《最后一战》第59期:小矮人的拒绝(2)

"It was much the same for us in the railway carriage," said the Lord Digory, wiping the last traces of the fruit from his golden beard. "Only I think you and I, Polly, chiefly felt that we'd been unstiffened. You youngsters won't understand. But we stopped feeling old."

"Youngsters, indeed!" said Jill. "I don't believe you two really are much older than we are here."

"Well if we aren't, we have been," said the Lady Polly.

"And what has been happening since you got here?" asked Eustace.

"Well," said Peter, "for a long time (at least I suppose it was a long time) nothing happened. Then the door opened -"

"The door?" said Tirian.

"Yes," said Peter. "The door you came in - or came out - by. Have you forgotten?"

"But where is it?"

"Look," said Peter and pointed.

Tirian looked and saw the queerest and most ridiculous thing you can imagine. Only a few yards away, clear to be seen in the sunlight, there stood up a rough wooden door and, round it, the framework of the doorway: nothing else, no walls, no roof. He walked towards it, bewildered, and the others followed, watching to see what he would do. He walked round to the other side of the door. But it looked just the same from the other side: he was still in the open air, on a summer morning. The door was simply standing up by itself as if it had grown there like a tree.

"Fair Sir," said Tirian to the High King, "this is a great marvel."

"It is the door you came through with that Calormene five minutes ago," said Peter smiling.

"But did I not come in out of the wood into the stable? Whereas this seems to be a door leading from nowhere to nowhere."

"It looks like that if you walk round it," said Peter. "But put your eye to that place where there is a crack between two of the planks and look through."

Tirian put his eye to the hole. At first he could see nothing but blackness. Then, at his eyes grew used to it, he saw the dull red glow of a bonfire that was nearly going out, and above that, in a black sky, stars. Then he could see dark figures moving about or standing between him and the fire: he could hear them talking and their voices were like those of Calormenes. So he knew that he was looking out through the stable door into the darkness of Lantern Waste where he had fought his last battle. The men were discussing whether to go in and look for Rishda Tarkaan (but none of them wanted to do that) or to set fire to the stable.

He looked round again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue sky overhead, and grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every direction, and his new friends all round him laughing.

“这跟我们在火车车厢里的情况极为相像。”迪格雷勋爵说道，把金色胡须上滞留的水果痕迹擦掉，“不过我想，波莉，你和我，主要感到自己的身体和四肢由僵硬变成柔软了。你们年轻人不会明白的。我们可停止感到衰老了。”

“说我们是年轻人，真是的！”吉尔说，“我可不相信你们两位在这儿究竟确实比我们老多少。”

“如果我们现在不老，以前我们确是老过的。”波莉夫人说。

“那么，你们到了这儿发生过什么事情？”尤斯塔斯问道。

“哦，”彼得说，“好久(至少我觉得时间很长)没有发生什么事情。然后，门打开了——”

“门吗？”蒂莲说。

“是的，”彼得道，“你进来的门——或者是出去的门。你忘记了吗？”

“门在哪儿？”

“瞧。”彼得说，而且用手指了一指。

蒂莲瞧瞧，他看见了你能想像得到的最古怪最可笑的东西。只不过是几码之外，阳光下看得清清楚楚的，矗立着一个粗糙的木门，木门的周围，是门口的一个框架：没有其他东西，没有墙，没有屋顶。他向门走去，给弄糊涂了，其他的人跟着他，瞧他会做出什么举动来。他绕到门的那一边去。但从那一边看起来，还是一模一样：他仍旧是在户外野地里，时间仍是夏天的早晨。门是简单明了地兀自矗立着，仿佛一棵树木似的生长在那儿。

“公正的阁下，”蒂莲对至尊王说，“这是一大奇迹。”

“这就是你五分钟以前跟那卡乐门军人一同踏进去的那个门啊。”彼得微笑着说道。

“然而，难道我不是从树林出来后进入马厩的吗？而这个门仿佛是个不知从哪儿通哪儿的门。”

“看来你是绕这门走了一圈，”彼得说，“但，你且把眼睛凑在两块木板之间有条缝的地方，透过裂缝望出去看看吧。

蒂莲把眼睛凑在裂缝上。起初他什么也看不见，只看见一片黑暗。稍后他的眼睛习惯了，就看见了即将熄灭的篝火的暗红色的火光，篝火上方黑暗天空里的繁星。接着他看见了在篝火和他之间往来走动或站着的黑色形体：他听得见他们在说话，他们的声音就跟那些卡乐门士兵的声音一个样儿。所以他就知道他正透过马厩的门往外望到了他刚打过最后一仗的灯柱野林上的一片黑暗。士兵们正讨论着是否要进去找找“泰坎”利什达(但没有人肯去办这事)或者干脆放火烧掉马厩。

他重新环顾四周，他简直没法儿相信自己的眼睛。头上是蔚蓝的天空，芳草萋萋的乡村朝着四面八方连绵延伸，直至他看得见的远方，而他的新朋友都在他的周围哈哈大笑。