Trying to Solve a Mystery

I lay a restraining hand on my love's arm. We want Winifred to come with us willingly and so can't afford to antagonise her. "She's only doing what she must," I tell him. "She feels a commitment to these people who have made her their leader. Would you do any differently in her place?"

Fertal thinks for a moment, then says a little grudgingly: "Perhaps not."

"There's one thing that I don't understand," Astra tells Winifred. "Why do you need to use us as a 'hit squad' against Jadis? Surely she must already be dead? How else could spring have come to Narnia?"

Winifred frowns in thought. "It's difficult to explain," she says after a moment, "but I somehow know that Jadis is still alive. But I feel that she's somewhere very far away. Far enough that she can no longer influence the weather here."

"Did she do something to Aslan before she left, to leave him in this coma?" Annafrid asks.

"That's the most puzzling thing of all. Nobody has been able to detect a spell that could have done that."

"So Jadis goes missing, and Aslan falls ill," Jarlath says. "Could the two things somehow be related? Though Aslan is good and Jadis evil, could he in some way need her? Some sort of ying-yang thing? (Not that that will mean anything to you, Winifred.) In which case, couldn't killing her, assuming that we can, actually make matters worse?"

1. "No," Winifred says. "I don't think that it works like that."

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