CHAPTER TWELVE THROUGH THE STABLE DOOR（第2/4页）

“I feel in my bones，”said Poggin，“that we shall all，one by one，pass through that dark door before morning. I can think of a hundred deaths I would rather have died.”

“It is indeed a grim door，”said Tirian.“It is more like a mouth.”

“Oh，can’t we do anything to stop it ？ ”said Jill in a shaken voice．

“Nay，fair friend，”said Jewel，nosing her gently.“It may be for us the door to Aslan’s country and we shall sup at his table tonight.”

Rishda Tarkaan turned his back on the stable and walked slowly to a place in front of the white rock．

“Hearken，”he said.“If the Boar and the Dogs and the Unicorn will come over to me and put themselves in my mercy，their lives shall be spared. The Boar shall go to a cage in The Tisroc’s garden，the Dogs to The Tisroc’s kennels，and the Unicorn， when I have sawn his horn off，shall draw a cart. But the Eagle， the children，and he who was the King shall be offered to Tash this night.”

The only answer was growls．

“Get on，warriors，”said the Tarkaan.“Kill the beasts，but take the two-legged ones alive.”

And then the last battle of the last King of Narnia began．

What made it hopeless，even apart from the numbers of the enemy，was the spears. The Calormenes who had been with the Ape almost from the beginning had had no spears：that was because they had come into Narnia by ones and twos，pretending to be peaceful merchants，and of course they had carried no spears for a spear is not a thing you can hide. The new ones must have come in later，after the Ape was already strong and they could march openly. The spears made all the difference. With a long spear you can kill a boar before you are in reach of his tusks and a unicorn before you are in reach of his horn; if you are very quick and keep your head. And now the levelled spears were closing in on Tirian and his last friends. Next minute they were all fighting for their lives．

In a way it wasn’t quite so bad as you might think．When you are using every muscle to the full-ducking under a spear-point here，leaping over it there，lunging forward，drawing back， wheeling round-you haven’t much time to feel either frightened or sad. Tirian knew he could do nothing for the others now; they were all doomed together. He vaguely saw the Boar go down on one side of him，and Jewel fighting furiously on the other. Out of the corner of one eye he saw，but only just saw，a big Calormene pulling Jill away somewhere by her hair. But he hardly thought about any of these things. His only thought now was to sell his life as dearly as he could. The worst of it was that he couldn’t keep to the position in which he had started，under the white rock. A man who is fighting a dozen enemies at once must take his chances wherever he can; must dart in wherever he sees an enemy’s breast or neck unguarded. In a very few strokes this may get you quite a distance from the spot where you began. Tirian soon found that he was getting further and further to the right，nearer to the stable. He had a vague idea in his mind that there was some good reason for keeping away from it. But he couldn’t now remember what the reason was. And anyway，he couldn’t help it．

All at once everything came quite clear. He found he was fighting the Tarkaan himself. The bonfire (what was left of it) was straight in front. He was in fact fighting in the very doorway of the stable，for it had been opened and two Calormenes were holding the door，ready to slam it shut the moment he was inside. He remembered everything now，and he realized that the enemy had been edging him to the stable on purpose ever since the fight began. And while he was thinking this he was still fighting the Tarkaan as hard as he could．

A new idea came into Tirian’s head. He dropped his sword， darted forward，in under the sweep of the Tarkaan’s scimitar， seized his enemy by the belt with both hands，and jumped back into the stable，shouting：