each other in fear, an adult male badger trying to shield his family, and each rabbit parent clutching to a baby rabbit in their arms while the rest baby rabbits were hiding behind their parents. Looking at them, Edmund could also hear the echoes of the distant, scared, panicked and desperate pleadings to spare the little ones, as well as the children's crying and distraught screams.

*"NO!"*, *"Please!"*, *"Have mercy on us!"*, *"Spear my little ones!"*, *"Mommy!"*, *Crying and screaming!*

He also imagined that some of the statues he passed would suddenly and rather creepily turn their stone faces and empty stone-grey eyes upon him, and he seemed to hear the echoes of their voices begging him to leave here and stay away, as if wanting him to avoid their grim fate.

*"Don't come here!"*, *"Stay away!"*, *"Leave while you still can!"*

And as if this was not enough, the walls surrounding the main gate, the archways and the doorways leading to the castle were decorated with grotesque sculptures depicting winged demonic gargoyles as if to guard them, and the stone pillars standing on the stone balustrades of the stairs were carved to depict ferocious dragons. They all looked like they were staring straight at him maliciously while wearing the wicked grins on their stone lips.

*A sinister and wicked cackling!*

The Giant's shadow then fell upon him, making Edmund to turn to look up at its face. The Giant looked angrily down at him and was apparently about to either to grab on him or bash him with its large club.

*Giant's thunderous' roar!*

Then Edmund came face to face with the petrified Dragon as it held its huge maw full of sharp stone teeth wide open to him, and Edmund could hear its roar, and its flaming breath.

*Dragon's sharp roar!*, *"PWHOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHH!*

But when Edmund reached to the stairs after walking - or rather running - past the Dragon statue, he furiously tried to pull himself together and calm himself down by repeatedly reminding himself that this was just his own childish imagination, and that the creatures and animals were just statues and couldn't harm him in any way.

*You are so silly that you're only afraid of a few stupid lifeless stone-hard statues. And don't forget why they ended up like this! It's because they're her enemies and have said a bad things about her. This is what they deserved. But none of this will happen to you, since you think nice about her because she was nice to you. And remember that she's going to make you the prince, and king of Narnia and let you have all those Turkish Delight you want.*

"Do you still believe in that? Wasn't this proof enough of everything they've said about the Witch?"

Edmund turned towards of who'd spoken to him, and groaned immediately when he realized that it was his conscience speaking again, looking at him with deep disapproval look.

"Are you still in here?! Just go away!" Edmund snapped irritably.

The "other" Edmund just shook his head. "Once you enter that castle, and whatever you tell her about your siblings, there's no going back." he warned sternly.

"Then so be it." Edmund said dismissively and turned towards the stairs leading to the doorway in the castle's left side.

But when he got to the stairs and was about to step on its first stone step, Edmund stopped as if at a wall and gasped in surprise when he saw something at the very top of them.

At the top of the stairs, right in front of the doorway and under the light coming out of it, a rather large gray wolf was lying there curled up and completely motionless, with its eyes closed. Edmund also noticed that its back and head were covered in snow that had fallen for some time.

Remembering having told himself while encountering that stone lion that no living animal would allow the snow to get covered on like that, Edmund deduced that this wolf was just another wretched animal turned to stone.

"It's just an old stone wolf." Edmund told to himself and confidently raised his leg to the first step of the stairs.

However, all of the sudden, the "stone" the wolf's ears twitched at the soft thump of Edmund's step and the crunch of snow under his boots, before the huge canine opened its glowing yellow eyes and rose its head up.

Edmund gasped and backed away from the stairs, surprised to see that this was actually a real living wolf.

The wolf stood up to its all fours before its body suddenly went through a swift transformation from the regular wolf form into a more anthropomorphic form: The wolf's humanoid body was covered in thick gray fur and its legs and hand-like paws resembled closely the bear-like paws. It had a gray wolf-like head with pointed ears, snout and canine teeth, but more human-like eyes. The wolf's anthropomorphic form closely resembled the Werewolf.

"Who goes there?" the wolf called in the growling voice, before its eyes landed on Edmund at the bottom of the stairs.

"Intruder!" the wolf hissed before it all of the sudden leaped from the top of the stairs towards Edmund, knocking him off his feet and pinning him down to the snow with its large paw.

"Stand still, stranger, or you'll never move again!" the wolf said, growling ferociously in Edmund's face. "Tell me who you are!"

Edmund trembled from fear so that he could barely speak. But when the words finally forced their way out of his mouth, they came out at a rather rapid pace.

"If you please, sir? My name is Edmund!"

"And I am Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police." the wolf, Maugrim, said while introducing himself. "Why are you here?!"

"I'm the Son of Adam! I met Her Majesty in the wood the other day! She told me to come here!"

Maugrim cocked his head as he stared down at Edmund with an raised eyebrow, as if he did not believed him.

"I've come to tell her that my brother and sisters are now in Narnia! She especially wanted to see them!"

Maugrim's ears then stood up as these words came in, and he immediately stopped growling at Edmund's face, took his paw off his chest and stepped back from the boy.

"Hmm. Very well. I will tell Her Majesty." Maugrim said, before he bared his teeth threateningly at Edmund again. "You stand here and don't move, if you value your life."

Maugrim then turned away, climbed up the stairs and vanished into the castle.

When the wolf was gone, Edmund climbed back to his feet and stood there at the bottom of the stairs and waited, with his fingers aching with cold and his heart pounding in his chest after such of shaking encounter with this Maugrim, and dared not to take another step anywhere.

"You've done it. You told him."

Edmund's head snapped up at the voice, which he recognized as his conscience's. He looked around of him to see if the manifestation was still there standing beside him. To his short-lasting relief, the manifestation was gone, until he remembered him having told him that even if he wasn't there visibly, he could still speak to him within his head.

"You have betrayed your own brother and sisters to her... for your own selfish reasons. I hope you're proud of yourself now." the voice of his conscience scolded.

"Oh, shut up!" Edmund snapped.

Before long, Maugrim reappeared to the top of the stairs and looked down at Edmund, now wearing a rather toothy smirk in the welcoming manner.

"Come inside. Come in." Maugrim said with much lighter and friendlier, beckoning Edmund to enter into the castle. "Be welcomed, fortunate favorite of the Queen."

Edmund smiled at the wolf's welcome, instantly forgetting all fear completely. Without wasting the moment, Edmund sprung up the stairs and past Maugrim who watched his going all along with the observing gaze. Edmund paid a last quick look at the wolf before entering.

When Edmund was gone, Maugrim turned away, smirking to himself. "Or perhaps not so fortunate."

After Edmund stepped into the castle, he found himself immediately standing in a long and rather gloomy hall with two rows of pillar made of green stone and which were wrapped up into the frozen green ice, and it was lit dimly by few lamps from the ceiling.

And at the other end of the hall was a circular green-walled chamber,where in the very middle of it stood a throne covered in polar bear fur, and on the throne... where sat the White Witch herself. And standing next to her was Snowstorm himself, having already transformed into his own bigger anthropomorphic owl form.

Edmund then rushed eagerly forward and stopped right in front of the White Witch, whose face was stoic but the look in her eyes cold as ice.

Snowstorm also stared at Edmund with an equally cold look from his golden eyes, before he pointed one of his wings at the boy.

"Hoo hoo! No one stands before the Queen of Narnia, the Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands, etc without bowing. Hoo hoo!" Snowstorm informed sternly.

Edmund, deciding it to be wise to do as Snowstorm told him, bowed his head deep down to the Witch, before he then stood back up.

"I've come, your Majesty." Edmund said in shy greeting.

The Witch gave Edmund somewhat a forced smile. "Hello, Edmund." she greeted.

Then the Witch looked around of her throne chamber for a moment, before turning back to Edmund. "You like it?"

Knowing what the Witch meant, Edmund looked around the chamber. It wasn't quite what he had first imagined it to be: It was cold, dark and gloomy, dimly enlighted by the light of the lit candles of the black iron chandelier on the ceiling of the chamber. In the chamber's left-hand wall (viewed from Edmund's perspective) was standing several shelves, which, to Edmund's disappointment, were not full of Turkish Delight as the Queen had told him, but they were rather filled with the clay pots, crystal bottles full of some liquid substance, and old books, as if it were some sort of archive. And the same thing was on the right-hand wall of the chamber. However, in the corner of the right-hand wall next to the shelves was an entrance into the passage that led to other part of the castle. In the back wall of this chamber, there seemed to be an entrance to another dark, though candle-lit, chamber. And looking inside of there and a little more closer, Edmund thought that he was seeing something glittering in the light of the candles. With the little closer look of it, Edmund came to realize that the chamber was actually a royal treasury, as it was filled with the piles of ice-gray silver coins and snow-white precious stones.

Edmund smiled at the amount of silver and gems in the treasury. Not only he would become the King of Narnia one day and have al lthe Turkish Delight he'd like, but he'll also be rich enough to enjoy his life as the King.

If only there weren't all these statues that, like in the courtyard, littered the chamber and the hall.

Some statues stood scattered around him in front of the throne, almost all on their knees before the Queen, hapless, wailing, horrified and fearful expressions on their faces, with hands either stretched forward - likely desperately beckoning her to stop - or raised high in the air or shielding themselves. A stone Faun in the back of the group looked like he'd tried to run away, one male Dwarf and female Dwarf were clutching to each other, and a stone vixen had covered its eyes with its paws as if unable to watch its inevitable doom.

The Witch's throne was even flanked by two Nymph-like statues riding on two stone donkeys, and they were holding in their hands a banners over the Witch's throne, which depicted the white Snowflake in the black background, possibly the Witch's symbol.

Edmund's attention then went back to the Witch. "Uh... yes, Your Majety." Edmund said, not wanting to sound rude just because he felt uncomfortable because of all these statues.

"I thought so." the Witch's said, sounding like as if she was aware how Edmund actually felt, before she changed the subject.

"Tell me, Edmund. Are your sisters... naive?" the Witch's asked, now eyeing Edmund with the piercing gaze.

Edmund frowned, a little confused of this question, before he rushed to answer to it. "Uh... well. Maybe a little. Susan might be another thing, but Lucy has tendency to believe everything she hears." he asnwered.

"Then are they deaf?" the Witch asked again with somewhat steeled voice.

"No." Edmund responded again.

"And what about your brother? Is he... gullible? Unintelligent, perhaps?" the Witch asked again.

"Well..." Edmund stuttered, not knowing how to compare someone like his brother to a gullible and unintelligent person. "I don't know if that's the correct way to describe my brother, Your Majesty, but he can be so bossy and stiff-necked at times."

The Witch's pursed her lips, apparently she was not satisfied with these answers. "What about you them?" she eventually asked.

"Me?" Edmund frowned, a bit taken aback by the uestion.

"Are you really as clever as I... thought you to be?" the Witch asked.

"Yes, I am." Edmund asnwered immediately, a bit offended that his praised cleverness was being doubted and underestimated.

"If you were, wouldn't be staring a three empty spots beside you right now." the Witch said with low voice. "Did I not tell you to bring the others with you the next time we meet?"

"Yes, you did." Edmund answered swiftly.

"And you remember what did I say would happen if you didn't?" the Witch asked again, this time with even dangerously-sounding low voice.

Edmund almost swallowed nervously, remembering well what the Witch had said that day before he composed himself and opened his mouth to explain.

"Yes, yes I do, Your Majesty, but there was..."

However, before Edmund could've finished, the Witch suddenly rose up from her throne, towering over Edmund, and casted on him an ice-cold glare.

"THEN HOW DARE YOU COME ALONE!" the Witch shrieked in a terrible voice - almost as high as the Banshee's scream - which echoed in every corner of the castle.

Edmund jumped back in wide-eyed shock and frightened by the Witch's glare and shriek.

"But I tried my best, your majesty!" Edmund tried to explain. "They just didn't listened to me. They never do!"

The Witch, however, seemed to ignore this as he kept shouting harshly at him.

"I TOLD YOU AGAIN, AND AGAIN, TO BRING THE OTHERS WITH YOU! AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT!" the Witch screamed, as she slowly but certainly raised her wand over her head.

"I did bring them halfway! They're in the little house on top of the dam just up the river—with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and Chirp the robin!" Edmund hurriedly told her in desperate attempt to save himself from her wrath.

Snowstorm's head jumped up, and he stared at Edmund in the angered wide-eyed frown upon the mention of the name "Chirp", the robin that had once managed to escape his clutches while sneaking around in his mistress' castle against her wishes.

The Witch immediately halted her wand-wielding hand once these news reached to her ears. The Witch then slowly lowered her wand down and sat back to her throne, and simultaneously, a slow and rather cruel smile came over her face.

And Snowstorm, thought still pissed to learn of that sneaking robin's involment in this, didn't make a scene of it but remained composured.

"Gooooooood boy." the Witch said with low and slow voice as she smiled at Edmund. "I suppose your not a totally hopeless then, after all. You're indeed a clever little boy. Well done, Edmund."

Edmund smiled in relief and pleased of White Witch's praising.

While looking at Edmund carefully, the Witch's sensed that there might be something else Edmund knew than he was letting them to know.

"I trust there are other news than that, Edmund." the Witch asked.

"Oh, yes, Your Majesty!" Edmund said and proceeded to tell all he had heard before leaving the Beavers' house. "Those mean beavers said that somebody else has come to Narnia, someone as awful as they are."

Both the Witch and Snowstorm listened him keenly and with patience.

"Aslan." Edmund said with scornful smirk. "Beavers and that robin also said he's at some place called the Stone Table, probably plotting to overthrow you with the rest of your enemies."

However, mentioning Aslan's name had an effect on the Witch that Edmund did not expect.

Upon hearing the Great Lion's name and his return to Narnia, the Witch had all of the sudden frozen in place on her own throne in utmost terror: her skin was even paler than ever, her eyes had grown wider, her mouth was gaping loose, her hands on her throne's armrests were violently shaking and her breathing shuddering.

Mention of Aslan's name had sent Snowstorm - whose golden eyes had gone wide open from shock and horror - in frantic panic that he quickly withdrew behind the throne to hide, as if sensing Aslan being in here with them, in this chamber, right now.

"Aslan? Aslan? Here?" the Witch repeated with the trembling voice, before pushing herself up from her throne. "Is this true?"

Edmund looked confused by the Witch's and Snowstorm's reactions upon hearing Aslan's name, as well as worried if he had just said something wrong.

The Witch's horror-struck face then turned into a terrible glare, however, before she rushed towards Edmund and roughly grabbed from his coat, shaking him furiously while literally screaming in shocked Edmund's face.

"IF I FIND YOU HAVE LIED TO ME, YOU LITTLE...!""

"Please, Your Majesty! I'm only repeating what they said!" Edmund stammered.

The Witch glared terribly at the trembling boy in her hands, before she roughly let go of his coat. Then she began to pace left and forth in her chamber, repeating Aslan's name in ice-cold fury.

"GINARRBRIK!" the Witch then called and clapped her hands loudly.

Instantly the same Dwarf whom Edmund had seen with her before, whose name was Ginarrbrik, appeared from the dark passage in the corner of the chamber. The black-bearded Dwarf glared at Edmund with the hate-filled eyes before he bowed to the ueen.

"Make ready our sledge." the Witch ordered. "And use the harness without bells. We will creep up silently and burst upon them with no warning!"

Ginarrbrik bowed again before he left the hall, pushing his way roughly past Edmund despite the size differences. With the Dwarf gone to get the sledge ready, the Witch began to pace around once more.

"Plotting to overthrow me, isn't he?" the Witch said dangerously. "Does that fool think that he can rob me of my rights by mere force? He knows the Deep Magic better than that. Just to be the safe side, I must catch the other three humans before they can reach the Stone Table to ally themselves with him!"

The Witch then turned to Edmund and seized him by his left ear with the terribly painful grib, making Edmund yelp.

"But as long as I have you, my little fool, the prophecy cannot be fulfilled!" the Witch practically yelled in Edmund's ear, before shoving him aside, leaving Edmund with the sore ear.

TO BE CONTINUED...