The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

the rings. I do hope Digory has the sense to keep his mouth shut. I wish I could get a
word with him alone."
The Queen led them out of the Hall of Images into a long corridor and then through a
whole maze of halls and stairs and courtyards. Again and again they heard parts of the
great palace collapsing, sometimes quite close to them. Once a huge arch came
thundering down only a moment after they had passed through it. The Queen was
walking quickly - the children had to trot to keep up with her but she showed no sign of
fear. Digory thought, "She's wonderfully brave. And strong. She's what I call a Queen! I
do hope she's going to tell us the story of this place."
She did tell them certain things as they went along:
"That is the door to the dungeons," she would say, or "That passage leads to the principal
torture chambers," or "This was the old banqueting hall where my greatgrandfather bade
seven hundred nobles to a feast and killed them all before they had drunk their fill. They
had had rebellious thoughts."
They came at last into a hall larger and loftier than any they had yet seen. From its size
and from the great doors at the far end, Digory thought that now at last they must be
coming to the main entrance. In this he was quite right. The doors were dead black, either
ebony or some black metal which is not found in our world. They were fastened with
great bars, most of them too high to reach and all too heavy to lift. He wondered how
they would get out.
The Queen let go of his hand and raised her arm. She drew herself up to her full height
and stood rigid. Then she said something which they couldn't understand (but it sounded
horrid) and made an action as if she were throwing something towards the doors. And
those high and heavy doors trembled for a second as if they were made of silk and then
crumbled away till there was nothing left of them but a heap of dust on the threshold.
"Whew!" whistled Digory.
"Has your master magician, your uncle, power like mine?" asked the Queen, firmly
seizing Digory's hand again. "But I shall know later. In the meantime, remember what
you have seen. This is what happens to things, and to people, who stand in my way."
Much more light than they had yet seen in that country was pouring in through the now
empty doorway, and when the Queen led them out through it they were not surprised to
find themselves in the open air. The wind that blew in their faces was cold, yet somehow
stale. They were looking from a high terrace and there was a great landscape out below
them.
Low down and near the horizon hung a great, red sun, far bigger than our sun. Digory felt
at once that it was also older than ours: a sun near the end of its life, weary of looking
down upon that world. To the left of the sun, and higher up, there was a single star, big