By about eleven o'clock the whole company was once more on the march, riding westward with the mountains on their left. Corin, Alvina and Shasta rode right at the rear with the Giants immediately in front of them. Lucy and Edmund and Peridan were busy with their plans for the battle and though Lucy once said, "But where is his goosecap Highness?"

Edmund only replied, "Not in the front, and that's good news enough. Leave well alone."

Shasta told Corin most of his adventures and explained that he had learned all his riding from a horse and didn't really know how to use the reins. Corin instructed him in this, besides telling him all about their secret sailing from Tashbaan.

"And where is the Queen Susan?"

"At Cair Paravel with Lynette," Corin said. "She's not like Lucy, you know, who's as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy. Queen Susan is more like an ordinary grown-up lady. She doesn't ride to the wars, though she is an excellent archer."

"Who is Lynette?" Shasta asked Corin.

"She is Edmund's wife," Alvina told him, "Edmund doesn't allow her to come to the wars."

The hillside path which they were following became narrower all the time and the drop on their right hand became steeper. At last they were going in single file along the edge of a precipice and Shasta shuddered to think that he had done the same last night without knowing it.

"But of course," he thought, "I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time."

Then the path went left and south away from the cliff and there were thick woods on both sides of it and they went steeply up and up into the pass. There would have been a splendid view from the top if it were open ground but among all those trees you could see nothing—only, every now and then, some huge pinnacle of rock above the tree-tops, and an eagle or two wheeling high up in the blue air.

"They smell battle," Corin said, pointing at the birds. "They know we're preparing a feed for them."

Shasta didn't like this at all. As Shasta shuddered Alvina looked over and sat lower in her saddle.

When they had crossed the neck of the pass and come a good deal lower they reached more open ground and from here they could see all Archenland, blue and hazy, spread out below him and even. he thought, a hint of the desert beyond it. But the sun, which had perhaps two hours or so to go before it set, was in his eyes and he couldn't make things out distinctly.

Here the army halted and spread out in a line, and there was a great deal of rearranging. A whole detachment of very dangerous-looking Talking Beasts whom Shasta had not noticed before and who were mostly of the cat kind, leopards, panthers, and the like, went padding and growling to take up their positions on the left.

The giants were ordered to the right, and before going there they all took off something they had been carrying on their backs and sat down for a moment. Then Shasta saw that what they had been carrying and were now putting on were pairs of boots: horrid, heavy, spiked boots which came up to their knees. Then they sloped their huge clubs over their shoulders and marched to their battle position.

The archers, with Queen Lucy, fell to the rear and you could first see them bending their bows and then hear the twang-twang as they tested the strings. And wherever you looked you could see people tightening girths, putting on helmets, drawing swords, and throwing cloaks to the ground.

There was hardly any talking now. It was very solemn and very dreadful.

"I'm in for it now—I really am in for it now," Shasta thought.

Then there came noises far ahead: the sound of many men shouting and a steady thud-thud-thud.

"Battering ram," Corin whispered. "They're battering the gate."

Even Corin looked quite serious now.

"Why doesn't King Edmund get on?" he said. "I can't stand this waiting about. Chilly too."

Shasta nodded: hoping he didn't look as frightened as he felt.

As the two boys wondered about when the battle began Alvina decided she would stay where she was. As long as the battle never reached where she was she would be safe.

The trumpet at last!

On the move now—now trotting—the banner streaming out in the wind. They had topped a low ridge now, and below them the whole scene suddenly opened out; a little, many-towered castle with its gate towards them.

No moat, unfortunately, but of course the gate shut and the portcullis down. On the walls they could see, like little white dots, the faces of the defenders.

Down below, about fifty of the Calormenes, dismounted, were steadily swinging a great tree trunk against the gate. But at once the scene changed.

The main bulk of Rabadash's men had been on foot ready to assault the gate. But now he had seen the Narnians sweeping down from the ridge. There is no doubt those Calormenes are wonderfully trained.

And now a gallop. The ground between the two armies grew less every moment. Faster, faster. All swords out now, all shields up to the nose, all prayers said, all teeth clenched.

At last the two lines met. Alvina had really very little idea of what was happening. There was a frightful confusion and an appalling noise, even from her distance.

Alvina saw Shasta's sword being knocked clean out of his hand pretty soon. And he'd got the reins tangled somehow. Then she saw him slipping. Then a spear went straight at him and as he ducked to avoid it he rolled right off his horse.

Alvina could see three eagles wheeling in the gap by Stormness Head. She could see one of them wheeling to and fro, peering down sometimes at Anvard and sometimes to the east, behind Stormness.

There was a great tree had been felled and lopped and Rabadash's army was now coming out of the woods carrying it as a ram.

Alvina laugh at the idiocrasy of Rabadash. It would have been wiser if he had set his men to making ladders. Fool that he is! He ought to have ridden back to Tashbaan as soon as the first attack failed, for his whole plan depended on speed and surprise.

They were bringing their ram into position.

The king's men were shooting hard from the walls.

Five Calormenes had fallen: but she could tell that not many would. They had their shields above their heads protecting themselves from the rain of arrows.

Alvina could see that the ram had started. The noise was loud enough for Alvina to hear it from her high vantage point. Stroke after stroke: and no gate could stand it for ever.

At that moment a flock of birds flew up above the castle. The whole ridge, up on the east, was black with horsemen. They were over the ridge. She caught a glimpse of the banner and let out a sigh. It was the Narnian's. They were in full career down the hill. She could see King Edmund.

All the Cats came dashing out from the left of the line. The great cats. The Cats were going round in a circle to get at the horses of the dismounted men. The Calormene horses were mad with terror already. The Cats were in among them.

Rabadash had reformed his line and had a hundred men in the saddle. They were riding to meet the Narnians.

The Giants on the Narnian right were doing wonders. One went down. Alvina could vaguely make out an arrow through the eye.

The centre was all in a muddle. Alvina could barely make anything out. She couldn't tell who was anymore and just sighed.

The Cats had done their work. All the riderless horses were dead or escaped now meaning no retreat for the Calormenes on them. The Cats were turning back into the main battle.

They were leaping on the rams-men. The ram went down.

Alvina could see the gates of the castle opening from the inside. The Calormene line was being forced back upon the new people coming out of the castle.

Alvina could see that lots of Calormenes had thrown down their arms and were running for the woods and those that remain were hard pressed.

The Giants were closing in on the right, Cats on the left, the castle people from their rear. The Calormenes were in a little knot, fighting back to back.

The fight was in the very gate of the castle. Several Calormenes had surrendered. The battle was over. The Calormenes were utterly defeated.

Alvina remounted her horse and began to ride down to where the battle had been taking place. She hoped she would see either Corin or Shasta.

As she reached the castle a very curious sight met her eyes. The unfortunate Rabadash appeared to be suspended from the castle walls. His feet, which were about two feet from the ground, were kicking wildly. His chain-shirt was somehow hitched up so that it was horribly tight under the arms and came half way over his face. In fact he looked just as a man looks if you catch him in the very act of getting into a stiff shirt that is a little too small for him.

Later Alvina heard that early in the battle one of the Giants had made an unsuccessful stamp at Rabadash with his spiked boot: unsuccessful because it didn't crush Rabadash, which was what the Giant had intended, but not quite useless because one of the spikes tore the chain mail, just as you or I might tear an ordinary shirt.

So Rabadash, by the time he encountered Edmund at the gate, had a hole in the back of his hauberk. And when Edmund pressed him back nearer and nearer to the wall, he jumped up on a mounting block and stood there raining down blows on Edmund from above.

But then, finding that this position, by raising him above the heads of everyone else, made him a mark for every arrow from the Narnian bows, he decided to jump down again. And he meant to look and sound very grand and very dreadful as he jumped, crying, "The bolt of Tash falls from above."

But he had to jump sideways because the crowd in front of him left him no landing place in that direction. And then, in the neatest way you could wish, the tear in the back of his hauberk caught on a hook in the wall. And there he found himself, like a piece of washing hung up to dry, with everyone laughing at him.

"Let me down, Edmund," Rabadash howled. "Let me down and fight me like a king and a man; or if you are too great a coward to do that, kill me at once."

"Certainly," King Edmund began, but King Lune interrupted.

"By your Majesty's good leave," King Lune said to Edmund. "Not so."

Then, turning to Rabadash he said, "Your royal Highness, if you had given that challenge a week ago, I'll answer for it there was no-one in King Edmund's dominion, from the High King down to the smallest Talking Mouse, who would have refused it. But by attacking our castle of Anvard in time of peace without defiance sent, you have proved yourself no knight, but a traitor, and one rather to be whipped by the hangman than to be suffered to cross swords with any person of honour. Take him down, bind him, and carry him within till our pleasure is further known."

Strong hands wrenched Rabadash's sword from him and he was carried away into the castle, shouting, threatening, cursing, and even crying. For though he could have faced torture he couldn't bear being made ridiculous. In Tashbaan everyone had always taken him seriously.

At that moment Corin ran up to Shasta, seized his and started dragging him towards King Lune. "Here he is, Father, here he is," Corin cried.

As this occurred Alvina followed behind them wanting to see the boys again.

"Aye, and here thou art, at last," the King said in a very gruff voice. "And hast been in the battle, clean contrary to your obedience. A boy to break a father's heart! At your age a rod to your breech were fitter than a sword in your fist, ha!"

But everyone, including Corin, could see that the King was very proud of him.

"Chide him no more, Sire, if it please you," Lord Darrin said. "His Highness would not be your son if he did not inherit your conditions. It would grieve your Majesty more if he had to be reproved for the opposite fault."

"Well, well," the King grumbled. "We'll pass it over for this time. And now—"

What came next surprised Shasta as much as anything that had ever happened to him in his life. He found himself suddenly embraced in a bear-like hug by King Lune and kissed on both cheeks. Then the King set him down again and said, "Stand here together, boys, and let all the court see you. Hold up your heads. Now, gentlemen, look on them both. Has any man any doubts?"

And still Shasta could not understand why everyone stared at him and at Corin nor what all the cheering was about.

As the boys were being made to stand side by side they saw Alvina standing at the front of the crowd. At the sight of her both boys cried out and ran towards her.

"You are both ridiculous." She told them as they threw their arms around her.

"And who may this be." King Lune asked walking forward to the two boys.

"This is Alvina," Corin told his father. "She travelled to Narnia with me on the Splendour Hyaline."

"Before that she travelled with me through to Tashbaan." Shasta added.

"I am very fond of both of them." Alvina said looking up at the king.

"Well," The king said to the small girl, "We shall come to your story later. For now, we must prepare to welcome Prince Cor of Archenland back home at last."