Helena Pevensie (Caspian Love Story)

20. The Queen of the Underland

Two earthmen were the first to appear at the door. They stepped inside and placed themselves on either side of the door like sentries. Then, the last person they wished to see entered - the Lady of the Green Kirtle, Queen of the Underland. She was standing very still in the doorway, her eyes surveying the scene - the silver chair destroyed, four strangers, one of which was holding a knife, and Rilian free with his sword in his hand.

She turned white with anger before suddenly it all seemed to disappear so that Helena was not entirely sure she had seen it. Turning back slightly, she ordered in a sweet, musical voice, "Leave us. And let none disturb us till I call, on pain of death." She turned and locked the door after them. She was wearing another green dress, this one much grander than any other they had seen. Now, too, there was a crown on her head.

When she turned back, she strode forward toward Rilian and said, "How now, my lord Prince. Has your nightly fit not yet come upon you, or is it over so soon? Why stand you here unbound? Who are these aliens? And is it they who have destroyed the chair which was your only safety?"

Rilian shivered at the sound of her voice. With great effort, he finally said, "Madam, there will be no more need of that chair. And you, who have told me a hundred times how deeply you pitied me for the sorceries by which I was bound, will doubtless hear with joy that they are now ended for ever. There was, it seems, some small error in your ladyship's way of treating them. These, my true friends, have delivered me. I am now in my right mind, and there are two things I will say to you.

"First - as for your ladyship's design of putting me at the head of an army of earthmen so that I may break out into the Overworld and there, by main force, make myself king over some nation that never did me wrong - murdering their natural lords and holding their throne as a bloody and foreign tyrant - now that I know myself, I do utterly abhor and renounce it as plain villainy. And second: I am the king's son of Narnia, Rilian, the only child of Caspian, Tenth of that name, whom some call Caspian the Seafarer. Therefore, Madam, it is my purpose, as it is also my duty, to depart suddenly from your highness's court into my own country. Please it you to grant me and my friends safe conduct and a guide through your dark realm."

The witch had, this entire time, kept her eyes steadily on Rilian who had not met her gaze once. Her expression was impassive. Helena could not help the sudden fear that rushed through her. Once Rilian had finished talking, the witch moved across the room, never moving her eyes from Rilian. He could feel her gaze and seemed to be resisting the urge to run away. Helena took a step closer to him, resting her hand on his shoulder. It was all she could think to do to try and help him.

The witch had now moved over to the large fire burning at the other side of the room. She reached her hand into a large ark set in the wall. From this, she drew out a dark green powder. This, she tossed into the fire. A very sweet and drowsy smell came from it and as the following conversation went on, the smell only grew stronger. Next, she took from the wall a musical instrument that looked remarkably like a mandolin. Sitting down, she began to play a low, monotonous thrumming that they didn't notice after a few minutes. The smell even in that time had grown stronger and was making it harder to think.

"Narnia?" she said in a sweet, quiet voice. "Narnia? I have often heard your lordship utter that name in your ravings. Dear Prince, you are very sick. There is no land called Narnia."

"Yes, there is," Helena countered firmly. "Puddleglum has lived there all his life and I have been there."

"Indeed," said the witch. "Tell me, I pray you, where that country is?"

"Up there," Puddleglum said, pointing upwards. "I - I don't know exactly where."

"How?" said with queen with a kind, soft, musical laugh. "Is there a country up among the stones and mortar of the roof?"

"No," Helena said. For some odd reason, she was finding it difficult to catch her breath. "It's in the Overworld."

"And what, or where, pray is this...how do you call it...Overworld?" the witch replied.

"Oh, don't be so silly," Eustace said, fighting hard against the smell and the thrumming. "As if you didn't know. It's up above, up where you can see the sky and the sun and the stars. Why, you've been there yourself. We met you there!"

"I cry you mercy, little brother," the witch said with a laugh. "I have no memory of that meeting. But we often meet our friends in strange places when we dream. And unless we all dreamed alike, you must not ask them to remember it."

"Except, it wasn't a dream," Helena said. Her mind was a bit hazy but she was keeping her wits about her. "You see, I remember it and I do not dream and wake to tell the tale."

"Madam," Rilian said before she could address Helena. "I have already told your grace that I am the king's son of Narnia."

"And shalt be, dear friend," said the witch in a soothing voice like one would use to humour a child's fantasies. "Shalt be king of many imaged lands in thy fancies."

"We've been there too," snapped Jill. She was growing very angry because she could feel enchantment getting hold of her every moment but of course, the very fact that she could still feel it showed that it had not yet fully worked.

"And thou art queen of Narnia too, I doubt not, pretty one," said the witch in a coddling, half-mocking tone.

"I am nothing of the sort," Jill cried indignantly.

"I am," Helena said in a clear, firm voice. She was beginning to wonder if she could put up a front and convince the witch that her enchantments were not working, if perhaps it might unnerve her, perhaps even weaken the magic.

"But we three come from another world," Jill said.

"Why, this is a prettier game than the other," said the witch. "Tell us, little maid, where is this other world? What ships and chariots go between it and ours?" Helena waited to hear Jill's response but it never came. The magic was at its full strength and Jill could no longer remember the names of things in her own world.

Then, in a sleepy, distant kind of voice, Jill said, "I suppose that other world must be all a dream."

"Yes. It is all a dream," said the witch.

"Yes, all a dream," said Jill.

"There never was such a world," said the witch.

"No," said Jill and Eustace. "Never was such a world.

"There never was any world but mine," said the witch.

"There never was any world but yours," they said. Helena, Puddleglum, and Rilian shared worried looks.