"Tell you!" cries the Witch. "Tell you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones on the Secret Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the very scepter of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea? You at least know the magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill."
"And so that human creature is mine. Her life is forfeit to me. Her blood is my property."
"What!" says James, very nearly at the same time. She is about to go on, but visibly cuts herself off and settles for an indignant stare.
"Fool!" snarls the witch, "do you really think your master can rob me of my rights by mere force? He knows the Deep Magic better than that. He knows that unless I have blood as the Law says all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water."
"Aslan! What is she even talking about? James isn't a traitor! Even if she was - couldn't you fix the magic somehow -"
She turns to Aslan. "If it's really the world or the country at stake, if it's really going to destroy everything - then I'll go. I will. But there has to be something. It's not fair."
(It's a very good thing that Winter is standing behind his Queen, because he can't help a quick flash of a smile at James's outburst.)
"This is the most stupid nonsense - if Aslan doesn't find a way to fix it -" she mutters.
"I know," James murmurs back, "I know - but if there really isn't anything he can do - better me than a whole country, or a whole world."
"She's cheating. If whoever the Emperor is that Aslan's so keen on cooperating with made rules that let her kill you when she magicked Tumnus's identity out of you in the first place I am so much less impressed."
"Of course she's cheating. I'm not that impressed that he ever put someone like that in charge of something like that at all," says James. "But it wasn't necessarily a free choice. Maybe she cheated then too."
"Yeah, maybe. Or maybe she used to be different?" hazards Bella. "Eternal Winter used to be a human. Now he's - not."
"Yeah, but I mean - why have a rule that says so-and-so gets to kill anyone who ever betrays anyone or the world ends, why do that in the first place unless so-and-so has something on you and you can't get around it? I wouldn't set up a position like that for the nicest most straightforward loyal responsible person in the world. I wouldn't set it up for you. The premise itself is flawed, and it's flawed in a way that says to me that somebody like Jadis had a hand in designing it."
"Yeah. I don't get what's going on but it seems like Aslan does. Maybe he's going to cheat back. Or maybe he knows more rules. I don't think he wants you to die."
"Maybe he will just eat her. She did have to ask for safe passage, whatever that thing about not denying her her rights by force meant."