CHAPTER FOURTEEN NIGHT FALLS ON NARNIA（第3/4页）

And out there it began to grow light. A streak of dreary and disastrous dawn spread along the horizon，and widened and grew brighter，till in the end they hardly noticed the light of the stars who stood behind them. At last the sun came up. When it did，the Lord Digory and the Lady Polly looked at one another and gave a little nod：those two，in a different world，had once seen a dying sun，and so they knew at once that this sun also was dying. It was three times-twenty times-as big as it ought to be，and very dark red. As its rays fell upon the great Time-giant，he turned red too： and in the reflection of that sun the whole waste of shoreless waters looked like blood．

Then the Moon came up，quite in her wrong position，very close to the sun，and she also looked red. And at the sight of her the sun began shooting out great flames，like whiskers or snakes of crimson fire，towards her. It is as if he were an octopus trying to draw her to himself in his tentacles. And perhaps he did draw her. At any rate she came to him，slowly at first，but then more and more quickly，till at last his long flames licked round her and the two ran together and became one huge ball like a burning coal. Great lumps of fire came dropping out of it into the sea and clouds of steam rose up．

Then Aslan said，“Now make an end.”

The giant threw his horn into the sea. Then he stretched out one arm-very black it looked，and thousands of miles long-across the sky till his hand reached the Sun. He took the Sun and squeezed it in his hand as you would squeeze an orange. And instantly there was total darkness．

Everyone except Aslan jumped back from the ice-cold air which now blew through the Doorway. Its edges were already covered with icicles．

“Peter，High King of Narnia，”said Aslan.“Shut the Door.”

Peter，shivering with cold，leaned out into the darkness and pulled the Door to. It scraped over ice as he pulled it. Then，rather clumsily (for even in that moment his hands had gone numb and blue) he took out a golden key and locked it．

They had seen strange things enough through that Doorway. But it was stranger than any of them to look round and find themselves in warm daylight，the blue sky above them，flowers at their feet，and laughter in Aslan’s eyes．

He turned swiftly round，crouched lower，lashed himself with his tail and shot away like a golden arrow．

“Come further in! Come further up!”he shouted over his shoulder. But who could keep up with him at that pace ？ They set out walking Westward to follow him．

“So，”said Peter，“night falls on Narnia. What，Lucy! You’re not crying ？ With Aslan ahead，and all of us here ？”

“Don’t try to stop me，Peter，”said Lucy，“I am sure Aslan would not. I am sure it is not wrong to mourn for Narnia. Think of all that lies dead and frozen behind that door.”

“Yes and I did hope，”said Jill，“that it might go on for ever. I knew our world couldn’t. I did think Narnia might.”

“I saw it begin，”said the Lord Digory.“I did not think I would live to see it die.”

“Sirs，”said Tirian.“The ladies do well to weep. See，I do so myself. I have seen my mother’s death. What world but Narnia have I ever known ？ It were no virtue，but great discourtesy，if we did not mourn.”

They walked away from the Door and away from the Dwarfs who still sat crowded together in their imaginary stable. And as they went they talked to one another about old wars and old peace and ancient Kings and all the glories of Narnia．

The Dogs were still with them. They joined in the conversation but not very much because they were too busy racing on ahead and racing back and rushing off to sniff at smells in the grass till they made themselves sneeze. Suddenly they picked up a scent which seemed to excite them very much. They all started arguing about it-“Yes it is-No it isn’t-That’s just what I said-anyone can smell what that is-Take your great nose out of the way and let someone else smell.”