He just went on looking at Aslan

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Chapter 13 - Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time

Edmund is miserable, and the witch thinks killing him will foil Aslan's plans. Of course, death is precisely what Aslan will UNDO, according to plan. She has no idea.

She considers killing him "a little thing," and calls him an it. When he is rescued he hears and receives kindness. In these subtle ways Lewis describes the antithesis between good and evil, as between kindness and cruelty.

The witch escapes with her life - she would rather lose Edmund and save her skin.

Edmund in the morning is "with Aslan," and "it was a conversation which Edmund never forgot." We learn about forgiveness and love covering past wrongs: "there is no need to talk to him about what is past."

The witch claims her title as Queen and an audience with Aslan, neither of which she deserves, as Beaver points out: "Of all the cheek." Yet Aslan condescends to her, in order to defeat her, as God does in granting Satan an audience with Him. As He limited Satan's power over Job, Aslan knows the witch's power in her wand and forbids it. The leopards go off to escort her. This council of good with evil looks suspect, without faith. What does light have to do with darkness, after all? It is strange to see such different faces so close together. But Peter shows faith in spades: "It'll be all right. He wouldn't send them if it weren't."

The witch cannot look Aslan in the eyes, yet, having lost Edmund by force, claims him by law. She is the accuser (Zech 3:1-5). Next comes some of the best few phrases in all these chronicles of Narnia, describing how we ought to respond to accusations, having been forgiven: "Edmund had got past thinking about himself... He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn't seem to matter what the Witch said." Aslan points out that "his offense was not against [her]." So she then questions His justice. "Have you forgotten the deep Magic?" Magic here is synonymous with Law, or order of things. She is quoting Rom 6:23 to Him, calling for blood and death, for Edmund's sin. She knows Aslan won't work against this law, by force or trickery. She has Him checkmated, she thinks. But her one claim to power - death - is just what Aslan will undo.

Aslan privately proposes a plan, the witch accepts even more triumphantly with "fierce joy," "renounc[ing] the claim on your brother's blood." She doubts His word, which is blasphemy, just as Edmund did early on: "how do I know?" There are limit's to God's condescension, like when we start questioning God's integrity as if He were "a man, that He should lie" (Num 23:19). The witch, rightly fearful of Aslan's roar, runs for her life.