"Yes, Aslan. She wanted me to take an apple home to Mother."
    
    "Understand, then, that it would have healed her; but not to your joy or hers. The 
day would have come when both you and she would have looked back and said it would have 
been better to die in that illness."
    
    And Digory could say nothing, for tears choked him and he gave up all hopes of saving 
his Mother's life; but at the same time he knew that the Lion knew what would have 
happened, and that there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love 
by death. But now Aslan was speaking again, almost in a whisper:
    
    "That is what would have happened, child, with a stolen apple. It is not what will 
happen now. What I give you now will bring joy. It will not, in your world, give endless 
life, but it will heal. Go. Pluck her an apple from the Tree."
    
    For a second Digory could hardly understand. It was as if the whole world had turned 
inside out and upside down. And then, like someone in a dream, he was walking across to 
the Tree, and the King and Queen were cheering him and all the creatures were cheering 
too. He plucked the apple and put it in his pocket. Then he came back to Aslan.
    
    "Please," he said, "may we go home now?" He had forgotten to say "Thank you", but he 
meant it, and Aslan understood.
    
    
    
    
    CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    
    THE END OF THIS STORY AND THE BEGINNING OF ALL THE OTHERS
    
    "You need no rings when I am with you," said the voice of Aslan. The children blinked 
and looked about them. They were once more in the Wood between the Worlds; Uncle Andrew 
lay on the grass, still asleep; Aslan stood beside them.
    
    "Come," said Aslan; "it is time that you went back. But there are two things to see 
to first; a warning, and a command. Look here, children."
    
    They looked and saw a little hollow in the grass, with a grassy bottom, warm and dry.
    
    "When you were last here," said Aslan, "that hollow was a pool, and when you jumped 
into it you came to the world where a dying sun shone over the ruins of Charn. There is 
no pool now. That world is ended, as if it had never been. Let the race of Adam and Eve 
take warning."
    
    "Yes, Aslan," said both the children. But Polly added, "But we're not quite as bad as 
that world, are we, Aslan?"
    
    "Not yet, Daughter of Eve," he said. "Not yet. But you are growing more like it. It 
is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as 
the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before 
you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants 
who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world 
beware. That is the warning. Now for the command. As soon as you can, take from this 
Uncle of yours his magic rings and bury them so that no one can use them again."
    
    Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And 
all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of 
tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about 
them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or 
wise or good, or even alive and awake, before. And the memory of that moment stayed with 
them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or 
angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, 
quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make 
them sure, deep down inside, that all was well. Next minute all three of them (Uncle 
Andrew now awake) came tumbling into the noise, heat, and hot smells of London.
    
    They were on the pavement outside the Ketterleys' front door, and except that the 
Witch, the Horse, and the Cabby were gone, everything was exactly as they had left it. 
There was the lamp-post, with one arm missing; there was the wreck of the hansom cab; and 
there was the crowd. Everyone was still talking and people were kneeling beside the 
damaged policeman, saying things like, "He's coming round" or "How do you feel now, old 
chap?" or "The Ambulance will be here in a jiffy."
    
    "Great Scott!" thought Digory, "I believe the whole adventure's taken no time at all."
    
    Most people were wildly looking round for Jadis and the horse. No one took any notice 
of the children for no one had seen them go or noticed them coming back. As for Uncle 
Andrew, what between the state of his clothes and the honey on his face, he could not 
have been recognized by anyone. Fortunately the front door of the house was-open and the 
housemaid was standing in the doorway staring at the fun (what a day that girl was 
having!) so the children had no difficulty in bustling Uncle Andrew indoors before anyone 
asked any questions.
    
    He raced up the stirs before them and at first they were very afraid he was heading 
for his attic and meant to hide his remaining magic rings. But they needn't have 
bothered. What he was thinking about was the bottle in his wardrobe, and he disappeared 
at once into his bedroom and locked the door. When he came out again (which was not for a 
long time) he was in his dressinggown and made straight for the bathroom.
    
    "Can you get the other rings, Poll?" said Digory. "I want to go to Mother."
    
    "Right. See you later," said Polly and clattered up the attic stairs.
    
    Then Digory took a minute to get his breath, and then went softly into his Mother's 
room. And there she lay, as he had seen her lie so many other times, propped up on the 
pillows, with a thin, pale face that would make you cry to look at. Digory took the Apple 
of Life out of his pocket.
    
    And just as the Witch Jadis had looked different when you saw her in our world 
instead of in her own, so the fruit of that mountain garden looked different too. There