Page "Deplorable Word" Paragraph 1

The children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, come to a lifeless world called Charn.

In an ancient, ruined building they awaken a queen, Jadis.

She tells them of a worldwide civil war she fought with her sister.

All of Jadis ' armies were defeated, having been made to fight to the death of the last soldier, and her sister claimed victory.

Then Jadis spoke the horrible curse which her sister knew she had discovered but did not think she would use.

In speaking the Deplorable Word, Jadis killed every living thing in her world, except herself, to force her sister from the throne.

She describes this as " a matter of state ".