CHAPTER TWELVE
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THROUGH THE STABLE DOOR JILL ought to have been back at the white rock already but she had quite fotten that part of her orders in the excitement of watg the fight. Now she remembered. She tur ond ran to it, and arrived there barely a sed before the others. It thus happehat all of them, for a moment, had their backs to the enemy. They all wheeled round the moment they had reached it. A terrible sight met their eyes.A ene was running towards the stable door carrying something that kicked and struggled. As he came between them and the fire they could see clearly both the shape of the man and the shape of what he carried. It was Eustace.
Tirian and the Uni rushed out to rescue him. But the ene was now far o the door then they. Before they had covered half the distance he had flua and shut the door on him. Half a dozen more enes had run up behind him. They formed a line on the open space before the stable. There was ing at it now.
Even then Jill remembered to keep her face turned aside, well away from her bow. "Even if I t stop blubbing, I wo my stri," she said.
"Ware arrows," said Poggin suddenly.
Everyone ducked and pulled his helmet well over his he Dogs crouched behind. But though a few arrows came their way it soon became clear that they were not being shot at. Griffle and his Dwarfs were at their archery again. This time they were coolly shooting at the enes.
"Keep it up, boys!" came Griffles voice. "All together. Carefully. We dont want Darkies any more than we want Monkeys - or Lions - or Kings. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”
Whatever else you may say about Dwarfs, no one say they arent brave. They could easily have got away to some safe place. They preferred to stay and kill as many of both sides as they could, except when both sides were kind enough to save them trouble by killing one ahey wanted Narnia for their own.
erhaps they had not taken into at was that the enes were mail-clad and the Horses had had no prote. Also the enes had a leader. Rishda Tarkaans voice cried out: "Thirty of you keep wat those fools by the white rock. The rest, after me, that we may teach these sons of earth a lesson.”
Tirian and his friends, still panting from their fight and thankful for a few minutes rest, stood and looked on while the Tarkaan led his men against the Dwarfs. It was a strange se by now. The fire had sunk lower: the light it gave was now less and of a darker red.
As far as one could see, the whole place of assembly was y except for the Dwarf and the enes. In that light one couldnt make out much of what was happening. It sounded as if the Dwarfs were putting up a good fight. Tirian could hear Griffle using dreadful language, and every now and thearkaan calling, "Take all you alive! Take them alive!”
Whatever that fight may have been like, it did not last long. The noise of it died away.
Then Jill saw the Tarkaan ing back to the stable: eleven men followed him, dragging eleven bound Dwarfs. (Whether the others had all been killed, or whether some of them had got away, was never known.)
"Throw them into the shrine of Tash," said Rishda Tarkaan.
And when the eleven Dwarfs, oer the other, had been flung or kicked into that dark doorway and the door had been shut again, he bowed low to the stable and said: "These also are for thy burnt , Lord Tash.”
And all the enes bahe flats of their swords on their shields and shouted, "Tash! Tash! The great god Tash! Inexorable Tash!" (There was no nonsense about "Tashlan" now.)
The little party by the white rock watched these doings and whispered to one another.
They had found a trickle of water ing down the rod all had drunk eagerly - Jill and Poggin and the King in their hands, while the four-footed ones lapped from the little pool which it had made at the foot of the stone. Such was their thirst that it seemed the most delicious drink they had ever had in their lives, and while they were drinking they were perfectly happy and could not think of anything else.
"I feel in my bones," said Poggin, "that we shall all, one by one, pass through that dark door before m. I think of a hundred deaths I would rather have died.”
"It is indeed a grim door," said Tirian. "It is more like a mouth.”
"Oh, t we do anything to stop it?" said Jill in a shaken voice.
"Nay, fair friend," said Jewel, nosing her gently. "It may be for us the door to Aslans try and we shall sup at his table tonight.”
Rishda Tarkaan turned his ba the stable and walked slowly to a place in front of the white rock.
"Hearken," he said. "If the Boar and the Dogs and the Uni will e over to me and put themselves in my mercy, their lives shall be spared. The Boar shall go to a cage iisrocs garden, the Dogs to The Tisrocs kennels, and the Uni, when I have sawn his horn off, shall draw a cart. But the Eagle, the children, and he who was the King shall be offered to Tash this night.”
The only answer was growls.
"Get on, warriors," said the Tarkaan. "Kill the beasts, but take the two- legged ones alive.”
And then the last battle of the last King of Narnia began.
What made it hopeless, even apart from the numbers of the enemy, was the spears. The enes who had been with the Ape almost from the beginning had had no spears: that was because they had e into Narnia by ones and twos, pretending to be peaceful merts, and of course they had carried no spears for a spear is not a thing you hide. The new ones must have e in later, after the Ape was already strong and they could march openly. The spears made all the difference. With a long spear you kill a boar before you are in reach of his tusks and a uni before you are in reach of his horn; if you are very quid keep your head. And now the levelled spears were closing in on Tirian and his last friends. mihey were all fighting for their lives.
In a way it wasnt quite so bad as you might think.
When you are using every muscle to the full - dug under a spear-point here, leaping over it there, lunging forward, drawing back, wheeling round - you havent much time to feel either frightened or sad. Tirian knew he could do nothing for the others now; they were all doomed together. He vaguely saw the Bo down on one side of him, and Jewel fighting furiously oher. Out of the er of one eye he saw, but only just saw, a big ene pulling Jill away somewhere by her hair. But he hardly thought about any of these things. His only thought now was to sell his life as dearly as he could.
The worst of it was that he couldo the position in which he had started, uhe white rock. A man who is fighting a dozen e once must take his ces wherever he ; must dart in wherever he sees an enemys breast or neck unguarded. In a very few strokes this may get you quite a distance from the spot where you began. Tirian soon found that he was getting further and further to the right, o the stable. He had a vague idea in his mind that there was some good reason for keeping away from it. But he couldnt now remember what the reason was. And anyway, he couldnt help it.
All at once everything came quite clear. He found he was fighting the Tarkaan himself.
The bonfire (what was left of it) was straight in front. He was in fact fighting in the very doorway of the stable, for it had been opened and two enes were holding the door, ready to slam it shut the moment he was inside. He remembered everything now, and he realized that the enemy had been edging him to the stable on purpose ever sihe fight began. And while he was thinking this he was still fighting the Tarkaan as hard as he could.
A new idea came into Tirians head. He dropped his sword, darted forward, in uhe sweep of the Tarkaans scimitar, seized his enemy by the belt with both hands, and jumped bato the stable, shouting: "e in aash yourself!”
There was a deafening noise. As when the Ape had been flung in, the earth shook and there was a blinding light.
The ene soldiers outside screamed. "Tash, Tash!" and bahe door. If Tash waheir otain, Tash must have him. They, at any rate, did not want to meet Tash.
For a moment or two Tirian did not know where he was or even who he was. Theeadied himself, blinked, and looked around. It was not dark ihe stable,<dfn></dfn> as he had expected. He was in strong light: that was why he was blinking.
He turo look at Rishda Tarkaan, but Rishda was not looking at him. Rishda gave a great wail and poihe his hands before his fad fell flat, face downwards, on the ground. Tirian looked in the dire where the Tarkaan had pointed.
And then he uood.
A terrible figure was ing towards them. It was far smaller than the shape they had seen from the Tower, though still much bigger than a man, and it was the same. It had a vultures head and four arms. Its beak en and its eyes blazed. A croaking voice came from its beak.
"Thou hast called me into Narnia, Rishda Tarkaan. Here I am. What hast thou to say?”
But the Tarkaaher lifted his face from the ground nor said a word. He was shaking like a man with a bad hiccup. He was brave enough in battle: but half his ce had left him earlier that night when he first began to suspect that there might be a real Tash. The rest of it had left him now.
With a sudden jerk -like a hen stooping to pick up a worm - Tash pounced on the miserable Rishda and tucked him uhe upper of his twht arms. Then Tash turned his head sidewise to fix Tirian with one of his terrible eyes: for of course, having a birds head, he couldnt look at you straight.
But immediately, from behind Tash, strong and calm as the summer sea, a voice said: "Begone, Monster, and take your lawful prey to your own place: in the name of Aslan and Aslans great Father the Emperor-over-the-Sea.”
The hideous creature vanished, with the Tarkaan still us arm. And Tirian turo see who had spoken.
And what he saw the his heart beating as it had never beaten in any fight.
Seven Kings and Queens stood before him, all with s on their heads and all in glittering clothes, but the Kings wore fine mail as well and had their swords drawn in their hands. Tirian bowed courteously and was about to speak when the you of the Queens laughed. He stared hard at her face, and then gasped with amazement, for he knew her. It was Jill: but not Jill as he had last seen her, with her face all dirt and tears and an old drill dress half slipping off one shoulder. Now she looked cool and fresh, as fresh as if she had just e from bathing. And at first he thought she looked older, but then didnt, and he could e>..</cite>ver make up his mind on that point. And then he saw that the you of the Kings was Eustace: but he also was ged as Jill was ged.
Tirian suddenly felt awkward about ing among these people with the blood and dust and sweat of a battle still on him. moment he realized that he was not in that state at all. He was fresh and cool and , and dressed in such clothes as he would have worn freat feast at Cair Paravel. (But in Narnia yood clothes were never your unfortable ohey knew how to make things that felt beautiful as well as lookiiful in Narnia: and there was no such thing as starch or flannel or elastic to be found from one end of the try to the other.)
"Sire," said Jill ing forward and making a beautiful curtsey, "let me make you known to Peter the High King over all Kings in Narnia.”
Tirian had o ask which was the High King, for he remembered his face (though here it was far nobler) from his dream. He stepped forward, sank on one knee and kissed Peters hand.
"High King," he said. "You are wele to me.”
And the High King raised him and kissed him on both cheeks as a High King should.
Then he led him to the eldest of the Queens - but even she was not old, and there were no grey hairs on her head and no wrinkles on her cheek - and said, "Sir, this is that Lady Polly who came into Narnia on the First Day, when Aslan made the trees grow and the Beasts talk." He brought him o a man whose golden beard flowed over his breast and whose face was full of wisdom. "And this," he said, "is the Lord Digory ith her on that day. And this is my brother, King Edmund: and this my sister, the Queen Lucy.”
"Sir," said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. "If I have read the icle aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?”
"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia.”
"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever youve tried to get her to e and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, `What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.“
"Oh Susan!" said Jill. "Shes ied in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstid invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.”
"Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and shell waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to ra to the silliest time of ones life as quick as she and then stop bbr></abbr>there as long as she .”
"Well, doalk about that now," said Peter. "Look! Here are lovely fruit-trees. Let us taste them.”
And then, for the first time, Tirian looked about him and realized how very queer this adventure was.
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