Chapters 4-7

Chapter 4: The Bell and The Hammer

Polly and Digory rush down through darkness and a mass of vague shapes. Suddenly, they feel themselves standing on something solid. A moment later, everything comes into focus. The first thing they notice is the light. It isn't sunlight or electric light or like any other light they had ever seen. It is a dull, red light. The children stand on a flat, paved surface in a courtyard surrounded by buildings. This place is as quiet as the Wood between the Worlds, but it is a different kind of quiet: dead, cold, and empty.

Polly wants to leave, but Digory insists that there's not a point to finding a magic Ring that will take them to places if they are afraid to explore once they are there.

Chapter 5: The Deplorable World

The children are standing, facing one another by the pillar where the bell hangs. They hear a soft noise at the end of the room. The last person, the beautiful woman, is rising from her chair. They realize that she is very tall and that she must be the queen from her crown, robes, and the flash of her eyes. The woman asks them who has awoken her, and when Digory tells her that it was he, the woman questions this, since he has no noble blood in his veins. Polly tells her that they came from another world, by magic.

When the sound of falling masonry begins again, the Queen tells the children that they should leave the palace. The Queen takes the children by the hands.

Chapter 6: The Beginning of Uncle Andrew's Troubles

The children arrive back in the Wood between the Worlds, but they are not alone. The Queen had managed to grab Polly's hair and so she is with them in the Wood. The Queen looks different here: paler, stooped, and less beautiful. Once the children make her let go of Polly, Polly yells to Digory to change Rings and jump in the home pool. The Queen begs them to let her come with them. Digory feels sorry for her, but Polly makes him plunge into the home pool. When they do so, Digory feels something catch his ear. When they arrive in Uncle Andrew's study, the Witch, or Queen, is with them. The Queen has regained her strength.

Chapter 7: What Happened At The Front Door

The Witch demands her chariot, and Uncle Andrew cowers in her presence. All the thoughts he had about her loving him vanish. Aunt Letty tells the Witch to leave. The Witch flings out her arms and says some horrible sounding words, but nothing happens. The Witch realizes that her powers of turning people to dust are not going to work in this world. The Witch lunges forward and catches Aunt Letty, throwing her across the room. The housemaid appears and tells Uncle Andrew that the hansom has arrived.

The Witch and Uncle Andrew go out the front, while Digory comes running down the stairs. Aunt Letty is not hurt, since she landed on the mattress she had been mending. Digory thinks about what to do.