CHAPTER FOURTEEN HOW BREE BECAME A WISER HORSE（第2/4页）

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,"I'm 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 stepmother s 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 ! It's Shasta !"

Shasta all at once turned very red and began speaking very quickly."Look here, Aravis,"he said,"I do hope you won t think I m got up like this (and the trumpeter and all) to try to impress you or make out that I m different or any rot of that sort. Because I d far rather have come in my old clothes, but they re 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 isn t Shasta,it s 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. There s something I ve got to say at once.I m sorry I ve 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 wasn't 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 Asian.

Suddenly Aravis remembered Cor's bandaged hand. "I say !" she cried,"I forgot!You've 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 isn't 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 wasn't at all like what I thought," said Cor.

"But Sha-Cor,I mean-you haven't told me anything yet about King Lune and how he found out who you were. "

"Well, let's sit down," said Cor. "For it's rather a long story. And by the way, Father's an absolute brick. I'd be just as pleased-or very nearly-at finding he' s my father even if he wasn't 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 haven't seen any Centaurs yet ? There were some in the battle yesterday. Most remarkable people,but I can't 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."