The Last Battle Read Online Free

anyone would dare to harness one of the free Talking Horses of Narnia, much less to use a whip on it. But as that savage blow fell the horse reared up and said, half screaming:
    “Fool and tyrant! Do you not see I am doing all I can?”
    When Tirian knew that the Horse was one of his own Narnians, there came over him and over Jewel such a rage that they did not know what they were doing. The King’s sword went up, the Unicorn’s horn went down. They rushed forward together. Next moment both the Calormenes lay dead, the one beheaded by Tirian’s sword and the other gored through the heart by Jewel’s horn.

Three

THE APE IN ITS GLORY

    “MASTER HORSE, MASTER HORSE,” SAID Tirian as he hastily cut its traces, “how came these aliens to enslave you? Is Narnia conquered? Has there been a battle?”
    “No, Sire,” panted the horse, “Aslan is here. It is all by his orders. He has commanded—”
    “’Ware danger, King,” said Jewel. Tirian looked up and saw that Calormenes (mixed with a few Talking Beasts) were beginning to run toward them from every direction. The two dead men had died without a cry and so it had taken a moment before the rest of the crowd knew what had happened. But now they did. Most of them had naked scimitars in their hands.
    “Quick. On my back,” said Jewel.

    The King flung himself astride of his old friend who turned and galloped away. He changed direction twice or thrice as soon as they were out of sight of their enemies, crossed a stream, and shouted without slackening his pace, “Whitheraway, Sire? To Cair Paravel?”
    “Hold hard, friend,” said Tirian. “Let me off.” He slid off the Unicorn’s back and faced him.
    “Jewel,” said the King. “We have done a dreadful deed.”
    “We were sorely provoked,” said Jewel.
    “But to leap on them unawares—without defying them—while they were unarmed—faugh! We are two murderers, Jewel. I am dishonored forever.”
    Jewel drooped his head. He too was ashamed.
    “And then,” said the King, “the Horse said it was by Aslan’s orders. The Rat said the same. They all say Aslan is here. How if it were true?”
    “But, Sire, how could Aslan be commanding such dreadful things?”
    “He is not a tame lion,” said Tirian. “How should we know what he would do? We, who are murderers. Jewel, I will go back. I will give up my sword and put myself in the hands of these Calormenes and ask that they bring me before Aslan. Let him do justice on me.”
    “You will go to your death, then,” said Jewel.
    “Do you think I care if Aslan dooms me to death?” said the King. “That would be nothing, nothing at all. Would it “not be better to be dead than to have this horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the Aslan we have believed in and longed for? It is as if the sun rose one day and were a black sun.”
    “I know,” said Jewel. “Or as if you drank water and it were dry water. You are in the right, Sire. This is the end of all things. Let us go and give ourselves up.”
    “There is no need for both of us to go.”
    “If ever we loved one another, let me go with you now,” said the Unicorn. “If you are dead and if Aslan is not Aslan, what life is left for me?”
    They turned and walked back together, shedding bitter tears.
    As soon as they came to the place where the work was going on the Calormenes raised a cry and came toward them with their weapons in hand. But the King held out his sword with the hilt toward them and said:
    “I who was King of Narnia and am now a dishonored knight give myself up to the justice of Aslan. Bring me before him.”
    “And I give myself up too,” said Jewel.
    Then the dark men came round them in a thick crowd, smelling of garlic and onions, their white eyes flashing dreadfully in their brown faces. They put a rope halter round Jewel’s neck. They took the King’s sword away and tied his hands behind his back. One of the Calormenes, who had a helmet instead of a turban and seemed