The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

open and see what sort of country lay around the enormous palace. But each time they
only got into another courtyard. They must have been magnificent places when people
were still living there. In one there had once been a fountain. A great stone monster with
wide-spread wings stood with its mouth open and you could still see a bit of piping at the
back of its mouth, out of which the water used to pour. Under it was a wide stone basin to
hold the water; but it was as dry as a bone. In other places there were the dry sticks of
some sort of climbing plant which had wound itself round the pillars and helped to pull
some of them down. But it had died long ago. And there were no ants or spiders or any of
the other living things you expect to see in a ruin; and where the dry earth showed
between the broken flagstones there was no grass or moss.
It was all so dreary and all so much the same that even Digory was thinking they had
better put on their yellow rings and get back to the warm, green, living forest of the Inbetween
place, when they came to two huge doors of some metal that might possibly be
gold. One stood a little ajar. So of course they went to look in. Both started back and
drew a long breath: for here at last was something worth seeing.
For a second they thought the room was full of people - hundreds of people, all seated,
and all perfectly still. Polly and Digory, as you may guess, stood perfectly still
themselves for a good long time, looking in. But presently they decided that what they
were looking at could not be real people. There was not a movement nor the sound of a
breath among them all. They were like the most wonderful waxworks you ever saw.
This time Polly took the lead. There was something in this room which interested her
more than it interested Digory: all the figures were wearing magnificent clothes. If you
were interested in clothes at all, you could hardly help going in to see them closer. And
the blaze of their colours made this room look, not exactly cheerful, but at any rate rich
and majestic after all the dust and emptiness of the others. It had more windows, too, and
was a good deal lighter.
I can hardly describe the clothes. The figures were all robed and had crowns on their
heads. Their robes were of crimson and silvery grey and deep purple and vivid green: and
there were patterns, and pictures of flowers and strange beasts, in needlework all over
them. Precious stones of astonishing size and brightness stared from their crowns and
hung in chains round their necks and peeped out from all the places where anything was
fastened.
"Why haven't these clothes all rotted away long ago?" asked Polly.
"Magic," whispered Digory. "Can't you feel it? I bet this whole room is just stiff with
enchantments. I could feel it the moment we came in."
"Any one of these dresses would cost hundreds of pounds," said Polly.