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WHEN Shasta went through the gate he found a slope of grass and a little heather running up before him to some trees. He had nothing to think about now and no plans to make: he had only to run, and that was quite enough. His limbs were shaking, a terrible stitch was beginning in his side, and the sweat that kept dropping into his eyes blinded them and made them smart. He was unsteady on his feet too, and more than once he nearly turned his ankle on a loose stone.
The trees were thicker now than they had yet been and in the more open spaces there was bracken. The sun had gone in without making it any cooler. It had become one of those hot, grey days when there seem to be twice as many flies as usual. Shasta' s face was covered with them;he didn' t even try to shake them off-he had too much else to do.
Suddenly he heard a horn-not a great throbbing horn like the horns of Tashbaan but a merry call, Ti-ro-to-to-ho! Next moment he came out into a wide glade and found himself in a crowd of people.
At least, it looked a crowd to him. In reality there were about fifteen or twenty of them, all gentlemen in green hunting-dress, with their horses; some in the saddle and some standing by their horses' heads. In the centre someone was holding the stirrup for a man to mount. And the man he was holding it for was the jolliest, fat, apple-cheeked, twinkling-eyed King you could imagine.
As soon as Shasta came in sight this King forgot all about mounting his horse. He spread out his arms to Shasta, his face lit up, and he cried out in a great, deep voice that seemed to come from the bottom of his chest:
"Corin! My son! And on foot, and in rags! What—" "No," panted Shasta,shaking his head."Not Prince Corin.I-I-know I'm like him…saw his Highness in Tashbaan… sent his greetings."
The King was staring at Shasta with an extraordinary expression on his face.
"Are you K-King Lune ?"gasped Shasta.And then, without waiting for an answer,.Lord King-fly-Anvard shut the gates-enemies upon you-Rabadash and two hundred horse. "
"Have you assurance of this, boy ?"asked one of the other gentlemen.
"My own eyes,"said Shasta..I' ve seen them. Raced them all the way from Tashbaan."
"On foot ?"said the gentleman, raising his eyebrows a little.
"Horses-with the Hermit," said Shasta.
"Question him no more;Darrin,"said King Lune."I see truth in his face. We must ride for it, gentlemen. A spare horse there, for the boy. You can ride fast,friend ?"
For answer Shasta put his foot in the stirrup of the horse which had been led towards him and a moment later he was in the saddle. He had done it a hundred times with Bree in the last few weeks, and his mounting was very different now from what it had been on that first night when Bree had said that he climbed up a horse as if he were climbing a haystack.
He was pleased to hear the Lord Darrin say to the King,.The boy has a true horseman' s seat, Sire. I' ll warrant there' s noble blood in him."
"His blood, aye, there' s the point,"said the King. And he stared hard at Shasta again with that curious expression, almost a hungry expression, in his steady,grey eyes.
But by now-the whole party was moving off at a brisk canter. Shasta's seat was excellent but he was sadly puzzled what to do with his reins, for he had never touched the reins while he was on Bree' s back. But he looked very carefully out of the corners of his eyes to see what the others were doing (as some of us have done at parties when we weren' t quite sure which knife or fork we were meant to use) and tried to get his fingers right. But he didn' t dare to try really directing the horse;he trusted it would follow the rest.The horse was of course an ordinary horse,not a Talking Horse;but it had quite wits enough to realize that the strange boy on its back had no whip and no spurs and was not really master of the situation. That was why Shasta soon found himself at the tail end of the procession.
Even so, he was going pretty fast. There were no flies now and the air in his face was delicious. He had got his breath back too. And his errand had succeeded. For the first time since the arrival at Tashbaan (how long ago it seemed !) he was beginning to enjoy himself.
He looked up to see how much nearer the mountain tops had come. To his disappointment he could not see them at all: only a vague greyness, rolling down towards them. He had never been in mountain country before and was surprised. "It's a cloud," he said to himself, "a cloud coming down. I see. Up here in the hills one is really in the sky. I shall see what the inside of a cloud is like. What fun ! I' ve often wondered."Far away on his left and a little behind him, the sun was getting ready to set.
They had come to a rough kind of road by now and were making very good speed. But Shasta' s horse was still the last of the lot. Once or twice when the road made a bend (there was now continuous forest on each side of it) he lost sight of the others for a second or two.
Then they plunged into the fog, or else the fog rolled over them. The world became grey. Shasta had not realized how cold and wet the inside of a cloud would be;nor how dark. The grey turned to black with alarming speed.
Someone at the head of the column winded the horn every now and then, and each time the sound came from a little farther off. He couldn' t see any of the others now, but of course he' d be able to as soon as he got round the next bend. But when he rounded it he still couldn' t see them. In fact he could see nothing at all. His horse was walking now. "Get on, Horse, get on," said Shasta. Then came the horn, very faint. Bree had always told him that he must keep his heels well turned out, and Shasta had got the idea that something very terrible would happen if he dug his heels into a horse' s sides.This seemed to him an occasion for trying it.
"Look here, Horse," he said,"if you don'tbuck up, do you know what I' ll do ? I' ll dig my heels into you. I really will."The horse, however, took no notice of this threat. So Shasta settled himself firmly in the saddle, gripped with his knees, clenched his teeth, and punched both the horse' s sides with his heels as hard as he could.
The only result was that the horse broke into a kind of pretence of a trot for five or six paces and then subsided into a walk again. And now it was quite dark and they seemed to have given up blowing that horn. The only sound was a steady drip-drip from the branches of the trees.
"Well, I suppose even a walk will get us somewhere sometime," said Shasta to himself. "I only hope I shan't run into Rabadash and his people."
He went on for what seemed a long time, always at a walking pace.He began to hate that horse,and he was also beginning to feel very hungry.
Presently he came to a place where the road divided into two. He was just wondering which led to Anvard when he was startled by a noise from behind him. It was the noise of trotting horses. "Rabadash !" thought Shasta. He had no way of guessing which road Rabadash would take..But if I take one,"said Shasta to himself,.he may take the other: and if I stay at the cross-roads I' m sure to be caught."He dismounted and led his horse as quickly as he could along the right-hand road.
The sound of the cavalry grew rapidly nearer and in a minute or two Shasta realized that they were at the crossroads. He held his breath,waiting to see which way they would take.
There came a low word of command.Halt !"then a moment of horsey noises-nostrils blowing, hoofs pawing, bits being champed,necks being patted.Then a voice spoke.
"Attend,all of you,"it said..We are now within a furlong of the castle.Remember your orders. Once we are in Narnia, as we should be by sunrise,you are to kill as little as possible. On this venture you are to regard every drop of Narnian blood as more precious than a gallon of your own. On this venture,I say. The gods will send us a happier hour and then you must leave nothing alive between Cair Paravel and the Western Waste. But we are not yet in Narnia.Here in Archenland it is another thing. In the assault on this castle of King Lune' s, nothing matters but speed. Show your mettle.It must be mine within an hour.And if it is, I give it all to you.I reserve no booty for myself.Kill me every barbarian male within its walls, down to the child that was born yesterday, and everything else is yours to divide as you please-the women, the gold, the jewels, the weapons, and the wine. The man that I see hanging back when we come to the gates shall be burned alive. In the name of Tash the irresistible, the inexorable forward !"
With a great cloppitty-clop the column began to move, and Shasta breathed again.They had taken the other road.
Shasta thought they took a long time going past, for though he had been talking and thinking about.two hundred horse"all day, he had not realized how many they really were. But at last the sound died away and once more he was alone amid the drip-drip from the trees.
He now knew the way to Anvard but of course he could not now go there: that would only mean running into the arms of Rabadash' s troopers..What on earth am I to do ?"said Shasta to himself. But he remounted his horse and continued along the road he had chosen, in the faint hope of finding some cottage where he might ask for shelter and a meal. He had thought, of course, of going back to Aravis and Bree and Hwin at the hermitage, but he couldn' t because by now he had not the least idea of the direction.
