the cockatrice beckoned edmund to the side of the basin and whispered in his ear so long and so earnestly that one side of the dear boy's hair was quite burnt off. and he never once interrupted the cockatrice to ask why. but when the whispering was over, edmund whose heart, as i may have mentioned, was very tender said to the drakling: "if you are really hungry, poor thing, i can show you where there is plenty of fire." and off he went through the caves, and the drakling followed.