CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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HOW BREE BECAME A WISER HORSE WE must now return to Aravis and the Horses. The Hermit, watching his pool, was able to tell them that Shasta was not killed or even seriously wounded, for he saw him get up and saw how affectionately he was greeted by King Lune. But as he could only see, not hear, he did not know what anyone was saying and, once the fighting had stopped and the talking had begun, it was not worth while looking in the pool any longer.

Next morning, while the Hermit was indoors, the three of them discussed what they should do next.

"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 pony, eating all day and getting 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 shouldnt we start at once? After all, I thought it was Narnia we all wanted to get to?”

"I suppose so," said Aravis. She was beginning to wonder what exactly she would do when she got there and was feeling a little lonely.

"Of course, of course," said Bree hastily. "But theres no need to 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 country - 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 Mane, Tarkheena, Im nothing of the sort," said Bree indignantly. "I have a proper respect for myself and for my fellow horses, thats all.”

"Bree," said Aravis, who was not very interested in the cut 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 Witch and 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 understand that at your age," said Bree. "And I was only a little foal when I left so I dont quite fully understand it myself.”

(Bree was standing with his back to the green wall while he said this, and the other two were facing him. He was talking in rather a superior tone with his eyes half shut; that was why he didnt see the changed 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 balance itself on the top 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 once it jumped down inside the wall and began approaching Bree from behind. It made no noise at all. And Hwin and Aravis couldnt make any noise themselves, no more than if they were frozen.)

"No doubt," continued 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. Indeed it 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 turned; the wall was too high for him to jump and he could fly no farther. Aravis and Hwin both started back.

There was about a second of intense silence.

Then Hwin, though shaking all over, gave a strange little 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 on her twitching, velvet nose, "I knew you would not be long in coming 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 Human either. 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 needed to know what it felt like.”

"Yes, sir. Please-”

"Ask on, my dear," said Aslan.

"Will any more harm come 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.

Strange to say, they felt no inclination 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 alone, thinking.

About half an hour later the two Horses were summoned to the back of the house to eat something nice that 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 Archenland," said a voice from outside.

Aravis undid the door and opened it, 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 Archenland 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 Prince it was. Aravis curtsied in the Calormene style (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 tunic beneath 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 once turned 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 come 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. Corin being so like me. We were twins, you see. Oh, and my name isnt Shasta, its Cor.”

"Cor is a nicer name than Shasta," said Aravis.

"Brothers names run like that in Archenland," said Shasta (or Prince Cor as we must now call him). "Like Dar and Darrin, Cole and Colin 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 change before I knew you were a Prince, honestly I did: when you went back, and faced the Lion.”

"It wasnt really going to kill you at all, that Lion," said Cor.

"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 forgot! 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 in the battle," 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 anything yet 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, Corin and I were twins. And about a week after we were both born, apparently, they took us to a wise old Centaur in Narnia to be blessed or something. Now this Centaur was a prophet as a good many Centaurs are. Perhaps you havent seen any Centaurs yet? There were some in the battle yesterday. Most remarkable people, but I cant 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 countries.”

"Yes, there are," said Aravis. "But get on with the story.”

"Well, as soon as he saw Corin and me, it seems this Centaur looked at me and said, A day will come when that boy will save Archenland 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 Chancellor. And apparently hed done something wrong - bezzling or some word like that - I didnt understand that part very well - and Father had had to dismiss him. But nothing else was done to him and he was allowed to go on living in Archenland. But he must have been as bad as he could be, for it came out afterwards he had been in the pay of the Tisroc and had sent a lot of secret information to Tashbaan. So as soon as he heard I was going to save Archenland from a great danger he decided I must be put out of the

way. Well, he succeeded in kidnapping me (I dont exactly 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 and he put 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 within twenty 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 oclock in the morning till sunset. 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 morning, as soon as he saw he was certain to be overhauled, Bar had given me to one of his knights and sent 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 knew that knights name, for he must have kept me alive and starved himself to do it.”

"I suppose Aslan would say that was part of someone elses story," said Aravis.

"I was forgetting that," said Cor.

"And I wonder how the prophecy will work out," said Aravis, "and what the great danger is that youre to save Archenland from.”

"Well," said Cor rather awkwardly, "they seem to think Ive done it already.”

Aravis clapped her hands. "Why, of course!" she said. "How stupid I am. And how wonderful! Archenland can never be in much greater danger than it was when Rabadash had crossed the Arrow with his two hundred horse and you hadnt yet 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 forgotten what I came about. Father wants you to come and live with us. He says theres been no lady in the court (they call it the court, I dont know why) since Mother died. Do, Aravis. Youll like Father - and Corin. Theyre not like me; theyve been properly brought up. You neednt be afraid that -”

"Oh stop it," said Aravis, "or well have a real fight. Of course Ill come.”

"Now lets go and see the Horses," said Cor.

There was a great and joyous meeting between 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 affectionate farewell to the Hermit and promised that they would soon visit him again. By about the middle of the morning they were on their way. The Horses had expected that Aravis and Cor would ride, but Cor explained that except in war, where everyone must do what he can do best, no one in Narnia or Archenland ever dreamed of mounting a Talking Horse.

This reminded poor Bree again of how little he knew about Narnian customs and what dreadful mistakes he might make. So while Hwin strolled along in a happy dream, Bree got more nervous and more self-conscious 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 dancing and history and music while youll be galloping and rolling on the hills of Narnia to your hearts content.”

"But thats just the point," groaned Bree. "Do Talking Horses roll? Supposing they dont?

I cant 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 near that castle?" said Bree to Cor.

"Round the next 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 bracken.

"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 horse going to a funeral than a long-lost captive returning to home and freedom.