"He that would find that way," the Raven said, "must start from the Tombs of the Ancient Kings and ride north-west so that the double peak of Mount Pire is always straight ahead of him. And so, in a day's riding or a little more, he shall come to the head of a stony valley, which is so narrow that a man might be within a furlong of it a thousand times and never know that it was there. And looking down this valley he will see neither grass nor water nor anything else good. But if he rides on down it he will come to a river and can ride by that water all the way into Archenland."
"And do the Calormenes know of this western way?" the Queen asked.
"Friends, friends," Edmund said, "what is the use of all this discourse? We are not asking whether Narnia or Calormen would win if war arose between them. We are asking how to save the honour of the Queen and our own lives out of this devilish city. For though my brother, Peter the High King, defeated the Tisroc a dozen times over, yet long before that day our throats would be cut and the Queen's grace would be the wife, or more likely, the slave, of this prince."
"We have our weapons, King," the first Dwarf said. "And this is a reasonably defensible house."
"As to that," the King said, "I do not doubt that every one of us would sell our lives dearly in the gate and they would not come at the Queen but over our dead bodies. Yet we should be merely rats fighting in a trap when all's said."
"Very true," the Raven croaked. "These last stands in a house make good stories, but nothing ever came of them. After their first few repulses the enemy always set the house on fire."
"I am the cause of all this," Susan said, bursting into tears. "Oh, if only I had never left Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came from Calormen. The Moles were planting an orchard for us ... oh ... oh." And she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
"Courage, Su, courage," Edmund said. "Remember—but what is the matter with you, Master Tumnus?"
For the Faun was holding both his horns with his hands as if he were trying to keep his head on by them and writhing to and fro as if he had a pain in his inside.
"Don't speak to me, don't speak to me," Tumnus said. "I'm thinking. I'm thinking so that I can hardly breathe. Wait, wait, do wait."
There was a moment's puzzled silence and then the Faun looked up, drew a long breath, mopped its forehead and said:
"The only difficulty is how to get down to our ship—with some stores, too—without being seen and stopped."
"Yes," a Dwarf said drily. "Just as the beggar's only difficulty about riding is that he has no horse."
"Wait, wait," Mr. Tumnus said impatiently. "All we need is some pretext for going down to our ship today and taking stuff on board."
"Yes," King Edmund said doubtfully.
"Well, then," the Faun said, "how would it be if your Majesties bade the Prince to a great banquet to be held on board our own galleon, the Splendour Hyaline, tomorrow night? And let the message be worded as graciously as the Queen can contrive without pledging her honour: so as to give the Prince a hope that she is weakening."
"This is very good counsel, Sire," the Raven croaked.
"And then," Tumnus continued excitedly, "everyone will expect us to be going down to the ship all day, making preparations for our guests. And let some of us go to the bazaars and spend every minim we have at the fruiterers and the sweetmeat sellers and the wine merchants, just as we would if we were really giving a feast. And let us order magicians and jugglers and dancing girls and flute players, all to be on board tomorrow night."
"I see, I see," King Edmund said, rubbing his hands.
"And then," Tumnus said, "we'll all be on board tonight. And as soon as it is quite dark—"
"Up sails and out oars—!" the King said.
"And so to sea," Tumnus cried, leaping up and beginning to dance.
"And our nose northward," the first Dwarf said.
"Running for home! Hurrah for Narnia and the North!" the other said.
"And the Prince waking next morning and finding his birds flown!" Peridan said, clapping his hands.
"Oh Master Tumnus, dear Master Tumnus," the Queen said, catching his hands and swinging with him as he danced. "You have saved us all."
"The Prince will chase us," another lord said, whose name the children had not heard.
"That's the least of my fears," Edmund said. "I have seen all the shipping in the river and there's no tall ship of war nor swift galley there. I wish he may chase us! For the Splendour Hyaline could sink anything he has to send after her—if we were overtaken at all."
"Sire," the Raven said. "You shall hear no better plot than the Faun's though we sat in council for seven days. And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs. Which is as much as to say, let us all take our food and then at once be about our business."
Everyone arose at this and the doors were opened and the lords and the creatures stood aside for the King and Queen to go out first.
Shasta wondered what he ought to do, but Mr. Tumnus said, "Lie there, your Highness, and I will bring you up a little feast to yourself in a few moments. There is no need for either of you to move until we are all ready to embark."
Shasta laid his head down on the pillows. Alvina curled up beside him and soon they were alone in the room.
"This is perfectly dreadful," Alvina said Shasta once the Narnians were gone. "Did it never come into your head to tell the Narnians the whole truth and ask for their help?"
"I thought they would spoil or stop us trying to escape." He told her. Having been brought up by a hard, close-fisted man like Arsheesh, he had a fixed habit of never telling grown-ups anything if he could help it. "And I thought that even if the Narnian King might be friendly to Bree and Hwin, he would hate Aravis, because she was a Calormene, and either sell her for a slave or send her back to her father."
"Well you simply daren't tell them you're not Prince Corin now," She told him. "We've heard all their plans."
"If they knew I wasn't one of themselves, they'd never let me out of this house alive. They'd be afraid I'd betray them to the Tisroc. They'd kill me. And if the real Corin turns up, it'll all come out, and they will!"
"I'm sure it wouldn't be all bad. We have no idea how noble people behave."
"What am I to do? What am I to do?" he kept saying to himself. "What—hullo, here comes that goaty little creature again."
The Faun trotted in, half dancing, with a tray in its hands which was nearly as large as itself. This he set on an inlaid table beside the sofa and sat down himself on the carpeted floor with his goaty legs crossed.
"Now, both of you," he said. "Make a good dinner. It will be your last meal in Tashbaan."
It was a fine meal after the Calormene fashion and both of the children enjoyed it.
While the children were eating, the good little Faun, who thought Shasta was still dazed with sunstroke, kept talking to him about the fine times he would have when they all got home; about his good old father King Lune of Archenland and the little castle where he lived on the southern slopes of the pass.
"And don't forget," Mr. Tumnus said, "that you are promised your first suit of armour and your first war horse on your next birthday. And then your Highness will begin to learn how to tilt and joust. And in a few years, if all goes well, King Peter has promised your royal father that he himself will make you Knight at Cair Paravel. And in the meantime there will be plenty of comings and goings between Narnia and Archenland across the neck of the mountains. And of course you remember you have promised to come for a whole week to stay with me for the Summer Festival, and there'll be bonfires and all-night dances of Fauns and Dryads in the heart of the woods and, who knows?—we might see Aslan himself!"
When the meal was over the Faun told the children to stay quietly where they were.
"And it wouldn't do you any harm to have a little sleep," he added. "I'll call you in plenty of time to get on board. And then, Home. Narnia and the North!"
Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling him that when he was left alone his thoughts took a different turn. He only hoped now that the real Prince Corin would not turn up until it was too late and that he would be taken away to Narnia by ship.
Alvina started to worry about what would happen to the real Corin if he was left behind in Tashbaan.
They were both a little worried about Aravis and Bree waiting for them at the Tombs.
But then Shasta said "Well, how can I help it? Anyway, that Aravis thinks she's too good to go about with me, so she can jolly well go alone,"
At the same time he couldn't help feeling that it would be much nicer going to Narnia by sea than toiling across the desert.
Then both the children fell asleep.
Alvina awoke to a voice saying, "I hope we meet in Archenland. Go to my father King Lune and tell him you're a friend of mine. Look out! I hear someone coming."
Alvina sat up with a start and looked over to where the voice came from. As her eyes skimmed over the boy standing there she realised it was only Shasta and breathed out a sigh of relief. Then he turned around and Alvina gasped.
The boy standing there looked almost exactly like Shasta however at the moment this boy had the finest black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes were torn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face.
"Are you Prince Corin?" She asked shakily.
"Yes, of course," He said. "But who are you?"
Alvina had no time to respond. At that moment the door swung open to reveal the Faun carrying a tray of food. However, the moment he saw Corin he dropped the tray.
"I can explain," Corin quickly said.
"Well then," the Faun responded, "I'd like to hear it."
"Well as I told the other boy…" Corin started, he then turned to face Alvina and asked, "What is his name?"
"His name is Shasta." She told him.
"So, as I told Shasta, a boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan, so I knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother came out. So I knocked the big brother down. Then they all followed me until we ran into the Watch. So I fought with the Watch and they knocked me down. It was getting dark by now. Then the Watch took me along to lock me up somewhere. So I asked them if they'd like a stoup of wine and they said they didn't mind if they did. Then I took them to a wine shop and got them some and they all sat down and drank till they fell asleep. I thought it was time for me to be off so I came out quietly and then I found the first boy—the one who had started all the trouble—still hanging about. So I knocked him down again. After that I climbed up a pipe on to the roof of a house and lay quiet till it began to get light this morning. Ever since that I've been finding my way back."
Corin sat down beside Alvina in hopes of making her feel better as she seemed rather scared.
"Well, that's an interesting story." Alvina looked at him. She didn't really know this boy and now she was stuck with him, the thought alone frightened her.
"Now you," The Faun said turning to Alvina, "Explain who you are."
"I don't exactly know," she admitted, "I remember nothing more than my name. Everything I remember starts when woke up in the fishing nets outside the house Shasta lived in. From there we ran away and have been trying to get to Narnia."
"Well that's where we're heading now," Corin told her standing up and putting out his hand for her. "My father is the king of Archenland, you can come live with us in our castle. There isn't anyone there of any interest. Father is always busy, it would be nice to have someone else there with me."
"Thank you," Alvina responded taking his hand, "I'd appreciate that."
The Faun looked at the two, he knew she was from the same world as the Kings and Queens and hoped that they could help her.
"Please miss," The Faun said to the girl, "Come down and speak to King Edmund and Queen Susan, I believe they can help you understand what has happened to you."
Alvina nodded following Mr Tumnus into the room where the king and queen were eating in the company of the other lords.