The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

"I know that desert well," said the Raven. "For I have flown above it far and wide in my
younger days," (you may be sure that Shasta pricked up his ears at this point). "And this
is certain; that if the Tisroc goes by the great oasis he can never lead a great army across
it into Archenland. For though they could reach the oasis by the end of their first day's
march, yet the springs there would be too little for the thirst of all those soldiers and their
beasts. But there is another way."
Shasta listened more attentively still.
"He that would find that way," said the Raven, "must start from the Tombs of the Ancient
Kings and ride northwest so that the double peak of Mount Pire is always straight ahead
of him. And so, in a day's riding or a little more, he shall come to the head of a stony
valley, which is so narrow that a man might be within a furlong of it a thousand times and
never know that it was there. And looking down this valley he will see neither grass nor
water nor anything else good. But if he rides on down it he will come to a river and can
ride by the water all the way into Archenland."
"And do the Calormenes know of this Western way?" asked the Queen.
"Friends, friends," said Edmund, "what is the use of all this discourse? We are not asking
whether Narnia or Calormen would win if war arose between them. We are asking how to
save the honour of the Queen and our own lives out of this devilish city. For though my
brother, Peter the High King, defeated the Tisroc a dozen times over, yet long before that
day our throats would be cut and the Queen's grace would be the wife, or more likely, the
slave, of this prince."
"We have our weapons, King," said the first Dwarf. "And this is a reasonably defensible
house."
"As to that," said the King, "I do not doubt that every one of us would sell our lives
dearly in the gate and they would not come at the Queen but over our dead bodies. Yet
we should be merely rats fighting in a trap when all's said."
"Very true," croaked the Raven. "These last stands in a house make good stories, but
nothing ever came of them. After their first few repulses the enemy always set the house
on fire."
"I am the cause of all this," said Susan, bursting into tears. "Oh, if only I had never left
Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came from Calormen.
The Moles were planting an orchard for us . . . oh . . . oh."
And she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
"Courage, Su, courage," said Edmund. "Remember-but what is the matter with you,
Master Tumnus?" For the Faun was holding both his horns with his hands as if he were