Narnia 5 - The Horse and His Boy Read Online Free

Bree, craning his neck round and twitching his ears. “Did you hear something? Listen.”
    “It sounds like another horse - between us and the wood,” said Shasta after he had listened for about a minute.
    “It is another horse,” said Bree. “And that’s what I don’t like.”
    “Isn’t it probably just a farmer riding home late?” said Shasta with a yawn.
    “Don’t tell me!” said Bree. “That’s not a farmer’s riding. Nor a farmer’s horse either. Can’t you tell by the sound? That’s quality, that horse is. And it’s being ridden by a real horseman. I tell you what it is, Shasta. There’s a Tarkaan under the edge of that wood. Not on his war horse - it’s too light for that. On a fine blood mare, I should say.”
    “Well, it’s stopped now, whatever it is,” said Shasta.
    “You’re right,” said Bree. “And why should he stop just when we do? Shasta, my boy, I do believe there’s someone shadowing us at last.”
    “What shall we do?” said Shasta in a lower whisper than before. “Do you think he can see us as well as hear us?”
    “Not in this light so long as we stay quite still,” answered Bree. “But look! There’s a cloud coming up. I’ll wait till that gets over the moon. Then we’ll get off to our right as quietly as we can, down to the shore. We can hide among the sandhills if the worst comes to the worst.”
    They waited till the cloud covered the moon and then, first at a walking pace and afterwards at a gentle trot, made for the shore.
    The cloud was bigger and thicker than it had looked at first and soon the night grew very dark. Just as Shasta was saying to himself, “We must be nearly at those sandhills by now,” his heart leaped into his mouth because an appalling noise had suddenly risen up out of the darkness ahead; a long snarling roar, melancholy and utterly savage. Instantly Bree swerved round and began galloping inland again as fast as he could gallop.
    “What is it?” gasped Shasta.
    “Lions!” said Bree, without checking his pace or turning his head.
    After that there was nothing but sheer galloping for some time. At last they splashed across a wide, shallow stream and Bree came to a stop on the far side. Shasta noticed that he was trembling and sweating all over.
    “That water may have thrown the brute off our scent,” panted Bree when he had partly got his breath again. “We can walk for a bit now.”
    As they walked Bree said, “Shasta, I’m ashamed of myself. I’m just as frightened as a common, dumb Calor mene horse. I am really. I don’t feel like a Talking Horse at all. I don’t mind swords and lances and arrows but I can’t bear - those creatures. I think I’ll trot for a bit.”
    About a minute later, however, he broke into a gallop again, and no wonder. For the roar broke out again, this time on their left from the direction of the forest.
    “Two of them,” moaned Bree.
    When they had galloped for several minutes without any further noise from the lions Shasta said, “I say! That other horse is galloping beside us now. Only a stone’s throw away.”
    “All the b-better,” panted Bree. “Tarkaan on it - will have a sword - protect us all.”
    “But, Bree!” said Shasta. “We might just as well be killed by lions as caught. Or 1 might. They’ll hang me for horsestealing.” He was feeling less frightened of lions than Bree because he had never met a lion; Bree had.
    Bree only snorted in answer but he did sheer away to his right. Oddly enough the other horse seemed also to be sheering away to the left, so that in a few seconds the space between them had widened a good deal. But as soon as it did so there came two more lions’ roars, immediately after one another, one on the right and the other on the left, the horses began drawing nearer together. So, apparently, did the lions. The roaring of the brutes on each side was horribly close and they seemed to be keeping up with the galloping horses quite easily. Then the cloud