CHAPTER NINE ACROSS THE DESERT（第2/5页）

But before she had reached them she saw Bree and Hwin and the groom.

"You can go back to your mistress now," said Aravis (quite forgetting that he couldn' t, until the city gates opened next morning)."Here is money for your pains. "

"To hear is to obey,"said the groom, and at once set off at a remarkable speed in the direction of the city. There was no need to tell him to make haste: he also had been thinking a good deal about ghouls.

For the next few seconds Aravis was busy kissing the noses and patting the necks of Hwin and Bree just as if they were quite ordinary horses.

"And here comes Shasta !Thanks be to the Lion !" said Bree.

Aravis looked round, and there, right enough, was Shasta who had come out of hiding the moment he saw the groom going away.

"And now, " said Aravis. "There's not a moment to lose." And in hasty words she told them about Rabadash' s expedition.

"Treacherous hounds !" said Bree,shaking his mane and stamping with his hoof."An attack in time of peace, without defiance sent ! But we' ll grease his oats for him. We' ll be there before he is."

"Can we ?" said Aravis, swinging herself into Hwin's saddle.Shasta wished he could mount like that.

"Brooh-hoo !" snorted Bree."Up you get, Shasta. Can we ! And with a good start too !"

"He said he was going to start at once," said Aravis.

"That's how humans talk," said Bree. "But you don't get a company of two hundred horse and horsemen watered and victualled and armed and saddled and started all in a minute. Now: what' s our direction ? Due North ?"

"No," said Shasta. "I know about that.I've drawn a line.I' ll explain later.Bear a bit to our left, both you horses. Ah here it is !"

"Now," said Bree. "All that about galloping for a day and a night,like in stories,can' t really be done.It must be walk and trot: but brisk trots and short walks.And whenever we walk you two humans can slip off and walk too. Now.Are you ready, Hwin ? Off we go.Narnia and the North !"

At first it was delightful. The night had now been going on for so many hours that the sand had almost finished giving back all the sun-heat it had received during the day, and the air was cool, fresh, and clear. Under the moonlight the sand, in every direction and as far as they could see, gleamed as if it were smooth water or a great silver tray. Except for the noise of Bree's and Hwin' s hoofs there was not a sound to be heard. Shasta would nearly have fallen asleep if he had not had to dismount and walk every now and then.

This seemed to last for hours. Then there came a time when there was no longer any moon. They seemed to ride in the dead darkness for hours and hours. And after that there came a moment when Shasta noticed that he could see Bree' s neck and head in front of him a little more clearly than before;and slowly, very slowly, he began to notice the vast grey flatness on every side. It looked absolutely dead, like something in a dead world; and Shasta felt quite terribly tired and noticed that he was getting cold and that his lips were dry. And all the time the squeak of the leather, the jingle of the bits, and the noise of the hoofs-not Propputty-propputty as it would be on a hard road, but Thubbudy-thubbudy on the dry sand.

At last, after hours of riding, far away on his right there came a single long streak of paler grey, low down on the horizon. Then a streak of red.It was the morning at last, but without a single bird to sing about it.He was glad of the walking bits now, for he was colder than ever.

Then suddenly the sun rose and everything changed in a moment. The grey sand turned yellow and twinkled as if it was strewn with diamonds. On their left the shadows of Shasta and Hwin and Bree and Aravis, enormously long, raced beside them. The double peak of Mount Pire, far ahead, flashed in the sunlight and Shasta saw they were a little out of the course. "A bit left, a bit left,"he sang out. Best of all, when you looked back, Tashbaan was already small and remote. The Tombs were quite invisible: swallowed up in that single, jagged-edged hump which was the city of the Tisroc.Everyone felt better.