TCN05 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Part 07 of 09

Doug Gresham: Last time on the voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh, a spell to make hidden things visible. This must be the one. Oh, Aslan. Oh, Aslan.
Edmund Pevensie: My child.
Lucy Pevensie: It was so kind of you to come.
Edmund Pevensie: Oh, I've been here all the time. But you have just made me visible.
Lucy Pevensie: Aslan, don't make fun of me. As if anything I could do would make you visible.
Edmund Pevensie: Oh, it did. Don't you think I wouldn't obey my own rules?
Lucy Pevensie: Now that they're visible, are you going to let them stay ugly?
Reepicheep: They're the only ones who think they were nice to look at before. Many people might say the change was for the better.
Lucy Pevensie: So the thumping sound is because they only have one leg and one foot and have to jump around.
Reepicheep: Yes.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh. Did you make them like that?
Reepicheep: Yes. I made the duffles into monopods.
Lucy Pevensie: They're rather nice. Do you think it would make any difference if I told them so?
Reepicheep: I'm sure it would.
Lucy Pevensie: Will you come with me and try?
Reepicheep: No, no. You'll get on far better without me.
Doug Gresham: The classic adventure series loved by children of all ages, now brought to glorious life.
Lucy Pevensie: It's a magic wardrobe. There's a wood inside it and it's snowing and it's called Narnia. Look.
Doug Gresham: Step through the wardrobe and into a world filled with Marsh-wiggles, unicorns, and animals that talk. Best of all, you'll meet the most incredible lion in literature, Aslan.
Edmund Pevensie: Oh, children.
Doug Gresham: C.S. Lewis's classic Narnia series available for you to cherish. From the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe to the last battle, this complete set produced by Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre can now be yours. For more information, the number is 1-800-the-letter-a-family or visit our website at radiotheatre.org. Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Get ready for adventure.
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Lucy Pevensie: We've lost him for a very long time. We must go and save her.
Caspian: Yes, but we just I agree with Reepicheep. If she hasn't returned in another quarter hour, I think we should go upstairs and find her.
Lucy Pevensie: Hang a quarter of an hour? I'm ready now.
Edmund Pevensie: I agree.
Lucy Pevensie: All right. Everything's all right.
Reepicheep: The magician is a friend and I've seen him.
Lucy Pevensie: Seen him?
Reepicheep: Aslan.
Edmund Pevensie: Aslan.
Lucy Pevensie: Aslan.
Reepicheep: Yes, but right now I have to go outside and talk to the duffles.
Lucy Pevensie: Duffles?
Reepicheep: Hello.
Edmund Pevensie: Three cheers for the little girl.
Reepicheep: Yet I'm weird extremely regrettable that we can't give you the pleasure of seeing us as we were before we were uglified. For you wouldn't believe the difference. And that's the truth. For there's no denying we are mortal ugly now.
Lucy Pevensie: But I don't think you're ugly at all. I think you look very nice.
Reepicheep: What here here yes true we are we are we are we are she she's she's saying us how we look very nice before we were uglified.
Lucy Pevensie: I did not. I said you're very nice now.
Reepicheep: So she did. So she did. We were very nice then. He was nice that one there. He he was
Lucy Pevensie: But we're saying just the opposite.
Reepicheep: Yes, to be sure you are. There's nothing like it. Definitely the opposite.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh, you monopods are enough to drive anyone mad. Oh, I give up.
Reepicheep: Give up? I give up as well then. We'll all We'll give up.
Doug Gresham: Caspian and the other Narnians went back as soon as possible to the shore to give the news of Lucy's success to the crew of the Dawn Treader who were by now very anxious. And of course, the monopods went with them, bouncing like footballs and agreeing with one another in loud voices. The duffles were also very pleased with their new name of monopods. We seemed them magnificent name, though they never got it right. They soon got it mixed up with their old name of duffles and finally settled down to calling themselves duffle puds. And that's what they'll probably be called for centuries. That evening, all the Narnians dined upstairs with the magician. By magic, everyone had what everyone liked best to eat and drink. And after dinner, the magician did a very useful and beautiful piece of magic. He laid two blank sheets of parchment on the table.
Edmund Pevensie: Tell me where have you been?
Doug Gresham: And asked Trinian to give him an exact account of their voyage up to date.
Edmund Pevensie: We set sail, my lord, from
Doug Gresham: Aslanian spoke. Everything he described came out on the parchment in fine, clear lines till at last each sheet was a splendid map of the Eastern Ocean, showing Galma, Terebinthia, the Seven Isles, the Lone Islands, Dragon Island, Burnt Island, Deathwater, and the land of the duffles itself, all exactly the right sizes and in the right positions. They were the first maps ever made of those seas and better than any that had been made since without magic.
Caspian: Masterfully done, kind magician.
Edmund Pevensie: Oh, thank you.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh, I say, if you can present such a a splendid map of where we've been, can you now tell us where we're going?
Edmund Pevensie: I'm afraid I can't. I know nothing about seas or lands further east.
Lucy Pevensie: That's too bad.
Edmund Pevensie: I can tell you that about seven years ago, an Anonian ship had put into these waters and that she had on board the Lord Revilian, Argos, Mavramorn, and Roop.
Caspian: Meaning that the Golden Man we saw lying in Deathwater must have been the Lord Restimar.
Trinian: Well, with with your permission, sire, we should return to the Dawn Treader and prepare to set sail tomorrow morning. We have a lot of work to do to be sure she is seaworthy.
Edmund Pevensie: There's no need to rush. For even while you've been dining with me, I've cast a spell to mend the damage done to the stern of your ship by the sea serpents. And you will find a stock of, shall I say, useful gifts for your voyage.
Caspian: And thank you, Coriakin. You have been a gracious host to us.
Edmund Pevensie: By the lion, I hope you travel well and reach where your heart desires.
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Doug Gresham: After the adventure with the magician and the duffle puds, the Narnians sailed on south and a little east for 12 days with a gentle wind, the skies being mostly clear and the air warm. Then on the 13th day, Edmund was in the Fighting Top or the Crow's Nest, as some call it, and sighted what looked like a great dark mountain rising out of the sea on their port bow.
Lucy Pevensie: Land ho.
Doug Gresham: They altered course and made for this land, mostly by oar, for the wind would not serve them to sail northeast. When evening fell, they were still a long way from it and rowed all night. About 9:00 the next morning, very suddenly, it was so close that they could see that it was not land at all, nor even in an ordinary sense, a mist. It was a darkness. It's rather hard to describe, but you can imagine what it was like if you think of yourself looking into the mouth of a railway tunnel, a tunnel either so long or so twisting that you can't see the light at the far end. It was just so here. For a few feet in front of their bows, they could see the swell of the bright, greenish-blue water. Beyond that, they could see the water looking pale and grey as it would look late in the evening. And beyond that again, utter blackness. As if they'd come to the edge of a moonless and starless night.
Caspian: Trinian, keep her back.
Edmund Pevensie: Aye, your highness.
Lucy Pevensie: It's so so black.
Caspian: Dare we go into this?
Reepicheep: Not by my advice.
Lucy Pevensie: I believe the captain's right. I almost think he is.
Edmund Pevensie: And why shouldn't we go on? Will someone explain to me why?
Caspian: Reepicheep.
Reepicheep: With respect, sire, if I were addressing peasants or slaves, I might suppose that this suggestion proceeded from cowardice. But I hope it will never be told in Narnia that a company of noble and royal persons in the flower of their age turned tail because they were afraid of the dark.
Edmund Pevensie: But what manner of use would it be plowing through that blackness?
Reepicheep: Use, captain? If by use you mean filling our bellies or our purses, I confess it will be of no use at all. So far as I know, we did not set sail to look for things useful, but to seek honor and adventures. And here is as great an adventure as ever I heard of. And here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honors.
Caspian: Oh, bother you, Reepicheep. I almost wish we'd left you at home. All right. If you put it that way, I suppose we shall have to go on, unless Lucy would rather not.
Lucy Pevensie: I am game.
Trinian: Your majesty will at least order lights.
Caspian: By all means. See to it, captain.
Trinian: Sire.
Caspian: Lucy, I would like you and the most capable archers on the ship to take station in the Fighting Top. Arrows to the ready.
Lucy Pevensie: Yes. Of course.
Caspian: Rynelf, you stay in the bows to take soundings.
Edmund Pevensie: Yes, sire.
Caspian: Battle stations, everyone.
Lucy Pevensie: Yes.
Caspian: And now in Aslan's name, forward.
Edmund Pevensie: A slow and steady stroke with those oars and let every man be silent and keep his ears open for orders. I
Doug Gresham: With a creak and a groan, the Dawn Treader started to creep forward as the men began to row. Lucy up in the Fighting Top had a wonderful view of the exact moment at which they entered the darkness. The bows had already disappeared before the sunlight had left the stern. She saw it go. At one minute, the gilded stern, the blue sea, and the sky were all in broad daylight. Next minute, the sea and sky had vanished. The stern lantern, which had been hardly noticeable before, was the only thing to show where the ship ended. How long this voyage into the darkness lasted, nobody knew, except for the creek of the rowlocks and the splash of the oars. There was nothing to show that they were moving at all. Edmund, peering from the bows, could see nothing except the reflection of the lantern on the water before him. It looked a greasy sort of reflection and the ripple appeared to be heavy, small, and lifeless. As time went on, everyone except the rowers began to shiver with cold.
Caspian: What an up was that?
Reepicheep: Who calls? If you are a foe, we do not fear you. And if you are a friend, your enemies shall be taught the fear of us.
Jim Daly: Mercy. Mercy. Even if you are only one more dream, have mercy. Take me on board. Take me. Even if you strike me dead, but in the name of all mercies, do not fade away and leave me in this horrible land.
Caspian: Where are you? Come aboard and be welcome. Stand by to heave him up, men.
Doug Gresham: The sailors leaned over the side and held out ropes and a torch. A wild, white face appeared in the blackness of the water. And then after some scrambling and pulling, a dozen friendly hands had heaved the stranger on board. They thought they had never seen a wilder looking man. Though he did not otherwise look very old, his hair was an untidy mop of white. His face was thin and drawn and for clothing, only a few wet rags hung about him. But what one mainly noticed were his eyes. They were so widely open that he seemed to have no eyelids at all and stared as if in an agony of pure fear.
Caspian: Fly. Fly. About with your ship and fly. Row, row, row for your lives away from this accursed shore.
Reepicheep: Compose yourself.
Caspian: What? What? Who speaks?
Reepicheep: It is I. And guard your tongue from any comments about my size.
Caspian: I don't care if you're as big as a postage stamp. Fly, I tell you. Fly.
Reepicheep: We are not used to flying, sir. What is the danger?
Caspian: This is the island where dreams come true. Now fly from here.
Edmund Pevensie: What could be wrong with an island where dreams come true?
Caspian: My very thought when I came to be here and I'd better have been drowned or never born. Do you hear what I say? This is where dreams dreams do you understand? Come to life. Come real, not day dreams or wishes, but dreams, nightmares. Quick, men. Back to the oars. Trinian, turn the tiller around quickly.
Reepicheep: Your majesty, are you going to tolerate this mutiny? This old Trinian? This is a panic. This is a revolt.
Caspian: You can say what you like, Reepicheep.
Edmund Pevensie: Row, row. Pull for all our lives. Is a head right, Trinian?
Reepicheep: Majesty.
Caspian: No, Reepicheep. There are some things no man can face.
Reepicheep: It is then my good fortune not to be a man.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh. Oh, Edmund, did you hear a noise like like a huge pair of scissors opening and shutting somewhere over there?
Caspian: Quiet. I can hear them calling up the sides of the ship. Watch them.
Edmund Pevensie: Row from Shh. It's going to settle on the mast.
Doug Gresham: Lucy from upper loft had heard it all. In an instant, one of her own dreams which she tried hardest to forget came back to her as vividly as if she'd only just woken up. So that was what was behind on the island in the darkness. For a second, she wanted to go down to the deck and be with Edmund and Caspian. But what was the use? If dreams began coming true, Edmund and Caspian themselves might turn into something horrible just as she reached for them. She grabbed the rail to steady herself.
Edmund Pevensie: Trinian, how long did we take rowing in? I mean rowing to where we picked up the stranger.
Caspian: 5 minutes perhaps.
Edmund Pevensie: Why?
Caspian: Because we've been more than that already trying to get out.
Reepicheep: We shall never get out. Never. He's steering us wrong.
Edmund Pevensie: Row it. Put your energy in your rowing, not your panic.
Reepicheep: That's it, of course. We shall never get out. What a fool I was to have thought he would let me go as easily as that. No, no. We shall never get out.
Edmund Pevensie: Quiet, you. We don't need your fear.
Doug Gresham: Lucy lent her head on the edge of the Fighting Top and whispered.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh, Aslan. Aslan, if you ever loved us at all, please send us help now. Please. Oh. Look. A light. I can see a light.
Doug Gresham: There was a tiny speck of light ahead. And while they watched, a broad beam of light fell from it upon the ship. It didn't alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up as if by a searchlight. Caspian blinked, stared round, saw the faces of his companions all with wild, fixed expressions. Everyone was staring in the same direction. Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first, it looked like a cross. Then it looked like an aeroplane. Then it looked like a kite. And at last, with a whirring of wings, it was right overhead. It was an albatross. It circled three times around the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of the gilded dragon on the prow. It called out in a strong, sweet voice what seemed to be words, though no one understood them. After that, it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard.
Caspian: Trinian, steer after that bird.
Edmund Pevensie: Already done, your majesty.
Doug Gresham: But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast, it had whispered to her.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh, thank you.
Doug Gresham: In a few moments, the darkness turned into a greyness ahead. And then almost before they had dared to begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight. And were in the warm, blue world again. And all at once, everybody realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.
Caspian: And now now for you, stranger.
Edmund Pevensie: I'm free. Free. Thank you. Thank you. You have saved me from But I won't talk of that.
Caspian: Perhaps you should just tell us who you are, though I might be able to guess.
Edmund Pevensie: I am a Telmarine of Narnia. And when I was worth anything, men called me the Lord Roop.
Caspian: And I am Caspian, King of Narnia. I sailed to find you and your companions who were my father's friends.
Edmund Pevensie: Sire. Sire, you're the man in all the world I most wish to see. Grant me a request.
Caspian: What is it?
Edmund Pevensie: Never to bring me back there. Never take me back to It's gone.
Lucy Pevensie: Oh, it has gone.
Doug Gresham: They all looked to where he pointed a stern, expecting to see the dark island, but they saw only bright blue sea and bright blue sky. The dark island and the darkness had vanished forever.
Caspian: Sire, this wind is fair for the southeast. Shall I have our poor fellows up and set sail? And after that, every man who can be spared may go to his hammock.
Edmund Pevensie: Yes, Trinian. And let there be drink all round.
Caspian: Sire.
Edmund Pevensie: Oh, hey ho. I feel I could sleep the clock round myself.
Caspian: This is this is a great mystery to me. You've destroyed it. You've destroyed that accursed island.
Lucy Pevensie: Lord Roop, I don't think it was us.
Doug Gresham: The wind had never failed, but it grew gentler every day till at length the waves were a little more than ripples and the ship glided on hour after hour almost as if they were sailing on a lake. And every night they saw that their rose in the east new constellations which no one had ever seen in Narnia and perhaps as Lucy thought with a mixture of joy and fear. No living eye had seen at all. On an evening of startling beauty, when the sunset behind them was so crimson and purple and widely spread that the very sky itself seemed to have grown larger, they came in sight of land on their starboard bow. It came slowly nearer and nearer and presently they were sailing along its coast. The island had no mountains, but many gentle hills with slopes like pillows. And attractive smell came from it, what Lucy called a dim purple kind of smell. They sailed on a good way past point after point, hoping to find a nice deep harbour, but had to content themselves with a wide and shallow bay. Though it had seemed calm out at sea, there was surf breaking on the sand. They couldn't bring the Dawn Treader as far in as they would have liked, but dropped anchor a good way from the beach and had a wet and tumbling landing in the boat. Most of the crew came ashore, though Lord Roop remained on board the Dawn Treader. He wished to see no more islands. With two men left behind to guard the boat, Caspian and the others went inland, but not far because it was too late for exploring and light would soon go. But there was no need to go far to find an adventure.
Lucy Pevensie: Well.
Edmund Pevensie: Look. Look. What's that?
Caspian: Oh. Are they great trees?
Lucy Pevensie: Towers, I think. It might be giants.
Reepicheep: The way to find out is to go right in among them.
Lucy Pevensie: I think it's a ruin.
Caspian: Yes. Yes, it is a ruin.
Lucy Pevensie: A ruin.
Doug Gresham: What they saw as they got nearer was a wide, oblong space flagged with smooth stones and surrounded by grey pillars, but unroofed. And from end to end of it ran a long table laid with the rich crimson cloth that came down nearly to the pavement. At either side of it were many chairs of stone, richly carved and with silken cushions upon the seats. But on the table itself, there was set out such a banquet as had never been seen, not even when Peter the High King kept his court at Cair Paravel. Meat of all kinds and pies shaped like ships under full sail and ice puddings and seafood and fruits and vegetables. There were flagons of gold and silver and curiously wrought glass. Lucy noticed a knife of stone, sharp as steel, a cruel looking, ancient looking thing. But even with that, the sight and smell of that great table blew towards her like a promise of all happiness. Next time on the voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Reepicheep: These will not fight, I think.
Caspian: What are they?
Reepicheep: Three men, sire.
Lucy Pevensie: Travelers who have come from far to Aslan's table. Why do you not eat and drink?
Trinian: Sire, will you tell us how to undo the enchantment which holds these three Narnian lords asleep?
Edmund Pevensie: You must sail to the world's end and you must come back having left at least one of your company behind.
Doug Gresham: The voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is a production of Focus on the Family. I'm Doug Gresham. Thank you for listening.