CHAPTER THREE AT THE GATES OF TASHBAAN（第3/4页）

"Oh, yes, Alimash, he was only captain of the chariots, you know. I don' t quite hold with chariots or the kind of horses who draw chariots. That's not real cavalry. But he is a worthy nobleman. He filled my nosebag with sugar after the taking of Teebeth." Or else Bree would say, "I was down at the lake of Mezreel that summer," and Aravis would say, "Oh, Mezreel! I had a friend there, Lasaraleen Tarkheena. What a delightful place it is. Those gardens, and the Valley of the Thousand Perfumes !" Bree was not in the least trying to leave Shasta out of things, though Shasta sometimes nearly thought he was. People who know a lot of the same things can hardly help talking about them, and if you' re there you can hardly help feeling that you' re out of it.

Hwin the mare was rather shy before a great warhorse like Bree and said very little. And Aravis never spoke to Shasta at all if she could help it.

Soon, however, they had more important things to think of. They were getting near Tashbaan. There were more, and larger, villages, and more people on the roads. They now did nearly all their travelling by night and hid as best they could during the day. And at every halt they argued and argued about what they were to do when they reached Tashbaan. Everyone had been putting off this difficulty, but now it could be put off no longer. During these discussions Aravis became a little, a very little, less unfriendly to Shasta;one usually gets on better with people when one is making plans than when one is talking about nothing in particular.

Bree said the first thing now to do was to fix a place where they would all promise to meet on the far side of Tashbaan even if, by any ill luck, they got separated in passing the city. He said the best place would be the Tombs of the Ancient Kings on the very edge of the desert. "Things like great stone beehives”he said,

"you can't possibly miss them. And the best of it is that none of the Calormenes will go near them because they think the place is haunted by ghouls and are afraid of it."Aravis asked if it wasn' t really haunted by ghouls. But Bree said he was a free Narnian horse and didn' t believe in these Calormene tales. And then Shasta said he wasn' t a Calormene either and didn' t care a straw about these old stories of ghouls. This wasn' t quite true. But it rather impressed Aravis (though at the moment it annoyed her too) and of course she said she didn' t mind any number of ghouls either. So it was settled that the Tombs should be their assembly place on the other side of Tashbaan, and everyone felt they were getting on very well till Hwin humbly pointed out that the real problem was not where they should go when they had got through Tashbaan but how they were to get through it.

"We'll settle that tomorrow,Ma'am," said Bree. "Time for a little sleep now."

But it wasn' t easy to settle. Aravis' s first suggestion was that they should swim across the river below the city during the night and not go into Tashbaan at all. But Bree had two reasons against this. One was that the river-mouth was very wide and it would be far too long a swim for Hwin to do,especially with a rider on her

back. (He thought it would be too long for himself too, but he said much less about that). The other was that it would be full of shipping and of course anyone on the deck of a ship who saw two horses swimming past would be almost certain to be inquisitive.

Shasta thought they should go up the river above Tashbaan and cross it where it was narrower. But Bree explained that there were gardens and pleasure houses on both banks of the river for miles and that there would be Tarkaans and Tarkheenas living in them and riding about the roads and having water parties on the river. In fact it would be the most likely place in the world for meeting someone who would recognize Aravis or even himself.

"We' ll have to have a disguise,"said Shasta. Hwin said it looked to her as if the safest thing was to go right through the city itself from gate to gate because one was less likely to be noticed in the crowd. But she approved of the idea of disguise as well. She said, "both the human will have to dress in rags and look like peasants or slaves And all Aravis' s armour and our saddles and things must be made into bundles and put on our backs, and the children must pretend to drive us and people will think we' re on pack-horses."

"My dear Hwin !" said Aravis rather scornfully. "As if anyone could mistake Bree for anything but a warhors however you disguised him !"

"I should think not, indeed," said Bree, snorting an letting his ears go ever so little back.

"I know it's not a very good plan," said Hwin."But I think it' s our only chance. And we haven' t been groomed for ages and we' re not looking quite ourselves (at least, I' m sure I' m not). I do think if we get well plastered with mud and go along with our heads down as if we' re tired and lazy-and don' t lift our hooves hardly at all-we might not be noticed. And our tails ought to be cut shorter: not neatly, you know, but all ragged. "