温馨提醒：系统正在全面升级。您可以访问最新站点。谢谢！
what might it do?
and then, as poggin pointed out, there was no harm in leaving the ape to deal with his own difficulties for a day or two. he would have no puzzle to bring out and show now. it
wasnt easy to see what story he - or ginger could make up to explain that. if the beasts asked night after night to see aslan, and no aslan was brought out, surely even the simplest of them would get suspicious.
in the end they all agreed that the best thing was to go off and try to meet roonwit.
as soon as they had decided this, it was wonderful how much more cheerful everyone became. i dont honestly think that this was because any of them was afraid of a fight (except perhaps jill and eustace). but i daresay that each of them, deep down inside, was very glad not to go any nearer - or not yet - to that horrible bird-headed thing which, visible or invisible, was now probably haunting stable hill. anyway, one always feels better when one has made up ones mind.
tirian said they had better remove their disguises, as they didnt want to be mistaken for calormenes and perhaps attacked by any loyal narnians they might meet. the dwarf made up a horrid-looking mess of ashes from the hearth and grease out of the jar of grease which was kept for rubbing on swords and spear-heads. then they took off their calormene armour and went down to the stream. the nasty mixture made a lather just like soft soap: it was a pleasant, homely sight to see tirian and the two children kneeling beside the water and scrubbing the backs of their necks or puffing and blowing as they splashed the lather off. then they went back to the tower with red, shiny faces, like people who have been given an extra good wash before a party. they re-armed themselves in true narnian style, with straight swords and three-cornered shields. "body of me," said tirian. "that is better. i feel a true man again.”
puzzle begged very hard to have the lion-skin taken off him. he said it was too hot and the way it was rucked up on his back was uncomfortable: also, it made him look so silly.
but they told him he would have to wear it a bit longer, for they still wanted to show him in that get-up to the other beasts, even though they were now going to meet roonwit first.
what was left of the pigeon-meat and rabbit-meat was not worth bringing away but they took some biscuits. then tirian locked the door of the tower and that was the end of their stay there.
it was a little after two in the afternoon when they set out, and it was the first really warm day of that spring. the young leaves seemed to be much further out than yesterday: the snow-drops were over, but they saw several primroses. the sunlight slanted through the trees, birds sang, and always (though usually out of sight) there was the noise of running water. it was hard to think of horrible things like tash. the children felt, "this is really narnia at last." even tirians heart grew lighter as he walked ahead of them, humming an old narnian marching song which had the refrain: ho, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble drum belaboured.
after the king came eustace and poggin the dwarf. poggin was telling eustace the names of all the narnian trees, birds, and plants which he didnt know already.
sometimes eustace would tell him about english ones.
after them came puzzle, and after him jill and jewel walking very close together. jill had, as you might say, quite fallen in love with the unicorn. she thought- and she wasnt far wrong - that he was the shiningest, delicatest, most graceful animal she had ever met: and he was so gentle and soft of speech that, if you hadnt known, you would hardly have believed how fierce and terrible he could be in battle.
"oh, this is nice!" said jill. "just walking along like this. i wish there could be more of this sort of adventure. its a pity theres always so much happening in narnia.”
but the unicorn explained to her that she was quite mistaken. he said that the sons and daughters of adam and eve were brought out of their own strange world into narnia only at times when narnia was stirred and upset, but she mustnt think it was always like that. in between their visits there were hundreds and thousands of years when peaceful king followed peaceful king till you could hardly remember their names or count their numbers, and there was really hardly anything to put into the history books. and he went on to talk of old queens and heroes whom she had never heard of. he spoke of swanwhite the queen who had lived before the days of the white witch and the great winter, who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards. he spoke of moonwood the hare who had such ears that he could sit by caldron pool under the thunder of the great waterfall and hear what men spoke in whispers at cair paravel.
he told how king gale, who was ninth in descent from frank the first of all kings, had sailed far away into the eastern seas and delivered the lone islanders from a dragon and how, in return, they had given him the lone islands to be part of the royal lands of narnia for ever. he talked of whole centuries in which all narnia was so happy that notable dances and feasts, or at most tournaments, were the only things that could be remembered, and every day and week had been better than the last. and as he went on, the picture of all those happy years, all the thousands of them, piled up in jills mind till it was rather like looking down from a high hill on to a rich, lovely plain full of woods and waters and cornfields, which spread away and away till it got thin and misty from distance. and she said: "oh, i do hope we can soon settle the ape and get back to those good, ordinary times.
and then i hope theyll go on for ever and ever and ever. our world is going to have an end some day. perhaps this one wont. oh jewel wouldnt it be lovely if narnia just went on and on - like what you said it has been?”
"nay, sister," answered jewel, "all worlds draw to an end, except aslans own country.”
"well, at least," said jill, "i hope the end of this one is millions of millions of millions of years away - hallo! what are we stopping for?”
the king and eustace and the dwarf were all staring up at the sky. jill shuddered, remembering what horrors they had seen already. but it was nothing of that sort this time.
it was 【创建和谐家园】all, and looked black against the blue.
"i dare swear," said the unicorn, "from its flight, that it is a talking bird.”
"so think i," said the king. "but is it a friend, or a spy of the apes?”
"to me, sire," said the dwarf, "it has a look of far-sight the eagle.”
"ought we to hide under the trees?" said eustace.
"nay," said tirian, "best stand still as rocks. he would see us for certain if we moved.”
"look! he wheels, he has seen us already," said jewel. "he is coming down in wide circles.”
"arrow on string, lady," said tirian to jill. "but by no means shoot till i bid you. he may be a friend.”
if one had known what was going to happen next it would have been a treat to watch the grace and ease with which the huge bird glided down. he alighted on a rocky crag a few feet from tirian, bowed his crested head, and said in his strange eagles- voice, "hail, king.”
"hail, farsight," said tirian. "and since you call me king, i may well believe you are not a follower of the ape and his false aslan. i am right glad of your coming.”
"sire," said the eagle, "when you have heard my news you will be sorrier of my coming than of the greatest woe that ever befell you.”
tirians heart seemed to stop beating at these words, but he set his teeth and said, "tell on.”
"two sights have i seen," said farsight. "one was cair paravel filled with dead narnians and living calormenes: the tisrocs banner advanced upon your royal battlements: and your subjects flying from the city - this way and that, into the woods. cair paravel was taken from the sea. twenty great ships of calormen put in there in the dark of the night before last night.”
no one could speak.
"and the other sight, five leagues nearer than cair paravel, was roonwit the centaur lying dead with a calormene arrow in his side. i was with him in his last hour and he gave me this message to your majesty: to remember that all worlds draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”
"so," said the king, after a long silence, "narnia is no more.”
www.xiaoshuotxt.com
CHAPTER NINE
小说txt天堂
the great meeting on stable hill fop, a long time they could not speak nor even shed a tear. then the unicorn stamped the ground with his hoof, and shook his mane, and spoke.
"sire," he said, "there is now no need of counsel. we see that the apes plans were laid deeper than we dreamed of. doubtless he has been long in secret traffic with the tisroc, and as soon as he had found the lion-skin he sent him word to make ready his navy for the taking of cair paravel and all narnia. nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to stable hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that aslan sends us. and if, by a great marvel, we defeat those thirty calormenes who are with the ape, then to turn again and die in battle with the far greater host of them that will soon march from cair paravel.”
tirian nodded. but he turned to the children and said: "now, friends, it is time for you to go hence into your own world. doubtless you have done all that you were sent to do.”
"b - but weve done nothing," said jill who was shivering, not with fear exactly but because everything was so horrible.
"nay," said the king, "you loosed me from the tree: you glided before me like a snake last night in the wood and took puzzle: and you, eustace, killed your man. but you are too young to share in such a bloody end as we others must meet tonight or, it may be, three days hence. i entreat you - nay, i command you - to return to your own place. i should be put to shame if i let such young warriors fall in battle on my side.”
"no, no, no," said jill (very white when she began speaking and then suddenly very red and then white again.) "we wont, i dont care what you say. were going to stick to you whatever happens, arent we, eustace?”
"yes, but theres no need to get so worked up about it," said eustace who had stuck his hands in his pockets (forgetting how very odd that looks when you are wearing a mail shirt). "because, you see, we havent any choice. whats the good of talking about our going back! how? weve got no magic for doing it!”
this was very good sense but, at the moment, jill hated eustace for saying it. he was fond of being dreadfully matter-of-fact when other people got excited.
when tirian realized that the two strangers could not get home (unless aslan suddenly whisked them away), he next wanted them to go across the southern mountains into archenland where they might possibly be safe. but they didnt know their way and there was no one to send with them. also, as poggin said, once the calormenes had narnia they would certainly take archenland in the next week or so: the tisroc had always wanted to have these northern countries for his own. in the end eustace and jill begged so hard that tirian said they could come with him and take their chance - or, as he much more sensibly called it, "the adventure that aslan would send them".
the kings first idea was that they should not go back to stable hill - they were sick of the very name of it by now till after dark. but the dwarf told them that if they arrived there by daylight they would probably find the place deserted, except perhaps for a calormene sentry. the beasts were far too frightened by what the ape (and ginger) had told them about this new angry aslan - or tashlan - to go near it except when they were called together for these horrible midnight meetings. and calormenes are never good wood【创建和谐家园】en. poggin thought that even by daylight they could easily get round to somewhere behind the stable without being seen. this would be much harder to do when the night had come and the ape might be calling the beasts together and all the calormenes were on duty. and when the meeting did begin they could leave puzzle at the back of the stable, completely out of sight, till the moment at which they wanted to produce him. this was obviously a good thing: for their only chance was to give the narnians a sudden surprise.
everyone agreed and the whole party set off on a new line - north-west - towards the hated hill. the eagle sometimes flew to and fro above them, sometimes he sat perched on puzzles back. no one - not even the king himself except in some great need - would dream of riding on a unicorn.
this time jill and eustace walked together. they had been feeling very brave when they were begging to be allowed to come with the others, but now they didnt feel brave at all.
"pole," said eustace in a whisper. "i may as well tell you ive got the wind up.”
"oh youre all right, scrubb," said jill. "you can fight. but i - im just shaking, if you want to know the truth.”
"oh shakings nothing," said eustace. "im feeling im going to be sick.”
"dont talk about that, for goodness sake," said jill.
they went on in silence for a minute or two.
"pole," said eustace presently.
"what?" said she.
"whatll happen if we get killed here?”
"well well be dead, i suppose.”
"but i mean, what will happen in our own world? shall we wake up and find ourselves back in that train? or shall we just vanish and never be heard of any more? or shall we be dead in england?”
"gosh. i never thought of that.”
"itll be rum for peter and the others if they saw me waving out of the window and then when the train comes in were nowhere to be found! or if they found two - i mean, if were dead over there in england.”
"ugh!" said jill. "what a horrid idea.”
"it wouldnt be horrid for us," said eustace. "we shouldnt be there.”
"i almost wish - no i dont, though," said jill.
"what were you going to say?”
"i was going to say i wished wed never come. but i dont, i dont, i dont. even if we are killed. id rather be killed fighting for narnia than grow old and stupid at home and perhaps go about in a bath-chair and then die in the end just the same.”
"or be 【创建和谐家园】ashed up by british railways!”
"why dyou say that?”
"well when that awful jerk came - the one that seemed to throw us into narnia - i thought it was the beginning of a railway accident. so i was jolly glad to find ourselves here instead.”
while jill and eustace were talking about this, the others were discussing their plans and becoming less miserable. that was because they were now thinking of what was to be done this very night and the thought of what had happened to narnia - the thought that all her glories and joys were over - was pushed away into the back part of their minds. the moment they stopped talking it would come out and make them wretched again: but they kept on talking. poggin was really quite cheerful about the nights work they had to do.
he was sure that the boar and the bear, and probably all the dogs would come over to their side at once. and he couldnt believe that all the other dwarfs would stick to griffle.
and fighting by firelight and in and out among trees would be an advantage to the weaker side. and then, if they could win tonight, need they really throw their lives away by meeting the main calormene army a few days later?
why not hide in the woods, or even up in the western waste beyond the great waterfall and live like outlaws? and then they might gradually get stronger and stronger, for talking beasts and archenlanders would be joining them every day. and at last theyd come out of hiding and sweep the calormenes (who would have got careless by then) out of the country and narnia would be revived. after all, something very like that had happened in the time of king miraz!
and tirian heard all this and thought "but what about tash?" and felt in his bones that none of it was going to happen. but he didnt say so.
when they got nearer to stable hill of course everyone became quiet. then the real wood-work began. from the moment at which they first saw the hill to the moment at which they all arrived at the back of the stable, it took them over two hours. its the sort of thing one couldnt describe properly unless one wrote pages and pages about it. the journey from each bit of cover to the next was a separate adventure, and there were very long waits in between, and several false alarms. if you are a good scout or a good guide you will know already what it must have been like. by about sunset they were all safe in a clump of holly trees about fifteen yards behind the stable. they all munched some biscuit and lay down.
then came the worst part, the waiting. luckily for the children they slept for a couple of hours, but of course they woke up when the night grew cold, and what was worse, woke up very thirsty and with no chance of getting a drink. puzzle just stood, shivering a little with nervousness, and said nothing. but tirian, with his head against jewels flank, slept as soundly as if he were in his royal bed at cair paravel, till the sound of a gong beating awoke him and he sat up and saw that there was firelight on the far side of the stable and knew that the hour had come.
"kiss me, jewel," he said. "for certainly this is our last night on earth. and if ever i offended against you in any matter great or 【创建和谐家园】all, forgive me now.”
"dear king," said the unicorn, "i could almost wish you had, so that i might forgive it.
farewell. we have known great joys together. if aslan gave me my choice i would choose no other life than the life i have had and no other death than the one we go to.”
then they woke up farsight, who was asleep with his head under his wing (it made him look as if he had no head at all), and crept forward to the stable. they left puzzle (not without a kind word, for no one was angry with him now) just behind it, telling him not to move till someone came to fetch him, and took up their position at one end of the stable.
the bonfire had not been lit for long and was just beginning to blaze up. it was only a few feet away from them, and the great crowd of narnian creatures were on the other side of it, so that tirian could not at first see them very well, though of course he saw dozens of eyes shining with the reflection of the fire, as youve seen a rabbits or cats eyes in the
headlights of a car. and just as tirian took his place, the gong stopped beating and from somewhere on his left three figures appeared. one was rishda tarkaan the calormene captain. the second was the ape. he was holding on to the tarkaans hand with one paw and kept whimpering and muttering, "not so fast, dont go so fast, im not at all well. oh my poor head! these midnight meetings are getting too much for me. apes arent meant to be up at night: its not as if i was a rat or a bat - oh my poor head." on the other side of the ape, walking very soft and stately, with his tail straight up in the air, came ginger the cat. they were heading for the bonfire and were so close to tirian that they would have seen him at once if they had looked in the right direction. fortunately they did not. but tirian heard rishda say to ginger in a low voice: "now, cat, to thy post. see thou play thy part well.”
"miaow, miaow. count on me!" said ginger. then he stepped away beyond the bonfire and sat down in the front row of the assembled beasts: in the audience, as you might say.
for really, as it happened, the whole thing was rather like a theatre. the crowd of narnians were like the people in the seats; the little grassy place just in front of the stable, where the bonfire burned and the ape and the captain stood to talk to the crowd, was like the stage; the stable itself was like the scenery at the back of the stage; and tirian and his friends were like people peering round from behind the scenery. it was a splendid position. if any of them stepped forward into the full firelight, all eyes would be fixed on him at once: on the other hand, so long as they stood still in the shadow of the end-wall of the stable, it was a hundred to one against their being noticed.
rishda tarkaan dragged the ape up close to the fire. the pair of them turned to face the crowd, and this of course meant that their backs were towards tirian and his friends.
"now, monkey," said rishda tarkaan in a low voice. "say the words that wiser heads have put into thy mouth. and hold up thy head." as he spoke he gave the ape a little prod or kick from behind with the point of his toe.
"do leave me alone," muttered shift. but he sat up straighter and began, in a louder voice - "now listen, all of you. a terrible thing has happened. a wicked thing. the wickedest thing that ever was done in narnia. and aslan -”
"tashlan, fool," whispered rishda tarkaan.
"tashlan i mean, of course," said the ape, "is very angry about it.”
there was a terrible silence while the beasts waited to hear what new trouble was in store for them. the little party by the end-wall of the stable also held their breath. what on earth was coming now?
"yes," said the ape. "at this very moment, when the terrible one himself is among us - there in the stable just behind me - one wicked beast has chosen to do what youd think
no one would dare to do even if he were a thousand miles away. it has dressed itself up in a lion-skin and is wandering about in these very woods pretending to be aslan.”
jill wondered for a moment if the ape had gone mad. was he going to tell the whole truth? a roar of horror and rage went up from the beasts. "grrr!" came the growls. "who is he? where is he? just let me get my teeth into him!”
"it was seen last night," screamed the ape, "but it got away. its a donkey! a common, miserable ass! if any of you see that ass -”
"grrr!" growled the beasts. "we will, we will. hed better keep out of our way.”
jill looked at the king: his mouth was open and his face was full of horror. and then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies plan. by mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger. what was the good, now, of telling the beasts that an ass had been dressed up as a lion to deceive them? the ape would only say, "thats just what ive said." what was the good of showing them puzzle in his lion-skin? they would only tear him in pieces. "thats taken the wind out of our sails," whispered eustace. "the ground is taken from under our feet," said tirian. "cursed, cursed cleverness!" said poggin. "ill be sworn that this new lie is of gingers making.”
ＷＷＷ.xiＡosＨuoＴＸＴ.com
CHAPTER TEN
小*说**t*xt**天*堂