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"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 waking next morning and finding his birds flown !"said Peridan, clapping his hands.
"Oh Master Tumnus,dear Master Tumnus," said the Queen,catching 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.
"That's the least of my fears," said Edmund. "I have seen all the shipping in the river and there' s 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 no better plot than the Faun' s though we sat in council for seven days. And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs. 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, your Highness, 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 never telling grown-ups anything if he could help it: he thought they would always spoil or stop whatever you were trying to do. And he thought that even if the Narnian King might be friendly to the two horses, because they were Talking Beasts of Narnia, he would hate Aravis, because she was a Calormene, and either sell her for a slave or send her back to her father. As for himself, "I simply daren't tell them I'm not Prince Corin now," thought Shasta. "I've heard all their plans. If they knew I wasn't one of themselves, they'd never let me out of this house alive. They' d be afraid I' d betray them to the Tisroc. They'd kill me. And if the real Corin turns up, it'll all come 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 comes that goaty little creature again. "
The Faun trotted in, half dancing, with a tray in its hands which was nearly as large as itself. This he set on an inlaid table beside Shasta's sofa, and sat down himself on the carpeted floor with his goaty legs crossed.
"Now,princeling/' he said. "Make a good dinner. It will be your last meal in Tashbaan."
It was a fine meal after the Calormene fashion. I don' t know whether you would have liked it or not, but Shasta did. There were lobsters, and salad, and snipe stuffed with almonds and truffles, and a complicated dish made of chickenlivers and rice and raisins and nuts, and there were cool melons and gooseberry fools and mulberry fools, and every kind of nice thing that can be made with ice. There was also a little flagon of the sort of wine that 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 fine times he would have when they all got home;about his good old father King Lune of Archenland and the little castle where he lived on the southern slopes of the pass. "And don't forget," said Mr.Tumnus,"that you are promised your first suit of armour and your first war horse on your next birthday. And then your Highness will begin to learn how to tilt and joust. And in a few years, if all goes well,King Peter has promised your royal father that he himself will make you Knight at Cair Paravel. And in the meantime there will be plenty of comings and goings between Narnia and Archenland across the neck of the mountains. And of course you remember you have promised to come for a whole week to stay with me for the Summer Festival, and there'll 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 wouldn't do you any harm to have a little sleep," he added. "I'll call you in plenty 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 Corin 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 Corin 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 can I help it ?" and, "anyway, that Aravis thinks she's too good to go about with me, so she can jolly well go alone," and at the same time he couldn' t help feeling that it would be much nicer 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 windowsill 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 Shasta' s own age sitting astride the sill with one leg hanging down inside the room.
Shasta had never seen his own face in 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 finest black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which must have been splendid ones when he put them on) were torn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face.
"Who are you ?" said the boy in a whisper.
"Are you Prince Corin ?" said Shasta.
"Yes, of course," said the other. "But who are you ?"
"I'm nobody,nobody in particular,I mean," said Shasta."King Edmund caught me in the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another. Can I get out the way you' ve got in ?"
"Yes, if you're any good at climbing," said Corin. "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 change places at once. It' ll be simply frightful if Mr. Tumnus comes back and finds us both here.I' ve had to pretend to be you.And you' re starting tonight-secretly.And where were you all this time ?"
"A boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan," said Prince Corin, "so I knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother came out. So I knocked the big brother down. Then they all followed me until we ran into three old men with spears who are called the Watch. So I fought the Watch and they knocked me down. It was getting dark by now. Then the Watch took me along to lock me up somewhere. So I asked them if they' d like a stoup of wine and they said they didn' t 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-the 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 morning. Ever since that I' ve 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. There's not a minute to lose. You'd better lie down on the sofa and pretend—but I forgot. It'll be no good with all those bruises and black eye. You'll just have to tell them the truth, once I'm safely away. "
"What else did you think I'd be telling them ?" asked the Prince with a rather angry look. "And who are you ?"
"There's no time," said Shasta in a frantic whisper. "I'm a Narnian,I believe;something Northern anyway.But I've been brought up all my life in Calormen. And I'm escaping: across the desert;with a talking Horse called Bree.And now, quick ! How do I get away ?"
"Look," said Corin. "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 can get up to the top of that wall if you' re any good at all as a climber. Then along the wall to the corner. 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 other' s faces and suddenly found that they were friends.
"Good-bye," said Corin. "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;lightly I say," he added as Shasta dropped. "I hope we meet in Archenland.
Go to my father King Lune and tell him you're a friend of mine. Look out !I hear someone coming."
