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. "Its a cloud," he said to himself, "a cloud coming down. I see. Up here in the hills one is really in the sky.

"How do you know?”

Shasta had not realized how cold and wet the inside of a cloud would be; nor how dark.

"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 Lunes, nothing matters but speed. Show your mettle. It must be mine

"Dont you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said Shasta.

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 then he told 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. And he told 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.

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.

"There was only one lion," said the Voice.

"You might call me a giant," said the Large Voice. "But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”

"But what for?”

"There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

"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.

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.

For answer Shasta put his foot in the stirrup of the horse which had been led towards him and a moment later he was i九_九_藏_书_网n 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.

"His blood, aye, theres 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.

The King was staring at Shasta with an extraordinary expression on his face.

"I was the lion." And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted 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 new strength 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.”

With a great cloppitty-clop the column began to move, and Shasta breathed again. They had taken the other road.

"My own eyes," said Shasta. "Ive seen them. Raced them all the way from Tashbaan.”

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 Im sure to be caught." He dismounted and led his horse as quickly as he could along the right-hand road.

Luckily Shasta had lived all his life too far south in Calormen 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 glance at 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 neednt say anything.

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.

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.

"Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”

Then they plunged into ９9ｌiｂ•ｎｅtthe fog, or else the fog rolled over them. The world became grey.

THE UNWELCOME FELLOW TRAVELLER

He was pleased to hear the Lord Darrin say to the King, "The boy has a true horsemans seat, Sire. Ill warrant theres noble blood in him.”

"Who are you?" asked Shasta.

But by now -the whole party was moving off at a brisk canter. Shastas 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 Brees 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 werent quite sure which knife or fork we were meant to use) and tried to get his fingers right. But he didnt 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.

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.

They had come to a rough kind of road by now and were making very good speed. But Shastas 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.

"I cant see you at all," said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come 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!”

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 noticing anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. Somewhere ahead he could hear birds singing. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily 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 horses sides. This seemed to him an occasion for trying it. "Look here, Horse," he said, "if you dont buck up, do you know what Ill do? Ill dig my heels into you. I really will." The horse, however, took n九*九*藏*书*网o notice of this threat. So Shasta settled himself firmly in the saddle, gripped with his knees, clenched his teeth, and punched both the horses sides with his heels as hard as he could.

"No," panted Shasta, shaking his head. "Not Prince Corin. I - I - know Im like him... saw his Highness in Tashbaan... sent his greetings.”

Yet he felt glad too.

At least, it looked a crowd to him. In reality there were about fifteen or twenty of them, all gentlemen in green huntingdress, 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, applecheeked, twinkling eyed King you could imagine.

"I do think," said Shasta, "that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything goes right 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.”

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 horse gallop. So he went on at a walking pace and the unseen companion walked and breathed beside him. At last he could bear it no longer.

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.”

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. Shastas face was covered with them; he didnt even try to shake them off - he had too much else to do.

He turned and saw, pacing 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.

Horses-with the Hermit," said Shasta.

No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.

The Thing (unless it was a Person) went on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it. But just as he was becoming 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.

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 f99lib•netrom the bottom of his chest: "Corin! My son! And on foot, and in rags! What-”

notice this breathing so gradually that he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock.

The High King above all kings stooped towards him. Its mane, and some strange and solemn perfume that hung about the mane, was all round him. It touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted his face and 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 alone with the horse on a grassy hillside under a blue sky. And there were birds singing.

"Child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”

I shall see what the inside of a cloud is like. What fun! Ive often wondered." Far away on his left and a little behind him, the sun was getting ready to set.

What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch 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 companion seemed to breathe on a very large scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had come to

"Myself," said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again "Myself", loud and clear and gay: and then the third time "Myself", whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.

"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?”

"Who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper.

"It was I”

It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in these Northern countries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had something to cry about, he stopped crying.

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 couldnt see any of the others now, but of course hed be able to as soon as he got round the next bend. But when he rounded it he still couldnt see them. In fact he could see nothing at all. His horse was walking now.

But that all depends on what you mean by somewhere. The road kept on getting to somewhere in the sense that 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 been used to mountain country he would have realized that this meant he was now 九_九_藏_书_网very high up - perhaps right at the top of the pass. But Shasta knew nothing about mountains.

The grey turned to black with alarming speed.

"After all," said Shasta, "this road is bound to get to somewhere.”

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!”

"What on earth do you mean? Ive just told you there were at least two the first night, and-”

"Are you- are you a giant?" asked Shasta.

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 Rabadashs 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 couldnt because by now he had not the least idea of the direction.

Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to 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.

A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun.

And being very tired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Well, I suppose even a walk will get us somewhere sometime," said Shasta to himself. "I only hope I shant run into Rabadash and his people.”

"One who has waited long for you to speak," said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.

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.

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.

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.

"I do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.

"On foot?" said the gentleman, raising his eyebrows a little.