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《The Horse and His Boy》
CHAPTER ONE
HOW SHASTA SET OUT ON HIS TRAVELS THIS is the story of an advehat happened in Narnia and en and the lands between, in the Golden Age wheer was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him.
In those days, far south in en on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father. The boys name was Shasta. On most days Arsheesh went out in his boat to fish in the m, and iernoon he harnessed his doo a cart and loaded the cart with fish a a mile or so southward to the village to sell it. If it had sold well he would e home in a moderately good temper and say nothing to Shasta, but if it had sold badly he would find fault with him and perhaps beat him. There was always something to find fault with for Shasta had plenty of work to do, mending and washing the s, cooking the supper, and ing the cottage in which they both lived.
Shasta was not at all ied in anything that lay south of his home because he had once or twice been to the village with Arsheesh and he khat there was nothing very iing there. In the village he only met other men who were just like his father - men with long, dirty robes, and wooden shoes turned up at the toe, and turbans on their heads, and beards, talking to one another very slowly about things that sounded dull. But he was very ied ihing that lay to the North because no one ever went that way and he was never allowed to go there himself. When he was sitting out of doors mending the s, and all alone, he would often look eagerly to the North. One could see nothing but a grassy slope running up to a level ridge and beyond that the sky with perhaps a few birds in it.
Sometimes if Arsheesh was there Shasta would say, "O my Father, what is there beyond that hill?" And then if the fisherman was in a bad temper he would box Shastas ears and tell him to attend to his work. Or if he was in a peaceable mood he would say, "O my son, do not allow your mind to be distracted by idle questions. For one of the poets has said, `Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not them are steering the ship of folly towards the rock of indigence.”
Shasta thought that beyond the hill there must be some delightful secret which his father wished to hide from him. Iy, however, the fisherman talked like this because he didnt know what lay to the North. her did he care. He had a very practical mind.
One day there came from the South a stranger who was unlike any man that Shasta had seen before. He rode upon a strong dappled horse with flowing mane and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver. The spike of a helmet projected from the middle of his silken turban and he wore a shirt of mail. By his side hung a curving scimitar, a round shield studded with bosses of brass hung at his back, and his right hand grasped a lance. His face was dark, but this did not surprise Shasta because all the people of en are like that; what did surprise him was the mans beard which was dyed crimson, and curled and gleaming with sted oil. But Arsheesh knew by the gold orangers bare arm that he was a Tarkaan reat lord, and he bowed kneeling before him till his beard touched the earth and made signs to Shasta to kneel also.
The stranger demanded hospitality for the night which of course the fisherman dared not refuse. All the best they had was set before the Tarkaan for supper (and he didnt think much of it) and Shasta, as always happened when the fisherman had pany, was given a hunk of bread and turned out of the cottage. On these occasions he usually slept with the donkey in its little thatched stable. But it was much too early to go to sleep yet, and Shasta, who had never learhat it is wrong to listen behind doors, sat down with his ear to a cra the wooden wall of the cottage to hear what the grown-ups were talking about. And this is what he heard.
"And now, O my host," said the Tarkaan, "I have a mind to buy that boy of yours.”
"O my master," replied the fisherman (and Shasta knew by the wheedling tohe greedy look that robably ing into his face as he said it), "rice could induce your servant, poor though he is, to sell into slavery his only child and his own flesh? Has not one of the poets said, `Natural affe is strohan soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles?" "It is even so," replied the guest dryly. "But another poet has likewise said, "He who attempts to deceive the judicious is already baring his own back for the sce." Do not load yed mouth with falsehoods. This boy is maly no son of yours, for your cheek is as dark as mi the boy is fair and white like the accursed but beautiful barbarians who inhabit the remote North.”
"How well it was said," answered the fisherman, "that Swords be kept off with shields but the Eye of Wisdom pierces through every defence! Know then, O my formidable guest, that because of my extreme poverty I have never married and have no child. But in that same year in which the Tisroc (may he live for ever) began his august and benefit reign, on a night when the moon was at her full, it pleased the gods to deprive me of my sleep. Therefore I arose from my bed in this hovel and went forth to the beach to refresh myself with looking upoer and the moon and breathing the cool air. And presently I heard a noise as of oars ing to me across the water and then, as it
were, a weak cry. And shortly after, the tide brought to the land a little boat in which there was nothing but a man lean with extreme hunger and thirst who seemed to have died but a few moments before (for he was still warm), and ay water- skin, and a child, still living. "Doubtless," said I, "these unfortunates have escaped from the wreck of a great ship, but by the admirable designs of the gods, the elder has starved himself to keep the child alive and has perished in sight of land." Accly, remembering how the gods never fail to reward those who befriend the destitute, and being moved by passion (for your servant is a man of tender heart) -”
"Leave out all these idle words in your own praise," interrupted the Tarkaan. "It is enough to know that you took the child - and have had ten times the worth of his daily bread out of him in labour, as anyone see. And now tell me at once rice you put on him, for I am wearied with your loquacity.”
"You yourself have wisely said," answered Arsheesh, "that the boys labour has been to me of iimable value. This must be taken into at in fixing the price. For if I sell the boy I must undoubtedly either buy or hire ao do his work.”
&quo9９ｌiｂ.t;Ill give you fifteen crests for him," said the Tarkaan.
"Fifteen!" cried Arsheesh in a voice that was somethiween a whine and a scream.
"Fifteen! For the prop of my old age and the delight of my eyes! Do not mock my grey beard, Tarkaan though you be. My price is seventy.”
At this point Shasta got up and tiptoed away. He had heard all he wanted, for he had open listened when men were bargaining in the village and knew how it was done. He was quite certain that Arsheesh would sell him in the end for something much more than fifteen crests and much less thay, but that he and the Tarkaan would take hours iing to an agreement.
You must not imagihat Shasta felt at all as you and I would feel if we had just overheard our parents talking about selling us for slaves. For ohing, his life was already little better than slavery; for all he khe lordly stranger on the great horse might be kio him than Arsheesh. For ahe story about his own discovery in the boat had filled him with excitement and with a sense of relief. He had often been uneasy because, try as he might, he had never been able to love the fisherman, and he khat a boy ought to love his father. And noarently, he was no relation to Arsheesh at all. That took a great weight off his mind. "Why, I might be anyone!" he thought. "I might be the son of a Tarkaan myself - or the son of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) or of a god!”
He was standing out in the grassy place before the cottage while he thought these things.
Twilight was ing on apad a star or two was already out, but the remains of the su could still be seen in the west. Not far away the strangers horse, loosely tied to an ir in the wall of the donkeys stable, was grazing. Shasta strolled over to it and patted its neck. It went on tearing up the grass and took no notice of him.
Then ahought came into Shastas mind. "I wonder what sort of a man that Tarkaan is," he said out loud. "It would be splendid if he was kind. Some of the slaves in a great lords house have o nothing to do. They wear lovely clothes a meat every day.
Perhaps hed take me to the wars and Id save his life in a battle and then hed set me free and adopt me as his son and give me a palad a chariot and a suit of armour. But then he might be a horrid cruel man. He might seo work on the fields in s. I wish I knew. How I know? I bet this horse knows, if only he could tell me.”
The Horse had lifted its head. Shasta stroked its smooth-as-satin nose and said, "I wish you could talk, old fellow.”
And then for a sed he thought he was dreaming, for quite distinctly, though in a low voice, the Horse said, "But I .”
Shasta stared into its great eyes and his own grew almost as big, with astonishment.
"How ever did you learn to talk?" he asked.
"Hush! Not so loud," replied the Horse. "Where I e from, nearly all the animals talk.”
"Wherever is that?" asked Shasta.
"Narnia," answered the Horse. "The happy land of Narnia - Narnia of the heathery mountains and the thymy downs, Narnia of the many rivers, the plashing glens, the mossy caverns and the deep forests ringing with the hammers of the Dwarfs. Oh the sweet air of Narnia! An hours life there is better than a thousand years in en." It ended with a whinny that sounded very like a sigh.
"How did you get here?" said Shasta.
"Kidnapped," said the Horse. "Or stolen, or captured whichever you like to call it. I was only a foal at the time. My mother warned me not te the Southern slopes, into Arland and beyond, but I wouldnt heed her. And by the Lions Mane I have paid for my folly. All these years I have been a slave to humans, hiding my true nature and pretending to be dumb and witless like their horses.”
"Why didnt you tell them who you were?”
"Not such a fool, thats why. If theyd once found out I could talk they would have made a show of me at fairs and guarded me more carefully than ever. My last ce of escape would have been gone.”
"And why -" began Shasta, but the Horse interrupted him.
"Now look," it said, "we mustnt waste time on idle questions. You want to know about my master the Tarkaan Anradin. Well, hes bad. Not too bad to me, for a war horse costs too much to be treated very badly. But youd better be lyionight than go to be a human slave in his house tomorrow.”
"Then Id better run away," said Shasta, turning very pale.
"Yes, you had," said the Horse. "But why not run away with me?”
"Are you going to run away too?" said Shasta.
"Yes, if youll e with me," answered the Horse. "This is the ce for both of us.
You see if I run away without a rider, everyone who sees me will say "Stray horse" aer me as quick as he . With a rider Ive a ce to get through. Thats where you help me. Oher hand, you t get very far on those two silly legs of yours (what absurd legs humans have!) without being overtaken. But on me you outdistany other horse in this try. Thats where I help you. By the way, I suppose you know how to ride?”
"Oh yes, of course," said Shasta. "At least, Ive ridden the donkey.”
"Ridden the what?" retorted the Horse with extreme pt. (At least, that is what he meant. Actually it came out in a sort of neigh - "Ridden the wha-ha-ha-ha- ha." Talking horses always beore horsy in at when they are angry.)
"In other words," it tinued, "you t ride. Thats a drawback. Ill have to teach you as we go along. If you t ride, you fall?”
"I suppose anyone fall," said Shasta.
"1 mean you fall a up again without g and mount again and fall again a not be afraid of falling?”
"I - Ill try," said Shasta. "Poor little beast," said the Horse in a geone. "I fet youre only a foal. Well make a fine rider of you in time. And now - we mustnt start until those two i are asleep. Meantime we make our plans. My Tarkaan is on his way North to the great city, to Tashbaan itself and the court of the Tisroc -”
"I say," put in Shasta in rather a shocked voice, "oughtnt you to say `May he live for ever?”
"Why?" asked the Horse. "Im a free Narnian. And why should I talk slaves and fools talk? I dont want him to live for ever, and I know that hes not going to live for ever whether I want him to or not. And I see youre from the free North too. No more of this Southern jargoween you and me! And now, back to our plans. As I said, my human was on his way North to Tashbaan.”
"Does that mean wed better go to the South?”
"I think not," said the Horse. "You see, he thinks Im dumb and witless like his other horses. Now if I really were, the moment I got loose Id go bae to my stable and paddock; back to his palace which is two days journey South. Thats where hell look for me. Hed never dream of my going on North on my own. And anyway he will probably think that someone in the last village who saw him ride through has followed us to here and stolen me.”
"Oh hurrah!" said Shasta. "Then well go North. Ive been longing to go to the North all my life.”
"Of course you have," said the Horse. "Thats because of the blood thats in you. Im sure youre true Northern stock. But not too loud. I should think theyd be asleep soon now.”
"Id better creep bad see," suggested Shasta.
"Thats a good idea," said the Horse. "But take care youre not caught.”
It was a good deal darker now and very silent except for the sound of the waves on the beach, which Shasta hardly noticed because he had been hearing it day and night as long as he could remember. The cottage, as he approached it, showed no light. When he liste the front there was no noise. When he went round to the only window, he could hear, after a sed or two, the familiar noise of the old fishermans squeaky snore.
It was funny to think that if all went well he would never hear it again. Holding his breath and feeling a little bit sorry, but much less sorry than he was glad, Shasta glided away over the grass ao the donkeys stable, groped along to a place he knew where the key was hidden, opehe door and found the Horses saddle and bridle which had been locked up there for the night. He bent forward and kissed the donkeys nose. "Im sorry we t take you," he said.
"There you are at last," said the Horse whe back to it. "I was beginning to wonder what had bee of you.”
"I was getting your things out of the stable," replied Shasta. "And now, you tell me how to put them on?”
For the few minutes Shasta was at work, very cautiously to avoid jingling, while the Horse said things like, "Get that girth a bit tighter," or "Youll find a buckle lower down,”
or "Youll o shorten those stirrups a good bit." When all was fi said: "Now; weve got to have reins for the look of the thing, but you wont be using them. Tie them to the saddle-bow: very slack so that I do what I like with my head. And, remember - you are not to touch them.”
"What are they for, then?" asked Shasta.
"Ordinarily they are for direg me," replied the Horse. "But as I intend to do all the direg on this journey, youll please keep your hands to yourself. And theres ahing. Im not going to have you grabbing my mane.”
"But I say," pleaded Shasta. "If Im not to hold on by the reins or by your mane, what am I to hold on by?”
"You hold on with your knees," said the Horse. "Thats the secret of good riding. Grip my body between your knees as hard as you like; sit straight up, straight as a poker; keep your elbows in. And by the way, what did you do with the spurs?”
"Put them on my heels, of course," said Shasta. "I do know that much.”
"Then you take them off and put them in the saddlebag. We may be able to sell them whe to Tashbaan. Ready? And now I think you get up.”
"Ooh! Youre a dreadful height," gasped Shasta after his first, and unsuccessful, attempt.
"Im a horse, thats all," was the reply. "Anyone would think I was a haystack from the way youre trying to climb up me! There, thats better. Now sit up and remember what I told you about your knees. Funny to think of me who has led cavalry charges and won races having a potato-sack like you in the saddle! However, off we go." It chuckled, not unkindly.
And it certainly began their night journey with great caution. First of all it went just south of the fishermans cottage to the little river which there ran into the sea, and took care to leave in the mud some very plain hoof-marks pointing South. But as soon as they were in the middle of the ford it turned upstream and waded till they were about a hundred yards farther inland thatage. Then it selected a nice gravelly bit of bank which would take no footprints and came out on the Northern side. Then, still at a walking pace, it went Northward till the cottage, the oree, the donkeys stable, and the creek - everything, in fact, that Shasta had ever known - had sunk out of sight in the grey summer-night darkness. They had been going uphill and now were at the top of the ridge - that ridge which had always been the boundary of Shastas known world. He could not see what was ahead except that it was all open and grassy. It looked endless: wild and lonely and free.
"I say!" observed the Horse. "What a place fallop, eh!”
"Oh dos," said Shasta. "Not yet. I dont know how to - please, Horse. I dont know your name.”
"Breehy-hinny-brinny-hooky-hah," said the Horse.
"Ill never be able to say that," said Shasta. " I call you Bree?”
"Well, if its the best you do, I suppose you must," said the Horse. "And what shall I call you?”
"Im called Shasta.”
"Hm," said Bree. "Well, now, theres a hats really hard to pronounce. But now about this gallop. Its a good deal easier than trotting if you only knew, because you dont have to rise and fall. Grip with your knees and keep your eyes straight ahead between my ears. Dont look at the ground. If you think yoing to fall just grip harder and sit up straighter. Ready? Now: for Narnia and the North.”
CHAPTER TWO
A WAYSIDE ADVE was nearly noon on the following day when Shasta was wakened by something warm and soft moving over his face. He opened his eyes and found himself staring into the long face of a horse; its nose and lips were almost toug his. He remembered the exg events of the previous night and sat up. But as he did so he groaned.
"Ow, Bree," he gasped. "Im so sore. All over. I hardly move.”
"Good m, small one," said Bree. "I was afraid you might feel a bit stiff. It t be the falls. You didnt have more than a dozen or so, and it was all lovely, soft springy turf that must have been almost a pleasure to fall on. And the only ohat might have been nasty was broken by that gorse bush. No: its the riding itself that es hard at first.
What about breakfast? Ive had mine.”
"Oh bother breakfast. Bother everything," said Shasta. "I tell you I t move." But the horse nuzzled at him with its nose and pawed him gently with a hoof till he had to get up.
And then he looked about him and saw where they were. Behind them lay a little copse.
Before them the turf, dotted with white flowers, sloped down to the brow of a cliff. Far below them, so that the sound of the breaking waves was very faint, lay the sea. Shasta had p://..r seen it from such a height and never seen so much of it before, nor dreamed how many colours it had. Oher hand the coast stretched away, headland after headland, and at the points you could see the white foam running up the rocks but making no noise because it was so far off. There were gulls flying overhead and the heat shivered on the ground; it was a blazing day. But what Shasta chiefly noticed was the air. He couldnt think what was missing, until at last he realized that there was no smell of fish in it. For of course, her itage nor among the s, had he ever been away from
that smell in his life. And this new air was so delicious, and all his old life seemed so far away, that he fot for a moment about his bruises and his ag muscles and said: "I say, Bree, didnt you say something about breakfast?”
"Yes, I did," answered Bree. "I think youll find something in the saddle- bags. Theyre over there on that tree where you hung them up last night - or early this m, rather.”
They iigated the saddle-bags and the results were cheering- a meat pasty, only slightly stale, a lump of dried figs and another lump of green cheese, a little flask of wine, and some money; about forty crests in all, which was more than Shasta had ever seen.
While Shasta sat down - painfully and cautiously - with his back against a tree and started on the pasty, Bree had a few more mouthfuls of grass to keep him pany.
"Wont it be stealing to use the money?" asked Shasta.
"Oh," said the Horse, looking up with its mouth full of grass, "I hought of that. A free horse and a talking horse mustnt steal, of course. But I think its all right. Were prisoners and captives in enemy try. That money is booty, spoil. Besides, how are we to get any food for you without it? I suppose, like all humans, you wo natural food like grass and oats.”
"I t.”
"Ever tried?”
"Yes, I have. I t get it down at all. You couldher if you were me.”
"Youre rum little creatures, you humans," remarked Bree.
When Shasta had finished his breakfast (which was by far the he had ever eaten), Bree said, "I think Ill have a nice roll before we put on that saddle again." And he proceeded to do so. "Thats good. Thats very good," he said, rubbing his ba the turf and waving all fs in the air. "You ought to have ooo, Shasta," he snorted. "Its most refreshing.”
But Shasta burst out laughing and said,"You do look funny when youre on your back!”
"I look nothing of the sort," said Bree. But then suddenly he rolled round on his side, raised his head and looked hard at Shasta, blowing a little.
"Does it really look funny?" he asked in an anxious voice.
"Yes, it does," replied Shasta. "But what does it matter?”
"You dont think, do you," said Bree, "that it might be a thing talking horses never do - a silly, ish trick Ive learned from the dumb ones? It would be dreadful to find, when I get back to Narnia, that Ive picked up a lot of low, bad habits. What do you think, Shasta? Holy, now. Dont spare my feelings. Should you think the real, free horses - the talking kind - do roll?”
"How should I know? Anyway I dont think I should bother about it if I were you. Weve got to get there first. Do you know the way?”
"I know my way to Tashbaan. After that es the desert. Oh, well mahe desert somehow, never fear. Why, well be in sight of the Northern mountains then. Think of it!
To Narnia and the North! Nothing will stop us then. But Id be glad to be past Tashbaan.
You and I are safer away from cities.”
"t we avoid it?”
"Not without going along way inland, and that would take us into cultivated land and main roads; and I wouldnt know the way. No, well just have to creep along the coast. Up here on the downs well meet nothing but sheep and rabbits and gulls and a few shepherds. And by the way, what about starting?”
Shastas legs ached terribly as he saddled Bree and climbed into the saddle, but the Horse was kindly to him a at a soft pace all afternoon. When evening twilight came they dropped by steep tracks into a valley and found a village. Before they got into it Shasta dismounted aered it on foot to buy a loaf and some onions and radishes. The Horse trotted round by the fields in the dusk a Shasta at the far side. This became their regular plan every sed night.
These were great days for Shasta, and every day better than the last as his muscles hardened and he fell less often. Even at the end of his training Bree still said he sat like a bag of flour in the saddle. "And even if it was safe, young un, Id be ashamed to be seen with you on the main road." But in spite of his rude words Bree atient teacher. No one teach riding so well as a horse. Shasta learo trot, to ter, to jump, and to keep his seat even when Bree pulled up suddenly or swung uedly to the left or the right - which, as Bree told him, was a thing you might have to do at any moment in a battle. And then of course Shasta begged to be told of the battles and wars in which Bree had carried the Tarkaan. And Bree would tell of forced marches and the f of swift rivers, of charges and of fierce fights between cavalry and cavalry when the war horses fought as well as the men, being all fierce stallions, traio bite and kick, and to rear at the right moment so that the horses weight as well as the riders would e down on a enemys crest iroke of sword or battleaxe. But Bree did not want to talk about the wars as often as Shasta wao hear about them. "Dont speak of them, youngster," he would say. "They were only the Tisrocs wars and I fought in them as a slave and a dumb beast. Give me the Narnian wars where I shall fight as a free Horse among my own people! Those will be wars worth talking about. Narnia and the North! Bra- ha-ha! Broo hoo!”
Shasta soon learned, when he heard Bree talking like that, to prepare for a gallop.
After they had travelled on for weeks and weeks past more bays and headlands and rivers and villages than Shasta could remember, there came a moonlit night when they started their jour evening, having slept during the day. They had left the downs behind them and were crossing a wide plain with a forest about half a mile away on their left.
The sea, hidden by low sandhills, was about the same distan their right. They had jogged along for about an hour, sometimes trotting and sometimes walking, when Bree suddenly stopped.
"Whats up?" said Shasta.
"S-s-ssh!" said Bree, ing his neck round and twitg his ears. "Did you hear something? Listen.”
"It sounds like another horse - between us and the wood," said Shasta after he had listened for about a minute.
"It is another horse," said Bree. "And thats what I dont like.”
"Isnt it probably just a farmer riding home late?" said Shasta with a yawn.
"Dont tell me!" said Bree. "Thats not a farmers riding. Nor a farmers horse either. t you tell by the sound? Thats quality, that horse is. And its being ridden by a real horseman. I tell you what it is, Shasta. Theres a Tarkaan uhe edge of that wood.
Not on his war horse - its too light for that. On a fine blood mare, I should say.”
"Well, its stopped now, whatever it is," said Shasta.
"Youre right," said Bree. "And why should he stop just when we do? Shasta, my boy, I do believe theres someone shadowing us at last.”
"What shall we do?" said Shasta in a lower whisper than before. "Do you think he see us as well as hear us?”
"Not in this light so long as we stay quite still," answered Bree. "But look! Theres a cloud ing up. Ill wait till that gets over the moon. Then well get off tht as quietly as we , down to the shore. We hide among the sandhills if the worst es to the worst.”
They waited till the cloud covered the moon and then, first at a walking pad afterwards at a gerot, made for the shore.
The cloud was bigger and thicker than it had looked at first and soon the night grew very dark. Just as Shasta was saying to himself, "We must be nearly at those sandhills by
now," his heart leaped into his mouth because an appalling noise had suddenly risen up out of the darkness ahead; a long snarling roar, melancholy and utterly savage. Instantly Bree swerved round and began galloping inland again as fast as he could gallop.
"What is it?" gasped Shasta.
"Lions!" said Bree, without cheg his pace or turning his head.
After that there was nothing but sheer galloping for some time. At last they splashed across a wide, shallow stream and Bree came to a stop on the far side. Shasta noticed that he was trembling and sweating all over.
"That water may have thrown the brute off our st," panted Bree when he had partly got his breath again. "We walk for a bit now.”
As they walked Bree said, "Shasta, Im ashamed of myself. Im just as frightened as a on, dumb ene horse. I am really. I dont feel like a Talking Horse at all. I dont mind swords and lances and arrows but I t bear - those creatures. I think Ill trot for a bit.”
About a mier, however, he broke into a gallop again, and no wonder. For the roar broke out again, this time on their left from the dire of the forest.
"Two of them," moaned Bree.
When they had galloped for several minutes without any further noise from the lions Shasta said, "I say! That other horse is galloping beside us now. Only a stohrow away.”
"All the b-better," panted Bree. "Tarkaan on it - will have a sword - protect us all.”
"But, Bree!" said Shasta. "We might just as well be killed by lions as caught. Or 1 mig9９ｌiｂ?.
Theyll hang me for horsestealing." He was feeling less frightened of lions than Bree because he had never met a lion; Bree had.
Bree only snorted in answer but he did sheer away to his right. Oddly enough the other horse seemed also to be sheering away to the left, so that in a few seds the space between them had widened a good deal. But as soon as it did so there came two more lions roars, immediately after one another, one on the right and the other on the left, the horses began drawing ogether. So, apparently, did the lions. The r of the brutes on each side was horribly close and they seemed to be keeping up with the galloping horses quite easily. Then the cloud rolled away. The moonlight, astonishingly bright, showed up everything almost as if it were broad day. The two horses and two riders were gallopio ned ko knee just as if they were in a race. Indeed Bree said (afterwards) that a finer race had never been seen in en.
Shasta now gave himself up for lost and began to wonder whether lions killed you quickly or played with you as a cat plays with a mouse and how much it would hurt. At the same time (one sometimes does this at the most frightful moments) he noticed everything. He saw that the other rider was a very small, slender person, mail-clad (the moon shone on the mail) and riding magnifitly. He had no beard.
Something flat and shining read out before them. Before Shasta had time even to guess what it was there was a great splash and he found his mouth half full of salt water. The shining thing had been a long i of the sea. Both horses were swimming and the water to Shastas knees.
There was an angry r behind them and looking back Shasta saw a great, shaggy, and terrible shape crouched oers edge; but only one. "We must have shaken off the other lion," he thought.
The lion apparently did not think its prey worth a wetting; at any rate it made no attempt to take the water in pursuit. The two horses, side by side, were now well out into the middle of the creek and the opposite shore could be clearly seen. The Tarkaan had not yet spoken a word. "But he will," thought Shasta. "As soon as we have landed. What am I to say? I must begin thinking out a story.”
Then, suddenly, two voices spoke at his side.
"Oh, I am so tired," said the one. "Hold your tongue, Hwin, and dont be a fool," said the other.
"Im dreaming," thought Shasta. "I could have sworn that other horse spoke.”
Soon the horses were no longer swimming but walking and soon with a great sound of water running off their sides and tails and with a great g of pebbles under eight hoofs, they came out on the farther beach of the ihe Tarkaan, to Shastas surprise, showed no wish to ask questions. He did not even look at Shasta but seemed anxious te his horse straight on. Bree, however, at once shouldered himself in the other horses way.
"Broo-hoo-hah!" he snorted. "Steady there! I heard you, I did. Theres no good pretending, Maam. 1 heard you. Youre a Talking Horse, a Narnian horse just like me.”
"Whats it got to do with you if she is?" said the strange rider fiercely, laying hand on sword-hilt. But the voi which the words were spoken had already told Shasta something.
"Why, its only a girl!" he exclaimed.
"And what business is it of yours if I am only a girl?" she stranger. "Youre probably only a boy: a rude, on little boy - a slave probably, whos stolen his masters horse.”
"Thats all you know," said Shasta.
"Hes not a thief, little Tarkheena," said Bree. "At least, if theres been any stealing, you might just as well say I stole him. And as for its not being my business, you wouldnt expect me to pass a lady of my own ra this strange try without speaking to her?
Its only natural I should.”
"I think its very natural too," said the mare.
"I wish youd held your tongue, Hwin," said the girl. "Look at the trouble youve got us into.”
"I dont know about trouble," said Shasta. "You clear off as soon as you like. We shant keep you.”
"No, you shant," said the girl.
"What quarrelsome creatures these humans are," said Bree to the mare. "Theyre as bad as mules. Lets try to talk a little sense. I take it, maam, your story is the same as mine?
Captured in early youth - years of slavery among the enes?”
"Too true, sir," said the mare with a melancholy whinny.
"And now, perhaps - escape?”
"Tell him to mind his own business, Hwin," said the girl.
"No, I wont, Aravis," said the mare putting her ears back. "This is my escape just as much as yours. And Im sure a noble war-horse like this is not going to betray us. We are trying to escape, to get to Narnia.”
"And so, of course, are we," said Bree. "Of course you guessed that at once. A little boy in rags riding ( to ride) a war-horse at dead of night couldnt mean anything but an escape of some sort. And, if I may say so, a highborn Tarkheena riding alo night - dressed up in her brothers armour - and very anxious for everyoo mind their own business and ask her no questions - well, if thats not fishy, call me a cob!”
"All right then," said Aravis. "Youve guessed it. Hwin and I are running away. We are trying to get to Narnia. And now, what about it?”
"Why, in that case, what is to prevent us all going together?" said Bree. "I trust, Madam Hwin, you will accept such assistand prote as I may be able to give you on the journey?”
"Why do you keep talking to my horse instead of to me?" asked the girl.
"Excuse me, Tarkheena," said Bree (with just the slightest backward tilt of his ears), "but thats ealk. Were free Narnians, Hwin and I, and I suppose, if youre running away to Narnia, you want to be ooo. In that case Hwin isnt your horse any longer.
One might just as well say youre her human.”
The girl opened her mouth to speak and then stopped. Obviously she had not quite seen it in that light before.
"Still," she said after a moments pause, "I dont know that theres so much point in all going together. Arent we more likely to be noticed?”
"Less," said Bree; and the mare said, "Oh do lets. I should feel much more fortable.
Were not eveain of the way. Im sure a great charger like this knows far more than we do.”
"Oh e on, Bree," said Shasta, "ahem go their own way. t you see they dont want us?”
"We do," said Hwin.
"Look here," said the girl. "I dont mind going with you, Mr War-Horse, but what about this boy? How do I know hes not a spy?”
"Why dont you say at ohat you think Im9９ｌｉｂ? not good enough for you?" said Shasta.
"Be quiet, Shasta," said Bree. "The Tarkheenas question is quite reasonable. Ill vouch for the boy, Tarkheena. Hes been true to me and a good friend. And hes certaiher a Narnian or an Arlander.”
"All right, thes go together." But she didnt say anything to Shasta and it was obvious that she wanted Bree, not him.
"Splendid!" said Bree. "And now that weve got the water between us and those dreadful animals, what about you two humans taking off our saddles and our all having a rest and hearing one anothers stories.”
Both the children unsaddled their horses and the horses had a little grass and Aravis produced rather hings to eat from her saddle-bag? But Shasta sulked and said No thanks, and that he wasnt hungry. Aried to put on what he thought very grand and stiff manners, but as a fishermans but is not usually a good place for learning grand
manners, the result was dreadful. And he half khat it wasnt a success and then became sulkier and more awkward than ever. Meanwhile the two horses were getting on splendidly. They remembered the very same places in Narnia - "the grasslands up above Beaversdam" and found that they were some sort of sed cousins once removed. This made things more and more unfortable for the humans until at last Bree said, "And now, Tarkheena, tell us your story. And dont hurry it - Im feeling fortable now.”
Aravis immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone and style from her usual one. For in en, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing youre taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay-writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wao read the essays.
CHAPTER THREE
AT THE GATES OF TASHBAAN "Mr name," said the girl at once, "is Aravis Tarkheena and I am the only daughter of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Rishti Tarkaan, the son of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Ilsombreh Tisroc, the son of Ardeeb Tisroc who was desded in a right line from the god Tash. My father is the lord of the province of Calavar and is one who has the right of standing on his feet in his shoes before the face of Tisroc himself (may he live for ever).
My mother (on whom be the peace of the gods) is dead and my father has married another wife. One of my brothers has fallen in battle against the rebels in the far west and the other is a child. Now it came to pass that my fathers wife, my step- mother, hated me, and the sun appeared dark in her eyes as long as I lived in my fathers house. And so she persuaded my father to promise me in marriage to Ahoshta Tarkaan. Now this Ahoshta is of base birth, though in these latter years he has won the favour of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) by flattery and evil sels, and is now made a Tarkaan and the lord of many cities and is likely to be chosen as the Grand Vizier when the present Grand Vizier dies.
Moreover he is at least sixty years old and has a hump on his bad his face resembles that of an ape. heless my father, because of the wealth and power of this Ahoshta, and being persuaded by his wife, sent messengers me in marriage, and the offer was favourably accepted and Ahoshta sent word that he would marry me this very year at the time of high summer.
"When this news was brought to me the sun appeared dark in my eyes and I laid myself on my bed a for a day. But on the sed day I rose up and washed my fad caused my mare Hwin to be saddled and took with me a sharp dagger which my brother had carried in the western wars and rode out alone. And when my fathers house was out of sight and I was e to a green open pla a certain wood where there were no dwellings of men, I dismounted from Hwin my mare and took out the dagger. Then I parted my clothes where I thought the readiest way lay to my heart and I prayed to all the
gods that as soon as I was dead I might find myself with my brother. After that I shut my eyes and my teeth and prepared to drive the dagger into my heart. But before I had done so, this mare spoke with the voice of one of the daughters of men and said, "O my mistress, do not by any mearoy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortu all the dead are dead alike.”
"I didnt say it half so well as that," muttered the mare.
"Hush, Maam, hush," said Bree, who was thhly enjoying the story. "Shes telling it in the grand ene manner and no story-teller in a Tisrocs court could do it better.
Pray go on, Tarkheena.”
"When I heard the language of men uttered by my mare," tinued Aravis, "I said to myself, the fear of death has disordered my reason and subjected me to delusions. And I became full of shame for none of my lineage ought to fear death more than the biting of a gnat. Therefore I addressed myself a sed time to the stabbing, but Hwin came o me and put her head iween me and the dagger and discoursed to me most excellent reasons and rebuked me as a mother rebukes her daughter. And now my wonder was so great that I fot about killing myself and about Ahoshta and said, `O my mare, how have you learo speak like one of the daughters of men? And Hwin told me what is known to all this pany, that in Narnia there are beasts that talk, and how she herself was stolen from thence when she was a little foal. She told me also of the woods and waters of Narnia and the castles and the great ships, till I said, `In the name of Tash and Azaroth and Zardeenah Lady of the Night, I have a great wish to be in that try of Narnia. `O my mistress, answered the mare, `if you were in Narnia you would be happy, for in that land no maiden is forced to marry against her will. "And when we had talked together freat time hope returo me and I rejoiced that I had not killed myself. Moreover it was agreed between Hwin ahat we should steal ourselves away ..together and we pla in this fashion. We returo my fathers house and I put on my gayest clothes and sang and danced before my father and preteo be delighted with the marriage which he had prepared for me. Also I said to him, `O my father and O the delight of my eyes, give me your lid permission to go with one of my maidens alone for three days into the woods to do secret sacrifices to Zardeenah, Lady of the Night and of Maidens, as is proper and ary for damsels when they must bid farewell to the service of Zardeenah and prepare themselves for marriage. And he answered, `O my daughter and O the delight of my eyes, so shall it be. "But when I came out from the preseny father I went immediately to the oldest of his slaves, his secretary, who had dandled me on his knees when I was a baby and loved me more than the air and the light. And I swore him to be secret and begged him to write a certaier for me. And he wept and implored me to ge my resolution but in the end he said, `To hear is to obey, and did all my will. And I sealed the letter and hid it in my bosom.”
"But what was iter?" asked Shasta.
"Be quiet, youngster," said Bree. "Youre spoiling the story. Shell tell us all about the letter in the right place. Go on, Tarkheena.”
"Then I called the maid who was to go with me to the woods and perform the rites of Zardeenah and told her to wake me very early in the m. And I became merry with her and gave her wio drink; but I had mixed such things in her cup that I knew she must sleep for a night and a day. As soon as the household of my father had itted themselves to sleep I arose and put on an armour of my brothers which I always kept in my chamber in his memory. I put into my girdle all the money I had and certain choice jewels and provided myself also with food, and saddled the mare with my own hands and rode away in the sed watch of the night. I directed my course not to the woods where my father supposed that I would go but north a to Tashbaan.
"Now for three days and more I khat my father would not seek me, being deceived by the words I had said to him. And on the fourth day we arrived at ..he city of Azim Balda. Now Azim Balda stands at the meeting of many roads and from it the posts of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) ride on swift horses to every part of the empire: and it is one of the rights and privileges of the greater Tarkaans to send messages by them. I therefore went to the Chief of the Messengers in the House of Imperial Posts in Azim Balda and said, `O dispatcher of messages, here is a letter from my uncle Ahoshta Tarkaan to Kidrash Tarkaan lord of Calavar. Take now these five crests and cause it to be sent to him. And the Chief of the Messengers said, `To hear is to obey. "This letter was feigo be written by Ahoshta and this was the signification of the writing: `Ahoshta Tarkaan to Kidrash Tarkaan, salutation and peace. In the name of Tash the irresistible, the inexorable. Be it known to you that as I made my jourowards your house to perform the traarriage between me and your daughter Aravis Tarkheena, it pleased fortune and the gods that I fell in with her in the forest when she had ehe rites and sacrifices of Zardeenah acc to the of maidens. And when I learned who she was, being delighted with her beauty and discretion, I became inflamed with love and it appeared to me that the sun would be dark to me if I did not marry her at once. Accly I prepared the necessary sacrifices and married your daughter the same hour that I met her and have returned with her to my own house. Ah pray and charge you to e hither as speedily as you may that we may be delighted with your fad speech; and also that you may bring with you the dowry of my wife, which, by reason of my great charges and expenses, I require without delay.
And because thou and I are brothers I assure myself that you will not be angered by the haste of my marriage which is wholly occasioned by the great love I bear your daughter.
And I it you to the care of all the gods. "As soon as I had dohis I rode on in all haste from Azim Balda, fearing no pursuit and expeg that my father, having received such a letter, would send messages to Ahoshta o to him himself, and that before the matter was discovered I should be beyond Tashbaan. And that is the pith of my story until this very night when I was chased by lions a you at the swimming of the salt water.”
"And what happeo the girl - the one yed?" asked Shasta.
"Doubtless she was beaten for sleeping late," said Aravis coolly. "But she was a tool and spy of my stepmothers. I am very glad they should beat her.”
"I say, that was hardly fair," said Shasta.
"I did not do any of these things for the sake ..of pleasing you," said Aravis.
"And theres ahing I dont uand about that story," said Shasta. "Youre not grown up, I dont believe youre any older than I am. I dont believe youre as old. How could you be getting married at ye?”
Aravis said nothing, but Bree at once said, "Shasta, dont display ynoraheyre always married at that age in the great Tarkaan families.”
Shasta turned very red (though it was hardly light enough for the others to see this) a snubbed. Aravis asked Bree for his story. Bree told it, and Shasta thought that he put in a great deal more than he needed about the falls and the bad riding. Bree obviously thought it very funny, but Aravis did not laugh. When Bree had fihey all went to sleep.
day all four of them, two horses and two humans, tiheir jourogether.
Shasta thought it had been much pleasanter when he and Bree were on their own. For now it was Bree and Aravis who did nearly all the talking. Bree had lived a long time in en and had always been among Tarkaans and Tarkaans horses, and so of course he knew a great many of the same people and places that Aravis knew. She would always be saying things like, "But if you were at the fight of Zulindreh you would have seen my cousin Alimash," and Bree would answer, "Oh, yes, Alimash, he was only captain of the chariots, you know. I dont quite hold with chariots or the kind of horses who draw chariots. Thats not real cavalry. But he is a worthy nobleman. He filled my nosebag with sugar after the taking of Teebeth." Or else Bree would say, "I was down at the lake of Mezreel that summer," and Aravis would say, "Oh, Mezreel! I had a friend there, Lasaraleen Tarkheena. What a delightful place it is. Those gardens, and the Valley of the Thousand Perfumes!" Bree was not in the least trying to leave Shasta out of things, though Shasta sometimes nearly thought he eople who know a lot of the same things hardly help talking about them, and if youre there you hardly help feeling that youre out of it.
Hwin the mare was rather shy before a great war-horse like Bree and said very little. And Aravis never spoke to Shasta at all if she could help it.
Soon, however, they had more important things to think of. They were gettiashbaan. There were more, and larger, villages, and more people on the roads. They now did nearly all their travelling by night and hid as best they could during the day. And
at every halt they argued and argued about what they were藏书网 to do when they reached Tashbaan. Everyone had been putting off this difficulty, but now it could be put off no longer. During these discussions Aravis became a little, a very little, less unfriendly to Shasta; one usually gets oer with people when one is making plans than when one is talking about nothing in particular.
Bree said the first thing now to do was to fix a place where they would all promise to meet on the far side of Tashbaan even if, by any ill luck, they got separated in passing the city. He said the best place would be the Tombs of the A Kings on the very edge of the desert. "Things like great stone bee-hives," he said, "you t possibly miss them.
And the best of it is that none of the enes will go hem because they think the place is haunted by ghouls and are afraid of it." Aravis asked if it wasnt really haunted by ghouls. But Bree said he was a free Narnian horse and didnt believe in these eales. And then Shasta said he wasnt a eher and didnt care a straw about these old stories of ghouls. This wasnt quite true. But it rather impressed Aravis (though at the moment it annoyed her too) and of course she said she didnt mind any number of ghouls either. So it was settled that the Tombs should be their assembly pla the other side of Tashbaan, and everyohey were getting on very well till Hwin humbly pointed out that the real problem was not where they should go when they had got through Tashbaan but how they were to get through it.
"Well settle that tomorrow, Maam," said Bree. "Time for a little sleep now.”
But it wasnt easy to settle. Araviss first suggestion was that they should swim across the river below the city during the night and not go into Tashbaan at all. But Bree had two reasons against this. One was that the river-mouth was very wide and it would be far too long a swim for Hwin to do, especially with a rider on her back. (He thought it would be too long for himself too, but he said much less about that). The other was that it would be full of shipping and of course anyone on the deck of a ship who saw two horses swimming past would be almost certain to be inquisitive.
Shasta thought they should go up the river above Tashbaan and cross it where it was narrower. But Bree explaihat there were gardens and pleasure houses on both banks of the river for miles and that there would be Tarkaans and Tarkheenas living in them and riding about the roads and having water parties on the river. In fact it would be the most likely pla the world for meeting someone who would reize Aravis or even himself.
"Well have to have a disguise," said Shasta.
Hwin said it looked to her as if the safest thing was to ght through the city itself from gate to gate because one was less likely to be noticed in the crowd. But she approved of the idea of disguise as well. She said, "Both the human will have to dress in rags and look like peasants or slaves And all Araviss armour and our saddles and things must be made into bundles and put on our backs, and the children must pretend to drive us and people will think were on pack-horses.”
"My dear Hwin!" said Aravis rather sfully. "As anyone could mistake Bree for anything but a war-hors however you disguised him!”
"I should think not, indeed," said Bree, sn aing his ears go ever so little back.
"I know its not a very good plan," said Hwin. "But I think its our only ce. And we havent been groomed fes and were not looking quite ourselves (at least, Im sure Im not). I do think if we get well plastered with mud and go along with our heads down as if were tired and lazy -and dont lift our hooves hardly at all - we might not be noticed.
And our tails ought to be cut shorter: not ly, you know, but all ragged.”
"My dear Madam," said Bree. "Have you pictured to yourself how very disagreeable it would be to arrive in Narnia in that dition?”
"Well," said Hwin humbly (she was a very sensible mare), "the main thing is to get there.”
Though nobody much liked it, it was Hwins plan which had to be adopted in the end. It was a troublesome one and involved a certain amount of what Shasta called stealing, and Bree called "raiding". One farm lost a few sacks that evening and another lost a coil of rope the : but some tattered old boys clothes for Aravis to wear had to be fairly bought and paid for in a village. Shasta returned with them in triumph just as evening was closing in. The others were waiting for him among the trees at the foot of a le of wooded hills which lay right across their path. Everyone was feelied because this was the last hill; when they reached the ridge at the top they would be looking down on Tashbaan. "I do wish we were safely past it," muttered Shasta to Hwin. "Oh I do, I do,”
said Hwin fervently.
That night they wound their way through the woods up to the ridge by a wood-cutters track. And when they came out of the woods at the top they could see thousands of lights in the valley down below them. Shasta had had no notion of what a great city would be like and it frightened him. They had their supper and the children got some sleep. But the horses woke them very early in the m.
The stars were still out and the grass was terribly cold a, but daybreak was just beginning, far to their right across the sea. Aravis went a few steps away into the wood and came back looking odd in her new, ragged clothes and carrying her real ones in a buhese, and her armour and shield and scimitar and the two saddles and the rest of the horses fine furnishings were put into the sacks. Bree and Hwin had already got themselves as dirty and bedraggled as they could and it remaio shorten their tails. As the only tool for doing this was Araviss scimitar, one of the packs had to be undone again in order to get it out. It was a longish job and rather hurt the horses.
"My word!" said Bree, "if I wasnt a Talking Horse what a lovely ki the face I could give you! I thought you were going to cut it, not pull it out. Thats what it feels like.”
But in spite of semi-darkness and cold fingers all was done in the end, the big packs bound on the horses, the rope halters (which they were now wearing instead of bridles and reins) in the childrens hands, and the journey began.
"Remember," said Bree. "Keep together if we possibly . If not, meet at the Tombs of the A Kings, and whets there first must wait for the others.”
"And remember," said Shasta. "Dont you two horses fet yourselves and start talking, whatever happens.”
CHAPTER FOUR
SHASTA FALLS IN WITH THE NARNIANS AT first Shasta could see nothing in the valley below him but a sea of mist with a few domes and pinnacles rising from it; but as the light increased and the mist cleared away he saw more and more. A broad river divided itself into two streams and on the islaweeood the city of Tashbaan, one of the wonders of the world. Round the very edge of the island, so that the water lapped against the stone, ran high walls strengthened with so many towers that he soon gave up trying to t them. Ihe walls the island rose in a hill and every bit of that hill, up to the Tisrocs palad the great temple of Tash at the top, was pletely covered with buildings - terrace above terrace, street above street, zigzag roads e fl..ights of steps bordered with e trees and lemon trees, roofgardens, balies, deep archways, pillared nades, spires, battlements, mis, pinnacles. And when at last the sun rose out of the sea and the great silver-plated dome of the temple flashed back its light, he was almost dazzled.
"Get on, Shasta," Bree kept saying.
The river banks on each side of the valley were such a mass of gardens that they looked at first like forest, until you got closer and saw the white walls of innumerable houses peeping out from beh the trees. Soon after that, Shasta noticed a delicious smell of flowers and fruit. About fifteen minutes later they were down among them, plodding on a level road with white walls on each side and trees bending over the walls.
"I say," said Shasta in an awed voice. "This is a wonderful place!”
"I daresay," said Bree. "But I wish we were safely through it and out at the other side.
Narnia and the North!”
At that moment a low, throbbing noise began which gradually swelled louder and louder till the whole valley seemed to be swaying with it. It was a musioise, but s and solemn as to be a little frightening.
"Thats the horns blowing for the city gates to be open," said Bree. "We shall be there in a minute. Now, Aravis, do droop your shoulders a bit and step heavier and try to look less like a princess. Try to imagine youve been kicked and cuffed and called names all your life.”
"If it es to that," said Aravis, "what about you drooping your head a bit more and arg your neck a bit less and trying to look less like a war-horse?”
"Hush," said Bree. "Here we are.”
And they were. They had e to the rivers edge and the road ahead of them ran along a many-arched bridge. The water danced brightly in the early sunlight; away to the right he rivers mouth, they caught a glimpse ships masts. Several other travellers were before them on the bridge, mostly peasants driving laden donkeys and mules or carrying baskets on their heads. The children and horses joihe crowd.
"Is anything wrong?" whispered Shasta to Aravis, who had an odd look on her face.
"Oh its all very well for you," whispered Aravis rather savagely. "What would you care about Tashbaan? But I ought to be riding in on a litter with soldiers before me and slaves behind, and perhaps going to a feast iisrocs palace (may he live for ever) - not sneaking in like this. Its different for you.”
Shasta thought all this very silly.
At the far end of the bridge the walls of the city towered high above them and the brazen gates stood open ieway which was really wide but looked narrow because it was so very high. Half a dozen soldiers, leaning on their spears, stood on each side. Aravis couldhinking, "Theyd all jump to attention and salute me if they knew whose daughter I am." But the others were only thinking of how theyd get through and hoping the soldiers would not ask any questions. Fortuhey did not. But one of them picked a carrot out of a peasants basket and threw it at Shasta with a rough laugh, saying: "Hey! Horse-boy! Youll catch it if your master finds youve been using his saddle-horse for pack work.”
This frightened him badly for of course it showed that no one who knew anything about horses would mistake Bree for anything but a charger.
"Its my masters orders, so there!" said Shasta. But it would have beeer if he had held his tongue for the soldier gave him a box on the side of his face that nearly knocked him down and said, "Take that, you young filth, to teach you how to talk to freemen." But
they all slunk into the city without being stopped. Shasta cried only a very little; he was used to hard knocks.
Ihe gates Tashbaan did not at first seem so splendid as it had looked from a distahe first street was narrow and there were hardly any windows in the walls on each side. It was much more crowded than Shasta had expected: crowded partly by the peasants (on their way to market) who had e in with them, but also with watersellers, sweetmeat sellers, porters, soldiers, beggars, ragged children, hens, stray dogs, and bare-footed slaves. What you would chiefly have noticed if you had been there was the smells, which came from unwashed people, unwashed dogs, st, garliions, and the piles of refuse which lay everywhere.
Shasta retending to lead but it was really Bree, who khe way and kept guiding him by little nudges with his hey soon turo the left and began going up a steep hill. It was much fresher and pleasanter, for the road was bordered by trees and there were houses only on the right side; oher they looked out over the roofs of houses in the lower town and could see some the river. Then they went round a hairpio their right and tinued rising. They were zigzagging up to the tre of Tashbaan. Soon they came to fireets. Great statues of the gods and heroes of en - who are mostly impressive rather than agreeable to look at- rose on shinials. Palm trees and pillared arcades cast shadows over the burning pavements. And through the arched gateways of many a palace Shasta caught sight of green branches, cool fountains, and smooth lawns. It must be niside, he thought.
At every turn Shasta hoped they were getting out of the crowd, but they never did. This made their progress very slow, and every now and then they had to stop altogether. This usually happened because a loud voice shouted out "Way, way, way, for the Tarkaan", or "for the Tarkheena", or "for the fifteenth Vizier", "or for the Ambassador", and everyone in the crowd would crush back against the walls; and above their heads Shasta would sometimes see the great lord or lady for whom all the fuss was being made, lolling upon a litter which four or even six gigantic slaves carried on their bare shoulders. For in Tashbaan there is only oraffic regulation, which is that everyone who is less important has to get out of the way for everyone who is more important; unless you want a cut from a whip or punch from the butt end of a spear.
It was in a splendid street very he top of the city (the Tisrocs palace was the only thing above it) that the most disastrous of these stoppages occurred.
"Way! Way! Way!" came the voice. "Way for the White Barbarian King, the guest of the Tisroc (may he live for ever)! Way for the Narnian lords.”
Shasta tried to get out of the way and to make Bree go back. But no horse, not even a Talking Horse from Narnia, backs easily. And a woman with a very edgy basket in her hands, who was just behind Shasta, pushed the basket hard against his shoulders, and said, "Now then! Who are you shoving!" And then someone else jostled him from the side and in the fusion of the moment he lost hold of Bree. And then the whole crowd
behind him became so stiffened and packed tight that he couldnt move at all. So he found himself, uionally, in the first row and had a fine sight of the party that was ing dowreet.
It was quite unlike any other party they had seen that day. The crier who went before it shouting "Way, way!" was the only ene in it. And there was no litter; everyone was on foot. There were about half a dozen men and Shasta had never seen anyone like them before. For ohing, they were all as fair-skinned as himself, and most of them had fair hair. And they were not dressed like men of en. Most of them had legs bare to the kheir tunics were of fine, bright, hardy colours - woodland green, ay yellow, or fresh blue. Instead of turbans they wore steel or silver caps, some of them set with jewels, and oh little wings on each side of it. A few were bare-headed. The swords at their sides were long and straight, not curved like ene scimitars. And instead of being grave and mysterious like most ehey walked with a swing aheir arms and shoulders free, and chatted and laughed. One was whistling. You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and didnt give a fig for anyone who wasnt. Shasta thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life.
But there was not time to enjoy it for at once a really dreadful thing happehe leader of the fair-headed men suddenly poi Shasta, cried out, "There he is! Theres our runaway!" and seized him by the shoulder. moment he gave Shasta a smack - not a cruel oo make you cry but a sharp oo let you know you are in disgrad added, shaking: "Shame on you, my lord! Fie for shame! Queen Susans eyes are red with weeping because of you. What! Truant for a whole night! Where have you been?”
Shasta would have darted under Brees body and tried to make himself scarce in the crowd if he had had the least ce; but the fair-haired men were all round him by now and he was held firm.
Of course his first impulse was to say that he was only poor Arsheesh the fishermans son and that the fn lord must have mistaken him for someone else. But then, the very last thing he wao do in that crowded place was to start explaining who he was and what he was doing. If he started on that, he would soon be asked where he had got his horse from, and who Aravis was - and then, goodbye to any ce of getting through Tashbaan. His impulse was to look at Bree for help. But Bree had no iion of letting all the crowd know that he could talk, and stood looking just as stupid as a horse . As for Aravis, Shasta did not even dare to look at her for fear of drawing attention.
And there was no time to think, for the leader of the Narnians said at once: "Take one of his little lordships hands, Peridan, of your courtesy, and Ill take the other.
And now, on. Our royal sisters mind will be greatly eased when she sees our young scapegrace safe in our lodging.”
And so, before they were half-way through Tashbaan, all their plans were ruined, and without even a ce to say good-bye to the others Shasta found himself being marched off among strangers and quite uo guess what might be going to happe. The Narnian King - for Shasta began to see by the way the rest spoke to him that he must be a king - kept on asking him questions; where he had been, how he had got out, what he had doh his clothes, and didnt he know that he had been very naughty. Only the king called it "naught" instead of naughty.
And Shasta said nothing in answer, because he couldnt think of anything to say that would not be dangerous.
"What! All mum?" asked the king. "I must plainly tell you, prihat this hangdog silence bees one of your blood evehan the scape itself. To run away might pass for a boys frolic with some spirit in it. But the kings son of Arland should avouch his deed; not hang his head like a ene slave.”
This was very unpleasant, for Shasta felt all the time that this young king was the very kind of grown-up and would have liked to make a good impression on him.
The strangers led him-held tightly by both hands-along a narrow street and down a flight of shallow stairs and then up ao a wide doorway in a white wall with two tall, dark cypress trees, one on each side of it. Ohrough the arch, Shasta found himself in a courtyard which was also a garden. A marble basin of clear water in the tre was kept tinually rippling by the fountain that fell into it. e trees grew round it out of smooth grass, and the four white walls which surrouhe lawn were covered with climbing roses. The noise and dust and crowding of the streets seemed suddenly fad away. He was led rapidly across the garden and then into a dark doorway. The crier remained outside. After that they took him along a corridor, where the stone floor felt beautifully cool to his hot feet, and up some stairs. A moment later he found himself blinking in the light of a big, airy room with wide open windows, all looking North so that no sun came in. There was a carpet on the floor more wonderfully coloured than anything he had ever seen and his feet sank down into it as if he were treading in thick moss. All round the walls there were low sofas with rich cushions on them, and the room seemed to be full of people; very queer people some of them, thought Shasta. But he had no time to think of that before the most beautiful lady he had ever seen rose from her plad threw her arms round him and kissed him, saying: "Oh , , how could you? And thou and I such close friends ever sihy mother died. And what should I have said to thy royal father if I came home without thee? Would have been a cause almost of war between Arland and Narnia which are friends time out of mind. It was naught, playmate, very naught of thee to use us so.”
"Apparently," thought Shasta to himself, "Im being mistaken for a prince of Arland, wherever that is. And these must be the Narnians. I wonder where the real is?" But these thoughts did not help him say anything out loud.
"Where hast been, ?" said the lady, her hands still on Shastas shoulders.
"I- I dont know," stammered Shasta.
"There it is, Susan," said the King. "I could get no tale out of him, true or false.”
"Your Majesties! Queen Susan! King Edmund!" said a voice: and when Shasta turo look at the speaker he nearly jumped out of his skin with surprise. For this was one of these queer people whom he had noticed out of the er of his eye when he first came into the room. He was about the same height as Shasta himself. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were hairy like a goats, and shaped like a goats and he had goats hooves and a tail. His skin was rather red and he had curly hair and a short pointed beard and two little horns. He was in fact a Faun, which is a creature Shasta had never seen a picture of or even heard of. And if youve read a book called The Lion, the Witd the Wardrobe you may like to know that this was the very same Faun, Tumnus by name, whom Queen Susans sister Lucy had met on the very first day when she found her way into Narnia. But he was a good deal older now for by this time Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy had been Kings and Queens of Narnia for several years.
"Your Majesties," he was saying, "His little Highness has had a touch of the sun. Look at him! He is dazed. He does not know where he is.”
Then of course everyoopped scolding Shasta and asking him questions and he was made much of and laid on a sofa and cushions were put under his head and he was given iced sherbet in a golden cup to drink and told to keep very quiet.
Nothing like this had ever happeo Shasta in his life before. He had never even imagined lying on anything so fortable as that sofa or drinking anything so delicious as that sherbet. He was still w what had happeo the others and how oh he was going to escape ahem at the Tombs, and what would happen when the real turned up again. But none of these worries seemed so pressing now that he was fortable. And perhaps, later on, there would be hings to eat!
Meanwhile the people in that cool airy room were very iing. Besides the Faun there were two Dwarfs (a kind of creature he had never seen before) and a very large Raven.
The rest were all humans; grown-ups, but young, and all of them, both men and women, had nicer faces and voices than most enes. And soon Shasta found himself taking an i in the versation. "Now, Madam," the King was saying to Queen Susan (the lady who had kissed Shasta). "What think you? We have been in this city fully three weeks. Have you yet settled in your mind whether you will marry this dark- faced lover of yours, this Prince Rabadash, or no?”
The lady shook her head. "No, brother," she said, "not for all the jewels in Tashbaan.”
("Hullo!" thought Shasta. "Although theyre king and queen, theyre brother and sister, not married to one another.")
"Truly, sister," said the King, "I should have loved you the less if you had taken him. And I tell you that at the first ing of the Tisrocs ambassadors into Narnia to treat of this marriage, and later when the Prince was uest at Cair Paravel, it was a woo me that ever you could find it in your heart to show him so much favour.”
"That was my folly, Edmund," said Queen Susan, "of which I cry you mercy. Yet when he was with us in Narnia, truly this Prince bore himself in another fashion than he does now in Tashbaan. For I take you all to witness what marvellous feats he did in that great tour and hastilude which our brother the High King made for him, and how meekly and courteously he sorted with us the space of seven days. But here, in his own city, he has shown another face.”
"Ah!" croaked the Raven. "It is an old saying: see the bear in his own den before you judge of his ditions.”
"Thats very true, Sallowpad," said one of the Dwarfs. "And another is, e, live with me and youll know me.”
"Yes," said the King. "We have now seen him for what he is: that is, a most proud, bloody, luxurious, cruel, and selfpleasing tryant.”
"Then in the name of. Aslan," said Susan, "let us leave Tashbaan this very day.”
"Theres the rub, sister," said Edmund. "For now I must open to you all that has been growing in my mind these last two days and more. Peridan, of your courtesy look to the door ahat there is no spy upon us. All well? So. For now we must be secret.”
Everyone had begun to look very serious. Queen Susan jumped up and ran to her brother.
"Oh, Edmund," she cried. "What is it? There is something dreadful in your face.”
CHAPTER FIVE
PRINCE "MY dear sister and very good Lady," said King Edmund, "you must now show your ce. For I tell you plainly we are in no small danger.”
"What is it, Edmund asked the Queen.
"It is this," said Edmund. "I do not think we shall find it easy to leave Tashbaan. While the Prince had hope that you would take him, we were huests. But by the Lions Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat denial we shall be er than prisoners.”
One of the Dwarfs gave a low whistle.
"I warned your Majesties, I warned you," said Sallowpad the Raven. "Easily in but not easily out, as the lobster said in the lobster pot!”
"I have been with the Prihis m," tinued Edmund. "He is little used (mores the pity) to having his will crossed. And he is very chafed at your long delays and doubtful answers. This m he pressed very hard to know your mind. I put it aside-meaning at the same time to diminish his hopes - with some light os about womens fancies, and hihat his suit was likely to be cold. He grew angry and dangerous. There was a sort of threatening, though still veiled under a show of courtesy, in every word he spoke.”
"Yes," said Tumnus. "And when I supped with the Grand Vizier last night, it was the same. He asked me how I like Tashbaan. And I (for I could not tell him I hated every stone of it and I would not lie) told him that now, when high summer was ing on, my heart turo the cool woods and dewy slopes of Narnia. He gave a smile that meant no good and said, `There is nothing to hinder you from dang there again, little goatfoot; alrovided you leave us in exge a bride for our prince.“
"Do you mean he would make me his wife by force?" exclaimed Susan.
"Thats my fear, Susan," said Edmund: "Wife: or slave which is worse.”
"But how he? Does the Tisroc think our brother the High King would suffer su e?”
"Sire," said Peridan to the King. "They would not be so mad. Do they think there are no swords and spears in Narnia?”
"Alas," said Edmund. "My guess is that the Tisroc has very small fear of Narnia. We are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longs to blot them out, gobble them up. When first he suffered the Prio e to Cair Paravel as your lover, sister, it may be that he was only seeking an occasion against us. Most likely he hopes to make one mouthful of Narnia and Arland both.”
"Let him try," said the sed Dwarf. "At sea we are as big as he is. And if he assaults us by land, he has the desert to cross.”
"True, friend," said Edmund. "But is the desert a sure defence? What does Sallowpad say?”
"I know that desert well," said the Raven. "For I have flown above it far and wide in my younger days," (you may be sure that Shasta pricked up his ears at this point). "And this is certain; that if the Tisroc goes by the great oasis he ever lead a great army across it into Arland. For though they could reach the oasis by the end of their first days march, yet the springs there would be too little for the thirst of all those soldiers and their beasts. But there is another way.”
Shasta listened more attentively still.
"He that would find that way,". said the Raven, "must start from the Tombs of the A Kings and ride northwest so that the double peak of Mount Pire is always straight ahead of him. And so, in a days riding or a little more, he shall e to the head of a stony valley, which is so narrow that a man might be within a furlong of it a thousand times and never know that it was there. And looking down this valley he will see her grass nor water nor anything else good. But if he rides on down it he will e to a river and ride by the water all the way into Arland.”
"And do the enes know of this Western way?" asked the Queen.
"Friends, friends," said Edmund, "what is the use of all this discourse? We are not asking whether Narnia or en would win if war arose between them. We are asking how to save the honour of the Queen and our own lives out of this devilish city. For though my brother, Peter the High King, defeated the Tisroc a dozen times over, yet long before that day our throats would be cut and the Queens grace would be the wife, or more likely, the slave, of this prince.”
"We have our ons, King," said the first Dwarf. "And this is a reasonably defensible house.”
"As to that," said the King, "I do not doubt that every one of us would sell our lives dearly ie and they would not e at the Queen but over our dead bodies. Yet we should be merely rats fighting in a trap when alls said.”
"Very true," croaked the Raven. "These last stands in a house make good stories, but nothing ever came of them. After their first few repulses the enemy always set the house on fire.”
"I am the cause of all this," said Susan, bursting into tears. "Oh, if only I had never left Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came from en.
The Moles were planting an orchard for us . . . oh . . . oh.”
And she buried her fa her hands and sobbed.
"Ce, Su, ce," said Edmund. "Remember-but what is the matter with you, Master Tumnus?" For the Faun was holding both his horns with his hands as if he were
trying to keep his head on by them and writhing to and fro as if he had a pain in his inside.
"Dont speak to me, dont speak to me," said Tumnus. "Im thinking. Im thinking so that I hardly breathe. Wait, wait, do wait.”
There was a moments puzzled silend then the Faun looked up, drew a long breath, mopped its forehead and said: "The only difficulty is how to get down to our s.99ｌｉb.hip-with some stores, too- without being seen and stopped.”
"Yes," said a Dwarf dryly. "Just as the beggars only difficulty about riding is that he has no horse.”
"Wait, wait," said Mr Tumnus impatiently. "All we need is some pretext foing down to our ship today and taking stuff on board.”
"Yes," said King Edmund doubtfully.
"Well, then," said the Faun, "how would it be if your majesties bade the Prio a great bao be held on board our own galleon, the Spendour Hyaliomorrow night?
Ahe message be worded as graciously as the Queen trive without pledging her honour: so as to give the Prince a hope that she is weakening.”
"This is very good sel, Sire," croaked the Raven.
"..And then," tiumedly, "everyone will expect us to be going down to the ship all day, making preparations for uests. A some of us go to the bazaars and spend every minim we have at the fruiterers and the sweetmeat sellers and the wine merts, just as we would if we were really giving a feast. A us is and jugglers and dang girls and flute players, all to be on board tomorrow night.”
"I see, I see," said King Edmund, rubbing his hands.
"And then," said Tumnus, "well all be on board tonight. And as soon as it is quite dark-”
"Up sails and out oars-!" said the King.
"And so to sea," cried Tumnus, leaping up and beginning to dance.
"And our nose Northward," said the first Dwarf.
"Running for home! Hurrah for Narnia and the North!" said the other.
"And the Prince waki m and finding his birds flown!" said Peridan, clapping his hands.
"Oh Master Tumnus, dear Master Tumnus," said the Queen, catg his hands and swinging with him as he danced. "You have saved us all.”
"The Prince will chase us," said another lord, whose name Shasta had not heard.
"Thats the least of my fears," said Edmund. "I have seen all the shipping in the river and theres no tall ship of war nor swift galley there. I wish he may chase us! For the Splendour Hyaline could sink anything he has to send after her - if we were overtaken at all.”
"Sire," said the Raven. "You shall hear er plot than the Fauns though we sat in cil for seven days. And now, as we birds say, s befgs. Which is as much as to say, let us all take our food and then at once be about our business.”
Everyone arose at this and the doors were opened and the lords and the creatures stood aside for the King and Queen to go out first. Shasta wondered what he ought to do, but Mr Tumnus said, "Lie there, yhness, and I will bring you up a little feast to yourself in a few moments. There is no need for you to move until we are all ready to embark.”
Shasta laid his head down again on the pillows and soon he was alone in the room.
"This is perfectly dreadful," thought Shasta. It never came into his head to tell these Narnians the whole truth and ask for their help. Having been brought up by a hard, closefisted man like Arsheesh, he had a fixed habit of elling grown -ups anything if he could help it: he thought they would always spoil or stop whatever you were trying to do. Ahought that even if the Narnian King might be friendly to the two horses, because they were Talkis of Narnia, he would hate Aravis, because she was a ene, aher sell her for a slave or send her back to her father. As for himself, "I simply dhem Im not Prince now," thought Shasta. "Ive heard all their plans. If they knew I wasnt one of themselves, theyd never let me out of this house alive.
Theyd be afraid Id betray them to the Tisroc. Theyd kill me. And if the real turns up, itll all e out, and they will!" He had, you see, no idea of how noble and free-born people behave.
"What am I to do? What am I to do?" he kept saying to himself. "What-hullo, here es that goaty little creature again.”
The Faun trotted in, half dang, with a tray in its hands which was nearly as large as itself. This he set on an inlaid table beside Shastas sofa, and sat down himself on the carpeted floor with his goaty legs crossed.
"Now, pring," he said. "Make a good dinner. It will be your last meal in Tashbaan.”
It was a fine meal after the ene fashion. I dont know whether you would have liked it or not, but Shasta did. There were lobsters, and salad, and suffed with almonds and truffles, and a plicated dish made of chilivers and rice and raisins and nuts, and there were elons and gooseberry fools and mulberry fools, and every kind of hing that be made with ice. There was also a little flagon of the sort of wihat is called "white" though it is really yellow.
While Shasta was eating, the good little Faun, who thought he was still dazed with sunstroke, kept talking to him about the fiimes he would have when they all got home; about his good old father King Lune of Arland and the little castle where he lived on the southern slopes of the pass. "And dont fet," said Mr Tumnus, "that you are promised your first suit of armour and your first war horse on your birthday. And then yhness will begin to learn how to tilt and joust. And in a few years, if all goes well, Kier has promised your royal father that he himself will make you Knight at Cair Paravel. And in the meahere will be plenty of ings and goings between Narnia and Arland across the neck of the mountains. And of course you remember you have promised to e for a whole week to stay with me for the Summer Festival, and therell be bonfires and all-night dances of Fauns and Dryads in the heart of the woods and, who knows?-we might see Aslan himself!”
When the meal was over the Faun told Shasta to stay quietly where he was. "And it wouldnt do you any harm to have a little sleep," he added. "Ill call you iy of time to get on board. And then, Home. Narnia and the North!”
Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling him that when he was left alone his thoughts took a different turn. He only hoped now that the real Prince would not turn up until it was too late and that he would be taken away to Narnia by ship. I am afraid he did not think at all of what might happen to the real when he was left behind in Tashbaan. He was a little worried about Aravis and Bree waiting for him at the Tombs. But then he said to himself, "Well, how I help it?" and, "Anyway, that Aravis thinks shes too good to go about with me, so she jolly well go alone," and at the same time he couldnt help feeling that it would be muicer going to Narnia by sea than toiling across the desert.
When he had thought all this he did what I expect you would have done if you had been up very early and had a long walk and a great deal of excitement and then a very good meal, and were lying on a sofa in a cool room with no noise in it except when a bee came buzzing in through the wide open windows. He fell asleep.
What woke him was a loud crash. He jumped up off the sofa, staring. He saw at once from the mere look of the room - the lights and shadows all looked different - that he must have slept for several hours. He saw also what had made the crash: a costly porcelain vase which had been standing on the window-sill lay on -the floor broken into about thirty pieces. But he hardly noticed all these things. What he did notice was two hands gripping the window-sill from outside. They gripped harder and harder (getting
white at the knuckles) and then up came a head and a pair of shoulders. A moment later there was a boy of Shastas owting astride the sill with one leg hanging down ihe room.
Shasta had never seen his own fa a looking-glass. Even if he had, he might not have realized that the other boy was (at ordinary times) almost exactly like himself. At the moment this boy was not particularly like anyone for he had the fi black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which must have been splendid ones whe them oorn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face.
"Who are you?" said the boy in a whisper.
"Are you Prince ?" said Shasta.
"Yes, of course," said the other. "But who are you?”
"Im nobody, nobody in particular, I mean," said Shasta. "King Edmund caught me ireet and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another. I get out the way youve got in?”
"Yes, if youre any good at climbing," said . "But why are you in such a hurry? I say: we ought to be able to get some fun out of this being mistaken for one another.”
"No, no," said Shasta. "We must ge places at oll be simply frightful if Mr Tumnus es bad finds us both here. Ive had to pretend to be you. And youre starting tonight - secretly. And where were you all this time?”
"A boy ireet made a beastly joke about Queen Susan," said Prince , "so I knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother came out. So I khe big brother down. Then they all followed me until we ran into three old men with spears who are cal..led the Watch. So I fought the Watd they knocked me down.
It was getting dark by now. Thee along to lock me up somewhere. So I asked them if theyd like a stoup of wine and they said they didnt mind if they did. Then I took them to a wine shop and got them some and they all sat down and drank till they feel asleep. I thought it was time for me to be off so I came out quietly and then I found the first boy - t藏书网he one who had started all the trouble - still hanging about. So I knocked him down again. After that I climbed up a pipe on to the roof of a house and lay quiet till it began to get light this m. Ever sihat Ive been finding my way back. I say, is there anything to drink?”
"No, I drank it," said Shasta. "And now, show me how you got in. Theres not a mio lose. Youd better lie down on the sofa and pretend-but I fot. Itll be no good with all those bruises and black eye. Youll just have to tell them the truth, once Im safely away.”
"What else did you think Id be telling them?" asked the Prih a rather angry look.
"And who are you?”
"Theres no time," said Shasta in a frantic whisper. "Im a Narnian, I believe; something Northern anyway. But Ive been brought up all my life in en. And Im esg: across the desert; with a talking Horse called Bree. And now, quick! How do I get away?”
"Look," said . "Drop from this window on to the roof of the verandah. But you must do it lightly, on your toes, or someone will hear you. Then along to your left and you get up to the top of that wall if youre any good at all as a climber. Then along the wall to the er. Drop onto the rubbish heap you will find outside, and there you are.”
"Thanks," said Shasta, who was already sitting on the sill. The two boys were looking into each others faces and suddenly found that they were friends.
"Good-bye," said . "And good luck. I do hope you get safe away.”
"Good-bye," said Shasta. "I say, you have been having some adventures.”
"Nothing to yours," said the Prince. "Now drop; lightlyI say," he added as Shasta dropped. "I hope we meet in Arland. Go to my father King Lune and tell him youre a friend of mine. Look out! I hear someone ing.”
CHAPTER SIX
SHASTA AMONG THE TOMBS SHASTA ran lightly along the roof on tiptoes. It felt hot to his bare feet. He was only a few seds scrambling u９９lｉb?he wall at the far end and whe to the er he found himself looking down into a narrow, smelly street, and there was a rubbish heap against the outside of the wall just as had told him. Before jumping dowook a rapid glance round him to get his bearings. Apparently he had now e over the of the island-hill on which Tashbaan is built. Everything sloped away before him, flat roofs below flat roofs, down to the towers and battlements of the citys Northern wall. Beyond that was the river and beyond the river a short slope covered with gardens. But beyond that again there was something he had never seen the like of - a great yellowish-grey thing, flat as a calm sea, and stretg for miles. On the far side of it were huge blue things, lumpy but with jagged edges, and some of them with white tops. "The desert! the mountains!" thought Shasta.
He jumped down on to the rubbish and began trotting along downhill as fast as he could in the narrow lane, which soht him into a wider street where there were more people. No ohered to look at a little ragged boy running along on bare feet. Still, he was anxious and uneasy till he turned a er and there saw the city gate in front of him.
Here he ressed and jostled a bit, food many other people were also going out; and on the bridge beyond the gate the crowd became quite a slow procession, more like a queue than a crowd. Out there, with clear running water on each side, it was deliciously fresh after the smell a and noise of Tashbaan.
When once Shasta had reached the far end of the bridge he found the crowd melting away; everyone seemed to be goiher to the left ht along the river bank. He went straight ahead up a road that did not appear to be much used, between gardens. In a few paces he was alone, and a few more brought him to the top of the slope. There he stood and stared. It was like ing to the end of the world for all the grass stopped quite suddenly a few feet before h.?ewhere. The road kept oing to somewhere in the sehat it got to more and more trees, all dark and dripping, and to colder and colder air. And strange, icy winds kept blowing the mist past him though they never blew it away. If he had beeo mountain try he would have realized that this meant he was now very high up - perhaps right at the top of the pass. But Shasta knew nothing about mountains.
"I do think," said Shasta, "that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything ght for everyone except me. Those Narnian lords and ladies got safe away from Tashbaan; I was left behind. Aravis and Bree and Hwin are all as snug as anything with that old Hermit: of course I was the one who was sent on. King Lune and his people must have got safely into the castle and shut the gates long before Rabadash arrived, but I get left out.”
And beiired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks.
ut a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was walking beside him. It itch dark and he could see nothing. And the Thing (or Person) was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing. His invisible panion seemed to breathe on a very large scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had e to
notice this breathing so gradually that he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock藏书网.
It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in these Northern tries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had something to cry about, he stopped g.
The Thing (unless it erso on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagi. But just as he was being quite sure of it, there suddenly came a deep, rich sigh out of the darkness beside him. That couldnt be imagination! Anyway, he had felt the hot breath of that sigh on his chilly left hand.
If the horse had been any good - or if he had known how to get any good out of the horse - he would have risked everything on a breakaway and a wild gallop. But he knew he couldnt make that hallop. So he went on at a walking pad the unseen panion walked and breathed beside him. At last he could bear it no longer.
"Who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper.
"One who has waited long for you to speak," said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.
"Are you- are you a giant?" asked Shasta.
"You might call me a giant," said the Large Voice. "But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”
"I t see you at all," said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had e into his head) he said, almost in a scream, "Youre not - not something dead, are you? Oh please - please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!”
Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. "There," it said, "that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”
Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And theold the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. Aold about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.
"I do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.
"Dont you think it was bad lueet so many lions?" said Shasta.
"There was only one lion," said the Voice.
"What oh do you mean? Ive just told you there were at least two the first night, and-”
"There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”
"How do you know?”
"I was the lion." And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice tinued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who forted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the rength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”
"Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”
"It was I”
"But what for?”
"Child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”
"Who are you?" asked Shasta.
"Myself," said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again "Myself", loud and clear and gay: and thehird time "Myself", whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, a seemed to e from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.
Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice beloo something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him.
Yet he felt glad too.
The mist was turning from black to grey and from grey to white. This must have begun to happen some time ago, but while he had been talking to the Thing he had not been notig anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. Somewhere ahead he could hear birds singing. He khe night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now.
A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun.
He turned and saw, pag beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion that the light came.
No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.
Luckily Shasta had lived all his life too far south in en to have heard the tales that were whispered in Tashbaan about a dreadful Narnian demon that appeared in the form of a lion. And of course he knew none of the true stories about Aslan, the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, the King above all High Kings in Narnia. But after one gla the Lions face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldnt say anything but then he didnt want to say anything, and he knew he say anything.
The High King above all kings stooped towards him. Its mane, and some strange and solemn perfume th. hung about the mane, was all round him. It touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted his fad their eyes met. Then instantly the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the Lion rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and disappeared. He was aloh the horse on a grassy hillside under a blue sky. And there were birds singing.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SHASTA IN NARNIA "WAS it all a dream?" wondered Shasta. But it couldnt have been a dream for there in the grass before?
him he saw the deep, large print of the Lions frht paw. It took ones breath away to think of the weight that could make a footprint like that. But there was something more remarkable than the size about it. As he looked at it, water had already filled the bottom of it. Soon it was full to the brim, and then overflowing, and a little stream was running downhill, past him, over the grass.
Shasta stooped and drank - a very long drink - and then dipped his fa and splashed his head. It was extremely cold, and clear as glass, and refreshed him very much. After that he stood up, shaking the water out of his ears and flinging the wet hair back from his forehead, and began to take stock of his surroundings.
Apparently it was still very early m. The sun had only just risen, and it had risen out of the forests which he san and far away on his right. The try j which he was looking at was absolutely o him. It was t a green valley-land dotted with trees through which he caught the gleam of a river that wound away roughly to the North-West. On the far side of the valley there were high and even rocky hills, but they were lower than the mountains he had seeerday. Then he began to guess where he was.
He turned and looked behind him and saw that the slope on which he was standing beloe of far higher mountains.
"I see," said Shasta to himself. "Those are the big mountaiween Arland and Narnia. I was on the°. other side of them yesterday. I must have e through the pass in the night. What luck that I hit it! - at least it wasnt luck at all really, it was Him. And now Im in Narnia.”
He turned and unsaddled his horse and took off its bridle - "Though you are a perfectly horrid horse," he said. It took no notice of this remark and immediately begaing grass. That horse had a very low opinion of Shasta.
"I wish I could eat grass!" thought Shasta. "Its no good going back to Anvard, itll all be besieged. Id better get lower down into the valley and see if I get anything to eat.”
So he went on downhill (the thick dew was cruelly cold to his bare feet) till he came into a wood. There was a kind of track running through it and he had not followed this for many minutes when he heard a thid rather wheezy voice saying to him.
"Good m, neighbour.”
Shasta looked round eagerly to find the speaker and presently saw a small, prickly person with a dark face who had just e out from among the trees. At least, it was small for a person but very big indeed for a hedgehog, which was what it was.
"Good m," said Shasta. "But Im not a neighbour. In fact Im a stranger in these parts.”
"Ah?" said the Hedgehog inquiringly.
"Ive e over the mountains - from Arland, you know.”
"Ha, Arland," said the Hedgehog. "Thats a terrible long way. Never been there myself.”
"And I think, perhaps," said Shasta, "someone ought to be told that theres an army of savage etag Anvard at this very moment.”
"You dont say so!" answered the Hedgehog. "Well, think of that. And they do say that en is hundreds and thousands of miles away, right at the worlds end, across a great sea of sand.”
"Its not nearly as far as you think," said Shasta. "And oughtnt something to be done about this atta Anvard? Oughtnt yh King to be told?”
"Certain sure, something ought to be done about it," said the Hedgehog. "But you see Im just on my way to bed food days sleep. Hullo, neighbour!”
The last words were addressed to an immense biscuitcoloured rabbit whose head had just popped up from somewhere beside the path. The Hedgehog immediately told the Rabbit what it had just learned from Shasta. The Rabbit agreed that this was very remarkable news and that somebody ought to tell someone about it with a view to doing something.
And so it went on. Every few mihey were joined by other creatures, some from the branches overhead and some from little underground houses at their feet, till the party sisted of five rabbits, a squirrel, ties, a goat-foot faun, and a mouse, who all talked at the same time and all agreed with the Hedgehog. For the truth was that in that golden age whed the Winter had gone aer the High King ruled at Cair Paravel, the smaller woodland people of Narnia were so safe and happy that they were getting a little careless.
Presently, however, two more practical people arrived itle wood. One was a Red Dwarf whose name appeared to be Duffle. The other was a stag, a beautiful lordly creature with wide liquid eyes, dappled flanks and legs so thin and graceful that they looked as if you could break them with two fingers.
"Lion alive!" roared the Dwarf as soon as he had heard the news. "And if thats so, why are we all standing still, chattering? E Anvard! News must be sent to Cair Paravel at ohe army must be called out. Narnia must go to the aid of King Lune.”
"Ah!" said the Hedgehog. "But you wont find the High King at the Cair. Hes away to the North troung those giants. And talking of giants, neighbours, that puts me in mind -”
"Wholl take our message?" interrupted the Dwarf. "Anyone here got more speed than me?”
"Ive got speed," said the Stag. "Whats my message? How many enes?”
"Two hundred: under Prince Rabadash. And -" But the Stag9９lｉｂ?
ming out of the woods carrying it as a ram.
They have learned something from the failure of last nights assult. He would have been wiser if he had set his men to making ladders: but it takes too long and he is impatient.
Fool that he is! He ought to have ridden back to Tashbaan as soon as the first attack failed, for his whole plan depended on speed and surprise. Now they are bringing their ram into position. King Lunes men are shooting hard from the walls. Five enes have fallen: but not many will. They have their shields above their heads. Rabadash is giving his orders now. With him are his most trusted lords, fierce Tarkaans from the eastern provinces. I see their faces. There is Corradin of Castle Tormunt, and Azrooh, and Chlamash, and Ilgamuth of the twisted lip, and a tall Tarkaan with a crimson beard -”
"By the Mane, my old master Anradin!" said Bree.
"S-s-sly" said Aravis.
"Now the ram has started. If I could hear as well as see, what a hat would make!
Stroke after stroke: and no gate stand it for ever. But wait! Something up by Stormness has scared the birds. Theyre ing out in masses. And wait again . . . I t see yet . . . ah! Now I . The whe, up on the east, is black with horsemen. If
only the wind would catch that standard and spread it out. Theyre over the ridge now, whoever they are. Aha! Ive seen the banner now. Narnia, Narnia! Its the red lion.
Theyre in full career down the hill now. I see King Edmund. Theres a woman behind among the archers. Oh! -”
"What is it?" asked Hwihlessly.
"All his Cats are dashing out from the left of the line.”
"Cats?" said Aravis.
"Great cats, leopards and such," said the Hermit impatiently. "I see, I see. The Cats are ing round in a circle to get at the horses of the dismounted men. A good stroke. The ene horses are mad with terror already. Now the Cats are in among them. But Rabadash has reformed his line and has a hundred men in the saddle. Theyre riding to meet the Narnians. Theres only a hundred yards betweewo lines now. Only fifty. I see King Edmund, I see the Lord Peridan. There are two mere children in the Narnian line. What the King be about to let them into battle? Only ten yards - the lines have met. The Giants on the Narnian right are doing wonders . . . but ones down . . .
shot through the eye, I suppose. The tres all in a muddle. I see more on the left.
There are the two boys again. Lion alive! one is Prin. The other, like him as two peas. Its your little Shasta. is fighting like a man. Hes killed a ene. I see a bit of the tre now. Rabadash and Edmund almost met then, but the press has separated them -”
"What about Shasta?" said Aravis.
"Oh the fool!" groahe Hermit. "Poor, brave little fool. He knows nothing about this work. Hes making no use at all of his shield. His whole sides exposed. He hasnt the fai idea what to do with his sword. Oh, hes remembered it now. Hes waving it wildly about . . . nearly cut his own ponys head off, and he will in a moment if hes not careful. Its been knocked out of his hand now. Its mere murder sending a child into the battle; he t live five minutes. Duck you fool - oh, hes down.”
"Killed?" asked three voices breathlessly.
"How I tell?" said the Hermit. "The Cats have doheir work. All the riderless horses are dead or escaped now: reat for the enes on them. Now the Cats are turning bato the main battle. Theyre leaping on the rams-men. The ram is down. Oh, good! good! The gates are opening from the iheres going to be a sortie. The first three are out. Its King Lune in the middle: the brothers Dar and Darrin on each side of him. Behind them are Tran and Shar and Cole with his brother . There are ten - twenty - nearly thirty of them out by now. The en line is being forced back upon them. King Edmund is dealing marvellous strokes. Hes just slashed Corradins head off.
Lots of enes have thrown down their arms and are running for the woods. Those that remain are hard pressed. The Giants are closing in on the right - Cats on the left -
King Lune from their rear. The enes are a little knot now, fighting back to back.
Your Tarkaans down, Bree. Lune and Azrooh are fighting hand to hand; the King looks like winning - the King is keeping it up well - the King has won. Azroohs down. King Edmunds down - no, hes up agai it with Rabadash. Theyre fighting in the very gate of the castle. Several enes have surrendered. Darrin has killed Ilgamuth. I t see whats happeo Rabadash. I think hes dead, leaning against the castle wall, but I dont know. Chlamash and King Edmund are still fighting but the battle is over everywhere else. Chlamash has surrehe battle is over. The enes are utterly defeated.”
When Shasta fell off his horse he gave himself up for lost. But horses, even in battle, tread on human beings very much less than you would suppose. After a very horrible ten minutes or so Shasta realized suddenly that there were no longer any horses stamping about in the immediate neighbourhood and that the noise (for there were still a good many noises going on) was no lohat of a battle. He sat up and stared about him.
Even he, little as he knew of battles, could soohat the Arlanders and Narnians had won. The only living enes he could see were prisoners, the castle gates were wide open, and King Lune and King Edmund were shaking hands across the battering ram. From the circle of lords and warriors around them there arose a sound of breathless aed, but obviously cheerful versation. And then, suddenly, it all united and swelled into a great roar of laughter.
Shasta. picked himself up, feeling unonly stiff, and ran towards the sound to see what the joke was. A very curious sight met his eyes. The unfortunate Rabadash appeared to be suspended from the castle walls. His feet, which were about two feet from the ground, were kig wildly. His -shirt was somehow hitched up so that it was horribly tight uhe arms and came half way over his face. In fact he looked just as a man looks if you catch him in the very act of getting into a s藏书网tiff shirt that is a little too small for him. As far as could be made out afterwards (and you may be sure the story was well talked over for many a day) what happened was something like this. Early itle one of the Giants had made an unsuccessful stamp at Rabadash with his spiked boot: unsuccessful because it didnt crush Rabadash, which was what the Giant had intended, but not quite useless because one of the spikes tore the mail, just as you or I might tear an ordinary shirt. So Rabadash, by the time he entered Edmund at the gate, had a hole in the back of his hauberk. And when Edmund pressed him baearer and o the wall, he jumped up on a mounting blod stood there raining down blows on Edmund from above. But then, finding that this position, by raising him above the heads of everyone else, made him a mark for every arrow from the Narnian bows, he decided to jump down again. And he meant to look and sound - no doubt for a moment he did look and sound - very grand and very dreadful as he jumped, g, "The bolt of Tash falls from above." But he had to jump sideways because the crowd in front of him left him no landing pla that dire. And then, in the way you could wish, the tear in the back of his hauberk caught on a hook in the wall. (Ages ago this hook had had a ring in it for tying horses to.) And there he found himself, like a piece of washing hung up to dry, with everyone laughing at him.
"Let me down, Edmund," howled Rabadash. "Let me down and fight me like a king and a man; or if you are too great a coward to do that, kill me at once.”
"Certainly," began King Edmund, but King Luerrupted.
"By your Majestys good leave," said King Luo Edmund. "Not so." Then turning to Rabadash he said, "Your royal Highness, if you had given that challenge a week ago, Ill answer for it there was no one in King Edmunds dominion, from the High King down to the smallest Talking Mouse, who would have refused it. But by attag our castle of Anvard in time of peace without defiance sent, you have proved yourself no knight, but a traitor, and oher to be whipped by the hangman than to be suffered to cross swords with any person of honour. Take him down, bind him, and carry him within till our pleasure is further known.”
Strong hands wrenched Rabadashs sword from him and he was carried away into the castle, shouting, threatening, cursing, and even g. For though he could have faced torture he couldnt bear being made ridiculous. In Tashbaan everyone had always taken him seriously.
At that moment ran up to Shasta, seized his hand and started dragging him towards King Lune. "Here he is, Father, here he is," cried .
"Aye, ahou art, at last," said the King in a very gruff voice. "And bast been itle, trary to your obedience. A boy to break a fathers heart! At ye a rod to your breech were fitter than a sword in your fist, ha!" But everyone, including , could see that the King was very proud of him.
"Chide him no more, Sire, if it please you," said Lord Darrin. "His Highness would not be your son if he did not i your ditions. It would grieve your Majesty more if he had to be reproved for the opposite fault.”
"Well, well," grumbled the King. "Well pass it over for this time. And now -" What came surprised Shasta as much as anything that had ever happeo him in his life. He found himself suddenly embraced inn bear-like hug by King Lune and kissed on both cheeks. Then the Ki him down again and said, "Stand here together, boys, a all the court see you. Hold up your heads. Now, gentlemen, look on them both.
Has any man any doubts?”
And still Shasta could not uand why everyoared at him and at nor what all the cheering was about.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HOW BREE BECAME A WISER HORSE WE must now return to Aravis and the Horses. The Hermit, watg his pool, was able to tell them that Shasta was not killed or even seriously wounded, fo..r he saw him get up and saw how affeately he was greeted by King Lune. But as he could only see, not hear, he did not know what anyone was saying and, ohe fighting had stopped and the talking had begun, it was not worth while looking in the pool any longer.
m, while the Hermit was indoors, the three of them discussed what they should do .
"Ive had enough of this," said Hwin. "The Hermit has been very good to us and Im very much obliged to him Im sure. But Im getting as fat as a pet poing all day aing no exercise. Lets go on to Narnia.”
"Oh not today, Maam," said Bree. "I wouldnt hurry things. Some other day, dont you think?”
"We must see Shasta first and say good-bye to him - and - and apologize," said Aravis.
"Exactly!" said Bree with great enthusiasm. "Just what I was going to say.”
"Oh, of course," said Hwin. "I expect he is in Anvard. Naturally wed look in on him and say good-bye. But thats on our way. And why shouldart at once? After all, I thought it was Narnia we all wao get to?”
"I suppose so," said Aravis. She was beginning to wonder what exactly she would do whe there and was feeling a little lonely.
"Of course, of course," said Bree hastily. "But theres o rush things, if you know what I mean.”
"No, I dont know what you mean," said Hwin. "Why dont you want to go?”
"M-m-m, broo-hoo," muttered Bree. "Well, dont you see, Maam - its an important occasion - returning to ones try - entering society - the best society - it is so essential to make a good impression - not perhaps looking quite ourselves, yet, eh?”
Hwin broke out into a horse-laugh. "Its your tail, Bree! I see it all now. You want to wait till your tails grown again! And we dont even know if tails are worn long in Narnia.
Really, Bree, youre as vain as that Tarkheena in Tashbaan!”
"You are silly, Bree," said Aravis.
"By the Lions Maarkheena, Im nothing of the sort," said Bree indignantly. "I have a proper respeyself and for my fellow horses, thats all.”
"Bree," said Aravis, who was not very ied i of his tail, "Ive been wanting to ask you something for a long time. Why do you keep on swearing By the Lion and By the Lions Mane? I thought you hated lions.”
"So I do," answered Bree. "But when I speak of the Lion of course I mean Aslan, the great deliverer of Narnia who drove away the Witd the Winter. All Narnians swear by him.”
"But is he a lion?”
"No, no, of course not," said Bree in a rather shocked voice.
"All the stories about him in Tashbaan say he is," replied Aravis. "And if he isnt a lion why do you call him a lion?”
"Well, youd hardly uand that at ye," said Bree. "And I was only a little foal when I left so I dont quite fully uand it myself.”
(Bree was standing with his back to the green wall while he said this, and the other two were fag him. He was talking in rather a superior toh his eyes half shut; that was why he didhe ged expression in the faces of Hwin and Aravis. They had good reason to have open mouths and staring eyes; because while Bree spoke they saw an enormous lion leap up from outside and balaself oop of the green wall; only it was a brighter yellow and it was bigger and more beautiful and more alarming than any lion they had ever seen. And at o jumped down ihe wall and began approag Bree from behind. It made no all. And Hwin and Aravis couldnt make any hemselves, no more than if they were frozen.)
"No doubt," tinued Bree, "when they speak of him as a Lion they only mean hes as strong as a lion or (to our enemies, of course) as fierce as a lion. Or something of that kind. Even a little girl like you, Aravis, must see that it would be quite absurd to suppose he is a real lion. I would be disrespectful. If he was a lion hed have to be a Beast just like the rest of us. Why!" (and here Bree began to laugh) "If he was a lion hed have four paws, and a tail, and Whiskers! . . . Aie, ooh, hoo-hoo! Help!”
For just as he said the word Whiskers one of Aslans had actually tickled his ear. Bree shot away like an arrow to the other side of the enclosure and there turhe wall was too high for him to jump and he could fly no farther. Aravis and Hwin both started back.
There was about a sed of intense silence.
Then Hwin, though shaking all ave a stratle neigh, and trotted across to the Lion.
"Please," she said, "youre so beautiful. You may eat me if you like. Id sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else.”
"Dearest daughter," said Aslan, planting a lions kiss owitg, velvet nose, "I knew you would not be long in ing to me. Joy shall be yours.”
Then he lifted his head and spoke in a louder voice.
"Now, Bree," he said, "you poor, proud frightened Horse, draw near. Nearer still, my son.
Do not dare not to dare. Touch me. Smell me. Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers. I am a true Beast.”
"Aslan," said Bree in a shaken voice, "Im afraid I must be rather a fool.”
"Happy the Horse who knows that while he is still young. Or the Humaher. Draw near, Aravis my daughter. See! My paws are velveted. You will not be torn this time.”
"This time, sir?" said Aravis.
"It was I who wounded you," said Aslan. "I am the only lion you met in all your journeyings. Do you know why I tore you?”
"No, sir.”
"The scratches on your back, tear for tear, throb for throb, blood for blood, were equal to the stripes laid on the back of your stepmothers slave because of the drugged sleep you cast upon her. You o know what it felt like.”
"Yes, sir. Please-”
"Ask on, my dear," said Aslan.
"Will any more harm e to her by what I did?”
"Child," said the Lion, "I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own." Then he shook his head and spoke in a lighter voice.
"Be merry, little ones," he said. "We shall meet soon again. But before that you will have another visitor." Then in one bound he reached the top of the wall and vanished from their sight.
Strao say, they felt no ination to talk to one another about him after he had gone.
They all moved slowly away to different parts of the quiet grass and there paced to and fro, each alohinking.
About half an hour later the two Horses were summoo the back of the house to eat something hat the Hermit had got ready for them and Aravis, still walking and thinking, was startled by the harsh sound of a trumpet outside the gate.
"Who is there?" asked Aravis.
"His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Arland," said a voice from outside.
Aravis undid the door and ope, drawing back a little way to let the strangers in.
Two soldiers with halberds came first and took their stand at each side of the entry. Then followed a herald, and the trumpeter.
"His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Arland desires an audience of the Lady Aravis,”
said the Herald. Then he and the trumpeter drew aside and bowed and the soldiers saluted and the Prince himself came in. All his attendants withdrew and closed the gate behind them.
The Prince bowed, and a very clumsy bow for a Pri was. Aravis curtsied in the eyle (which is not at all like ours) and did it very well because, of course, she had been taught how. Then she looked up and saw what sort of person this Prince was.
She saw a mere boy. He was bare-headed and his fair hair was encircled with a very thin band of gold, hardly thicker than a wire. His upper tunic was of white cambric, as fine as a handkerchief, so that the bright red tunieath it showed through. His left hand, which rested on his enamelled sword hilt, was bandaged.
Aravis looked twice at his face before she gasped and said, "Why! Its Shasta!”
Shasta all at ourned very red and began speaking very quickly. "Look here, Aravis,”
he said, "I do hope you wont think Im got up like this (and the trumpeter and all) to try to impress you or make out that Im different or any rot of that sort. Because Id far rather have e in my old clothes, but theyre burnt now, and my father said -”
"Your father?" said Aravis.
"Apparently King Lune is my father," said Shasta. "I might really have guessed it. being so like me. We were twins, you see. Oh, and my name isnt Shasta, its Cor.”
"Cor is a niame than Shasta," said Aravis.
"Brothers names run like that in Arland," said Shasta (or Prince Cor as we must now call him). "Like Dar and Darrin, Cole and and so on.”
"Shasta - I mean Cor," said Aravis. "No, shut up. Theres something Ive got to say at once. Im sorry Ive been such a pig. But I did ge before I knew you were a Prince, holy I did: when you went back, and faced the Lion.”
"It wasnt really going to kill you at all, that Lion," said Cor.
"９9lｉｂ.;I know," said Aravis, nodding. Both were still and solemn for a moment as each saw that the other knew about Aslan.
Suddenly Aravis remembered Cors bandaged hand. "I say!" she cried, "I fot! Youve been in a battle. Is that a wound?”
"A mere scratch," said Cor, using for the first time a rather lordly tone. But a moment later he burst out laughing and said, "If you want to know the truth, it isnt a proper wound at all. I only took the skin off my knuckles just as any clumsy fool might do without going near a battle.”
"Still you were itle," said Aravis. "It must have been wonderful.”
"It wasnt at all like what I thought," said Cor.
"But Sha - Cor, I mean - you havent told me anythi about King Lune and how he found out who you were.”
"Well, lets sit down," said Cor. "For its rather a long story. And by the way, Fathers an absolute brick. Id be just as pleased - or very nearly - at finding hes my father even if he wasnt a king. Even though Education and all sorts of horrible things are going to happen to me. But you want the story. Well, and I were twins. And about a week after we were both born, apparently, they took us to a wise old taur in Narnia to be blessed or something. Now this taur rophet as a good maaurs are. Perhaps you havent seen aaurs yet? There were some itle yesterday. Most remarkable people, but I t say I feel quite at home with them yet. I say, Aravis, there are going to be a lot of things to get used to in these Northern tries.”
"Yes, there are," said Aravis. "But get on with the story.”
"Well, as soon as he saw a seems this taur looked at me and said, A day will e when that boy will save Arland from the deadliest danger in which ever she lay. So of course my Father and Mother were very pleased. But there was someone present who wasnt. This was a chap called the Lord Bar who had been Fathers Lord cellor. And apparently hed done something wrong - bezzling or some word like that - I didnt uand that part very well - and Father had had to dismiss him. But nothing else was doo him and he was allowed to go on living in Arland. But he must have been as bad as he could be, for it came out afterwards he had been in the pay of the Tisrod had sent a lot of secret information to Tashbaan. So as soon as he heard I was going to save Arland from a great danger he decided I must be put out of the
way. Well, he succeeded in kidnapping me (I doly know how) and rode away down the Winding Arrow to the coast. Hed had everything prepared and there was a ship manned with his own followers lying ready for him a out to sea with me on board. But Father got wind of it, though not quite in time, and was after him as quickly as he could. The Lord Bar was already at sea when Father reached the coast, but not out of sight. And Father was embarked in one of his own warships withiy minutes.
"It must have been a wonderful chase. They were six days following Bars galleon and brought her to battle on the seventh. It was a great sea-fight (I heard a lot about it yesterday evening) from ten oclo the m till su. Our people took the ship in the end. But I wasnt there. The Lord Bar himself had been killed in the battle. But one of his men said that, early that m, as soon as he saw he was certain to be overhauled, Bar had giveo one of his knights a us both away in the ships boat. And that boat was never seen again. But of course that was the same boat that Aslan (he seems to be at the back of all the stories) pushed ashore at the right place for Arsheesh to pick me up. I wish I khat knights name, for he must have kept me alive and starved himself to do it.”
"I suppose Aslan would say that art of someone elses story," said Aravis.
"I was fetting that," said Cor.
"And I wonder how the prophecy will work out," said Aravis, "and what the great danger is that youre to save Arland from.”
"Well," said Cor rather awkwardly, "they seem to think Ive do already.”
Aravis clapped her hands. "Why, of course!" she said. "How stupid I am. And how wonderful! Arland ever be in much greater dahan it was when Rabadash had crossed the Arrow with his two hundred horse and you had got through with your message. Dont you feel proud?”
"I think I feel a bit scared," said Cor.
"And youll be living at Anvard now," said Aravis rather wistfully.
"Oh!" said Cor, "Id nearly fotten what I came about. Father wants you to e and live with us. He says theres been no lady in the court (they call it the court, I dont know why) siher died. Do, Aravis. Youll like Father - and . Theyre not like me; theyve been properly brought up. You be afraid that -”
"Oh stop it," said Aravis, "or well have a real fight. Of course Ill e.”
"Now lets go ahe Horses," said Cor.
There was a great and joyous meetiween Bree and Cor, and Bree, who was still in a rather subdued frame of mind, agreed to set out for Anvard at once: he and Hwin would cross into Narnia on the following day. All four bade an affeate farewell to the Hermit and promised that they would soon visit him again. By about the middle of the m they were on their way. The Horses had expected that Aravis and Cor would ride, but Cor explaihat except in war, where everyone must do what he do best, no one in Narnia or Arland ever dreamed of mounting a Talking Horse.
This reminded poor Bree again of how little he knew about Narnian s and what dreadful mistakes he might make. So while Hwin strolled along in a happy dream, Bree got more nervous and more self-scious with every step he took.
"Buck up, Bree," said Cor. "Its far worse for me than for you. You arent going to be educated. I shall be learning reading and writing and heraldry and dang and history and music while youll be galloping and rolling on the hills of Narnia to your hearts tent.”
"But thats just the point," groaned Bree. "Do Talking Horses roll? Supposing they dont?
I t bear to give it up. What do you think, Hwin?”
"Im going to roll anyway," said Hwin. "I dont suppose any of them will care two lumps of sugar whether you roll or not.”
"Are we hat castle?" said Bree to Cor.
"Round the bend," said the Prince.
"Well," said Bree, "Im going to have a good one now: it may be the last. Wait for me a minute.”
It was five minutes before he rose again, blowing hard and covered with bits of bra.
"Now Im ready," he said in a voice of profound gloom. "Lead on, Prince Cor, Narnia and the North.”
But he looked more like a hoing to a funeral than a long-lost captive returning to home and freedom.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
RABADASH THE RIDICULOUS
THE urn of the road- brought them out from among the trees and there, across green lawns, sheltered from the north wind by the high wooded ridge at its back, they saw the castle of Anvard. It was very old and built of a warm, reddish-brown stone.
Before they had reached the gate King Lune came out to meet them, not looking at all like Araviss idea of a king and wearing the oldest of old clothes; for he had just e from making a round of the kennels with his Huntsman and had only stopped for a moment to wash his doggy hands. But the bow with which he greeted Aravis as he took her hand would have been stately enough for an Emperor.
"Little lady," he said, "we bid you very heartily wele. If my dear wife were still alive we could make you better cheer but could not do it with a better will. And I am sorry that you have had misfortunes and been driven from your fathers house, which ot but be a grief to you. My son Cor has told me about your adveogether and all your valour.”
"It was he who did all that, Sir," said Aravis. "Why, he rushed at a lion to save me.”
"Eh, whats that?" said King Lune, his face brightening. "I havent heard that part of the story.”
Then Aravis told it. And Cor, who had very much wahe story to be known, though he felt he couldnt tell it himself, didnt enjoy it so much as he had expected, and indeed felt rather foolish. But his father e very mudeed and in the course of the few weeks told it to so many people that Cor wished it had never happened.
Then the King turo Hwin and Bree and was just as polite to them as to Aravis, and asked them a lot of questions about their families and where they had lived in Narnia before they had been captured. The Horses were rather toied for they were used to being talked to as equals by Humans grown-up Humans, that is. They didnt mind Aravis and Cor.
Presently Queen Lucy came out from the castle and joihem and King Lune said to Aravis, "My dear, here is a loving friend of our house, and she has been seeing that your apartments are put thts for you better than I could have do.”
"Youd like to e ahem, wouldnt you?" said Lucy, kissing Aravis. They liked each other at ond soo away together to talk about Araviss bedroom and Araviss boudoir and about getting clothes for her, and all the sort of things girls do talk about on su occasion.
After lunch, which they had oerrace (it was cold birds and cold game pie and wine and bread and cheese), King Lune ruffled up his brow and heaved a sigh and said, "Heigh-ho! We have still that sorry creature Rabadash on our hands, my friends, and must needs resolve what to do with him.”
Lucy was sitting on the Kings right and Aravis on his left. King Edmund sat at one end of the table and the Lord Darrin faced him at the other. Dar and Peridan and Cor and were on the same side as the King.
"Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head," said Peridan. "Su assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins.”
"It is very true," said Edmund. "But even a traitor may mend. I have known ohat did.”
And he looked very thoughtful.
"To kill this Rabadash would go o raising war with the Tisroc," said Darrin.
"A fig for the Tisroc," said King Lune. "His strength is in numbers and numbers will never cross the desert. But I have no stomach for killing men (even traitors) in cold blood. To have cut his throat itle would have eased my heart mightily, but this is a different thing.”
"By my sel," said Lucy, "your Majesty shall give him arial. Let him go free on strait promise of fair dealing iure. It may be that he will keep his word.”
"Maybe Apes will grow ho, Sister," said Edmund. "But, by the Lion, if he breaks it again, may it be in such time and place that any of us could s off his head in battle.”
"It shall be tried," said the King: and then to one of the attendants, "Send for the prisoner, friend.”
Rabadash was brought before them in s. To look at him anyone would have supposed that he had passed the night in a noisome dungeon without food or water; but iy he had been shut up in quite a fortabl.99lｉｂ.e room and provided with an excellent supper. But as he was sulking far too furiously to touch the supper and had spent the whole night stamping and r and cursing, he naturally did not now look his best.
"Your royal Highness needs not to be told," said King Lune, "that by the law of nations as well as by all reasons of prudent policy, we have as ght to your head as ever one mortal man had against another. heless, in sideration of your youth and the ill nurture, devoid of all gentilesse and courtesy, which you have doubtless had in the land of slaves and tyrants, we are disposed to set you free, unharmed, on these ditions: first, that-”
"Curse you for a barbarian dog!" spluttered Rabadash. "Do you think I will even hear your ditions? Faugh! You talk very largely of nurture and I know not what. Its easy, to a man in s, ha! Take off these vile bonds, give me a sword, a any of you who dares thee with me.”
Nearly all the lords sprang to their feet, and shouted:
"Father! I box him? Please.”
"Peace! Your Majesties! My Lords!" said King Lune. "Have we nravity among us than to be so chafed by the taunt of a pajock? Sit down, , or shaft leave the table.
I ask yhness again, to hear our ditions.”
"I hear no ditions from barbarians and sorcerers," said Rabadash. "Not one of you dare touch a hair of my head. Every insult you have heaped on me shall be paid with os of Narnian and Arlandish blood. Terrible shall the vengeance of the Tisroc be: even now. But kill me, and the burnings and ts in these northern lands shall bee a tale thten the world a thousand years hence. Beware! Beware! Beware!
The bolt of Tash falls from above!”
"Does it ever get caught on a hook half-way?" asked .
"Shame, ," said the King. "aunt a man save when he is strohan you: then, as you please.”
"Oh you foolish Rabadash," sighed Lucy.
moment Cor wondered why everyo the table had risen and was standing perfectly still. Of course he did the same himself. And then he saw the reason. Aslan was among them though no one had seen him ing. Rabadash started as the immense shape of the Lion paced softly iween him and his accusers.
"Rabadash," said Aslan. "Take heed. Your doom is very near, but you may still avoid it.
Fet your pride (what have you to be proud of?) and yer (who has done y?) and accept the mercy of these good kings.”
Then Rabadash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth into a horrible, long mirthless grin like a shark, and wagged his ears up and down (anyone learn how to do this if they take the trouble). He had always found this very effective in en. The bravest had trembled when he made these faces, and ordinary people had fallen to the floor, aive people had often fainted. But what Rabadash hadnt realized is that it is very easy thten people who know you have them boiled alive the moment you give the word. The grimaces didnt look at all alarming in Arland; indeed Luly thought Rabadash was going to be sick.
"Demon! Demon! Demon!" shrieked the Prince. "I know you. You are the foul fiend of Narnia. You are the enemy of the gods. Learn who I am, horrible phantasm. I am desded from Tash, the inexorable, the irresistible. the curse of Tash is upon you.
Lightning in the shape of scorpions shall be rained on you. The mountains of Narnia shall be ground into dust. The-”
"Have a care, Rabadash," said Aslan quietly. "The doom is nearer now: it is at the door: it has lifted the latch.”
"Let the skies fall," shrieked Rabadash. "Let the earth gape! Let blood and fire obliterate the world! But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my palace by her hair the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the -”
"The hour has struck," said Aslan: and Rabadash saw, to his supreme horror, that everyone had begun to laugh.
They couldnt help it. Rabadash had been wagging his ears all the time and as soon as Aslan said, "The hour has struck!" the ears began to ge. They grew longer and more pointed and soon were covered with grey hair. And while everyone was w where they had seen ears like that before, Rabadashs face began to ge too. It grew longer, and thicker at the top and larger eyed, and the nose sank bato the face (or else the face swelled out and became all nose) and there was hair all over it. And his arms grew longer and came down in front of him till his hands were resting on the ground: only they werent hands, now, they were hoofs. And he was standing on all fours, and his clothes disappeared, and everyone laughed louder and louder (because they couldnt help it) for now what had been Rabadash was, simply and unmistakably, a dohe terrible thing was that his human speech lasted just a moment lohan his human shape, so that when he realized the ge that was ing over him, he screamed out: "Oh, not a Donkey! Mercy! If it were even a horse - een - a hor - eeh - auh, eeh-auh.”
And so the words died away into a donkeys bray.
"Now hear me, Rabadash," said Aslan. "Justice shall be mixed with mercy. You shall not always be an Ass.”
At this of course the Dowitched its ears forward and that also was so funny that everybody laughed all the more. They tried not to, but they tried in vain.
"You have appealed to Tash," said Aslan. "And iemple of Tash you shall be healed.
You must stand before the altar of Tash in Tashbaan at the great Autum this year and there, in the sight of all Tashbaan, your asss shape will fall from you and all men will know you for Prince Rabadash. But as long as you live, if ever you go more than ten miles away from the great temple in Tashbaan you shall instantly bee again as you now are. And from that sed ge there will be urn.”
There was a short silend then they all stirred and looked at one another as if they were waking from sleep. Aslan was gone. But there was a brightness in the air and on the grass, and a joy in their hearts, which assured them that he had been no dream: and anyway, there was the donkey in front of them.
King Lune was the ki-hearted of men and on seeing his enemy in this regrettable dition he fot all his anger.
"Your royal Highness," he said. "I am most truly sorry that things have e to this extremity. Yhness will bear withat it was none of our doing. And of course we shall be delighted to provide yhness with shipping back to Tashbaan for the - er - treatment which Aslan has prescribed. You shall have every fort which yhnesss situation allows: the best of the cattleboats - the freshest carrots and thistles -”
But a deafening bray from the Donkey and a well-aimed kick at one of the guards made it clear that these kindly offers were ungratefully received.
And here, to get him out of the way, Id better finish off the story of Rabadash. He (or it)
was duly sent back by boat to Tashbaan and brought into the temple of Tash at the great Autumival, and then he became a man again. But of course four or five thousand people had seeransformation and the affair could not possibly be hushed up. And after the old Tisrocs death when Rabadash became Tisro his place he turned out the most peaceable Tisroc en had ever known. This was because, not daring to go more than ten miles from Tashbaan, he could never go on a war himself: and he didnt want his Tarkaans to win fame in the wars at his expense, for that is the way Tisrocs get overthrown. But though his reasons were selfish, it made things much more fortable for all the smaller tries round en. His own people never fot that he had been a donkey. During his reign, and to his face, he was called Rabadash the Peacemaker, but after his death and behind his back he was called Rabadash the Ridiculous, and if you look him up in a good History of en (try the local library) you will find him uhat name. And to this day in ene schools, if you do anything unusually stupid, you are very likely to be called "a sed Rabadash".
Meanwhile at Anvard everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of before the real fun began, which was a gra held that evening on the lawn before the castle, with dozens of lanterns to help the moonlight. And the wine flowed and tales were told and jokes were cracked, and then silence was made and the Kings poet with two fiddlers stepped out into the middle of the circle. Aravis and Cor prepared themselves to be bored, for the only poetry they knew was the ene kind, and you knohat that was like. But at the very first scrape of the fiddles a rocket seemed to go up iheir heads, and the poet sang the great old lay of Fair Olvin and how he fought the Giant Pire and turned him into stone (and that is the in of Mount Pire - it was a two -headed Giant)
and won the Lady Liln for his bride; and when it was over they wished it was going to begin again. And though Bree couldnt siold the story of the fight at Zalindreh.
And Lucy told again (they had all, except Aravis and Cor, heard it many times but they all wa again) the tale of the Wardrobe and how she and King Edmund and Queen Susan aer the High King had first e into Narnia.
And presently, as was certain to happen sooner or later, King Lune said if was time for young people to be in bed. "And tomorrow, Cor," he added, "shalt e over all the castle with me藏书网 ahe estres and mark all its strength and weakness: for it will be thio guard when Im gone.”
"But will be the King then, Father," said Cor.
"Nay, lad," said King Lune, "thou art my heir. The es to thee.”
"But I dont want it," said Cor. "Id far rather-”
"Tis no question what thou wa, Cor, nor I either. Tis in the course of law.”
"But if were twins we must be the same age.”
"Nay," said the King with a laugh. "One must e first. Art s elder by full twenty minutes. And his better too, lets hope, th?９9lｉb.ough thats no great mastery." And he looked at with a twinkle in his eyes.
"But, Father, couldnt you make whichever you like to be the King?”
"No. The kings uhe law, for its the law makes him a king. Hast no more power to start away from thy than ary from his post.”
"Oh dear," said Cor. "I dont want to at all. And - I am most dreadfully sorry. I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom.”
"Hurrah! Hurrah!" said . "I shant have to be King. I shant have to be King. Ill always be a pris princes have all the fun.”
"And thats truer than thy brother knows, Cor," said King Lune. "For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attad last in every desperate retreat, and when theres hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a stier meal than any man in your land.”
Whewo boys were going upstairs to bed Cain asked if nothing could be done about it. And said: "If you say another word ab.9９ｌib.out it, Ill - Ill knock you down.”
It would be o end the story by saying that after that the two brothers never disagreed about anything again, but I am afraid it would not be true. Iy they quarrelled and fought just about as often as any other two boys would, and all their fights ended (if they didnt begin) with Cetting knocked down. For though, when they had both grown up and bee swordsmen, Cor was the more dangerous man in battle, her he nor anyone else in the North tries could ever equal as a boxer. That was how he got his name of Thunder-Fist; and how he performed his great exploit against the Lapsed Bear of Stormness, which was really a Talking Bear but had gone back to Wild Bear habits. climbed up to its lair on the Narnian side of Stormness one winter day when the snow was on the hills and boxed it without a time-keeper for thirty-three rounds. And at the end it couldnt see out of its eyes and became a reformed character.
Aravis also had many quarrels (and, Im afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more vely. And after King Lunes death they made a good King and Queen of Arland and Ram the Great, the most famous of all the kings of Arland, was their son. Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia and both got married but not to one another. And there werent many months in whie or both of them didnt e trotting over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard.天涯在线书库《www.tianyabook.com》