(based on Chapter 12 of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Blackness deeper than he’d ever known before blanketed the space around the ship.
The terrible silence that then descended upon them was only pierced by the frantic oar-strokes of the Dawn Treader’s crew.
Edmund had frozen when those last words had left the old man’s mouth, even as the crew made their mad dash for the rowing benches.
“Do you hear what I say? This is where dreams – dreams, do you understand – come to life, come real. Not daydreams: dreams.” 1
Edmund shivered involuntarily as he desperately tried to ignore the sound of his heart pumping like a frightened rabbit’s.
No, the old man doesn’t know what he’s talking about. My dreams can’t become real, they just can’t. Please, please say they can’t.
Almost without intention, his ears strained for a sound, well, not just any sound. That sound. He closed his eyes, then immediately opened them; better the dimly lit ship than to let his imagination conjure the dream, no, the nightmare that had taken hold after his first adventure in Narnia.
As if from far off, he heard Eustace ask something about a huge pair of scissors, and Rynelf replied with his own whispered fears.
A laugh echoed in his ears and he shrank back, eyes straining to see the figure from his own dreams, the person he knew, just knew, was coming.
“You thought you could escape me?” The familiar voice said cruelly, “You’ll never escape me or what you did! It is written in blood for the world to know.” Frost seemed to coat it, and Edmund thought he could feel the beginnings of snow form in the air around him.
Spying one of the torches burning at mid-ships2, Edmund tried to unfreeze himself enough to hurry over. His footsteps clattered in an uncertain manner over the deck and despite the chain mail covering his chest, he felt utterly vulnerable.
It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real…he intoned to himself, repeating and repeating the words in the hopes they would spontaneously become true.
“It’s going to settle on the mast,” said Caspian3 and Edmund glanced at him in confusion, and then at the dark shadow of the mast above them. Nothing. What was he on about?
“Ugh,” the words of a sailor became loud in the deafening quiet, “There are the gongs beginning. I knew they would.”4 Edmund couldn’t hear any gongs, which for a second reassured him, until another chilling laugh rang in his ears.
“Traitor! The letters are written as deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones on the Secret Hill. They are engraved on the sceptre of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Every traitor belongs to her. Your blood is her propert-”5 The voice hadn’t finished before Edmund gave a small yell, “No! I was ransomed! I am not hers, and I will never be!”
“You think a ‘great’ cat has rescued you? You are the same as you ever were; a cruel boy with a traitorous heart.” The voice hissed with a menace that Edmund felt down to his very bones.
Caspian moved stiffly but purposefully aft to Drinian and they had a whispered conversation that Edmund couldn’t make out. But he thought they must be talking about how long it was taking to get out of this cursed place. It had been five minutes rowing in, but more than ten had passed as they had been trying to get out. Normally, he would be in problem solving mode, but all he could focus on was the fear creeping its way into his heart.
Edmund began to shiver and whisper for Aslan, “Aslan, Aslan, please save us.”
Then a cry came up from the crew on the oars and multiplied in the overlapping voices, “We shall never get out, never get out! He’s steering us wrong. We’re going round and round in circles. We shall never get out.”6
Edmund tried to block them out, but the terrifying sound of a scream mixed with a laugh came from the strange old man they had rescued as he joined in the call.
“Never get out! That’s it. Of course. We shall never get out. What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that. No, no, we shall never get out.”7
“That’s right. You shan’t ever escape. You can’t escape because I am your future! Where’s your precious Aslan now?” The voice crowed in victory, it’s harshness at once familiar and terrible. The figure of his nightmares suddenly rose up before him over the darkened water.
It was Edmund himself.
A golden crown framed his dark hair, and his vindictive mouth was stained with Turkish delight. Eyes as cold as ice burned out of the dark and the rich clothing of velvet could do nothing to soften their malevolence. Frost and cruelty lingered around him as he smirked at the fearful boy standing on a boat in the dark.
“Look!” Rynelf’s voice cried out hoarsely, just as the phantom broke apart in a shaft of light that broadened to engulf the ship. It melted away like shadows before the dawn, and one couldn’t help but think afterwards that a shadow was all it was. From the light, there came a creature, at first hard to distinguish, but then recognisable as an albatross.
Circling around the mast three times, it briefly landed on the figurehead of the ship and called out with a strong voice in sweet words no-one understood.
But Edmund felt them set alight his very heart so that the fire seemed to melt away every trace of imagined frost. Nothing remained but those incomprehensible words that Edmund felt sure were Aslan’s.
As the albatross led them into the light, and the wide blue world appeared around them, Edmund began to feel foolish. What had there ever been to be afraid of?
He looked around and saw the same realisation on the faces of everyone. Lucy had come down from the crow’s nest grinning, blue eyes filled with wonder.
Blinking in the brightness and thinking of the needless terror he’d experienced a moment ago, he began to laugh, partly in embarrassment, party in relief. And one by one, the rest of the crew burst out laughing as well until the ship was ringing with the sounds of joy.
- Direct quote from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- In chapter twelve, it says Drinian ordered two torches to be lit amidships as well as the lanterns on the stern, bow and the masthead.
- Another direct quote from VOTDT
- Ditto
- This one is a modified quote from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that came from the mouth of the White Witch when she came to claim Edmund
- Another quote from VOTDT
- Ditto