The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis Read Free Book Online Page A

when it wasover, Jill said, “I bet that serpent and that woman were the same person.”
    “True, true, we think the same as you,” hooted the owls.
    “But we don’t think she killed the Prince,” said Glimfeather, “because no bones—”
    “We know she didn’t,” said Scrubb. “Aslan told Pole he was still alive somewhere.”
    “That almost makes it worse,” said the oldest owl. “It means she has some use for him, and some deep scheme against Narnia. Long, long ago, at the very beginning, a White Witch came out of the North and bound our land in snow and ice for a hundred years. And we think this may be some of the same crew.”
    “Very well, then,” said Scrubb. “Pole and I have got to find this Prince. Can you help us?”
    “Have you any clue, you two?” asked Glimfeather.
    “Yes,” said Scrubb. “We know we’ve got to go north. And we know we’ve got to reach the ruins of a giant city.”
    At this there was a greater tu-whooing than ever, and noises of birds shifting their feet and ruffling their feathers, and then all the owls started speaking at once. They all explained how very sorry they were that they themselves could not go with the children on their search for the lost Prince. “You’d want to travel by day, and we’dwant to travel by night,” they said. “It wouldn’t do, wouldn’t do.” One or two owls added that even here in the ruined tower it wasn’t nearly so dark as it had been when they began, and that the parliament had been going on quite long enough. In fact, the mere mention of a journey to the ruined city of giants seemed to have damped the spirits of those birds. But Glimfeather said:
    “If they want to go that way—into Ettinsmoor—we must take them to one of the Marsh-wiggles. They’re the only people who can help them much.”
    “True, true. Do,” said the owls.
    “Come on, then,” said Glimfeather. “I’ll take one. Who’ll take the other? It must be done tonight.”
    “I will: as far as the Marsh-wiggles,” said another owl.
    “Are you ready?” said Glimfeather to Jill.
    “I think Pole’s asleep,” said Scrubb.

Five

PUDDLEGLUM
    JILL WAS ASLEEP. EVER SINCE THE OWLS’ parliament began she had been yawning terribly and now she had dropped off. She was not at all pleased at being waked again, and at finding herself lying on bare boards in a dusty belfry sort of place, completely dark, and almost completely full of owls. She was even less pleased when she heard that they had to set off for somewhere else—and not, apparently, for bed—on the Owl’s back.
    “Oh, come on, Pole, buck up,” said Scrubb’s voice. “After all, it is an adventure.”
    “I’m sick of adventures,” said Jill crossly.
    She did, however, consent to climb on to Glimfeather’s back and was thoroughly waked up (for a while) by the unexpected coldness of the air when he flew out with her into the night. The moon had disappeared and there were no stars. Far behind her she could see a single lighted window well above the ground; doubtless, in one of the towers of Cair Paravel. It made her long to be back inthat delightful bedroom, snug in bed, watching the firelight on the walls. She put her hands under her cloak and wrapped it tightly round her. It was uncanny to hear two voices in the dark air a little distance away; Scrubb and his owl were talking to one another. “ He doesn’t sound tired,” thought Jill. She did not realize that he had been on great adventures in that world before and that the Narnian air was bringing back to him a strength he had won when he sailed the Eastern Seas with King Caspian.
    Jill had to pinch herself to keep awake, for she knew that if she dozed on Glimfeather’s back she would probably fall off. When at last the two owls ended their flight, she climbed stiffly off Glimfeather and found herself on flat ground. A chilly wind was blowing and they appeared to be in a place without trees. “Tu-whoo, tu-whoo!” Glimfeather was calling.