Fear: The Horse and His Boy

Chapter 6

"It was quite unlike any other party they had seen that day. The crier who went before it shouting "Way, way!" was the only Calormene in it. And there was no litter; everyone was on foot.

There were about half a dozen men and Shasta had never seen anyone like them before. For one thing, they were all as fair-skinned as himself and Alvina, and most of them had fair hair. And they were not dressed like men of Calormen.

Most of them had legs bare to the knee. Their tunics were of fine, bright, hardy colours—woodland green, or gay yellow, or fresh blue.

Instead of turbans they wore steel or silver caps, some of them set with jewels, and one with little wings on each side of it.

A few were bare-headed. The swords at their sides were long and straight, not curved like Calormene scimitars.

And instead of being grave and mysterious like most Calormenes, they walked with a swing and let their arms and shoulders go free, and chatted and laughed. One was whistling.

You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and didn't give a fig for anyone who wasn't.

Shasta thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life.

But there was no time to enjoy it for at once a really dreadful thing happened. The leader of the fair-headed men suddenly pointed at Shasta, cried out, "There he is! There's our runaway!" and seized him by the shoulder. Alvina quickly tightened her grip around his waist.

Next moment he gave Shasta a smack—not a cruel one to make you cry but a sharp one to let you know you are in disgrace—and added, shaking him:

"Shame on you, my lord! Fie for shame! Queen Susan's eyes are red with weeping because of you. What! Truant for a whole night! Where have you been?"

Shasta would have darted under Bree's body and tried to make himself scarce in the crowd if he had had the least chance; but the fair-haired men were all round him by now and he was held firm.

Of course his first impulse was to say that he was only poor Arsheesh the fisherman's son and that the foreign lord must have mistaken him for someone else. But then, the very last thing he wanted to do in that crowded place was to start explaining who he was and what he was doing.

If he started on that, he would soon be asked where he had got his horse from, and who Aravis was—and then, good-bye to any chance of getting through Tashbaan.

His next impulse was to look at Bree and Alvina for help. But Bree had no intention of letting all that crowd know that he could talk, and stood looking just as stupid as a horse can. Alvina's eyes were wide and she looked as if she was about to cry as she held tightly onto his arm, the one not being held by the Narnian.

As for Aravis, Shasta did not even dare to look at her for fear of drawing attention. And there was no time to think, for the leader of the Narnians said at once:

"Take one of his little lordship's hands, Peridan, of your courtesy and I'll take the other."

This was the moment Alvina spoke. "No please, please don't separate us."

The Narnian leader looked in confusion at this girl. None of them knew who she was and they all wondered what she was doing with the boy they thought was the prince.

"Very well then, take my hand young maiden. And now, on. Our royal sister's mind will be greatly eased when she sees our young scapegrace safe in our lodging."

And so, before they were half-way through Tashbaan, all their plans were ruined, and without even a chance to say good-bye to the others Shasta and Alvina found themselves being marched off among strangers and quite unable to guess what might be going to happen next.