The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

This was bad news for Aravis, but she had to make the best of it. The afternoon passed
very slowly and it was a relief when Lasaraleen went out to the banquet, for Aravis was
very tired of her giggling and her talk about dresses and parties, weddings and
engagements and scandals. She went to bed early and that part she did enjoy: it was so
nice to have pillows and sheets again.
But the next day passed very slowly. Lasaraleen wanted to go back on the whole
arrangement and kept on telling Aravis that Narnia was a country of perpetual snow and
ice inhabited by demons and sorcerers, and she was mad to think of going there. "And
with a peasant boy, too!" said Lasaraleen. "Darling, think of it! It's not Nice." Aravis had
thought of it a good deal, but she was so tired of Lasaraleen's silliness by now that, for
the first time, she began to think that travelling with Shasta was really rather more fun
than fashionable life in Tashbaan. So she only replied, "You forget that I'll be nobody,
just like him, when we get to Narnia. And anyway, I promised."
"And to think," said Lasaraleen, almost crying, "that if only you had sense you could be
the wife of a Grand Vizier!" Aravis went away to have a private word with the horses.
"You must go with a groom a little before sunset down to the Tombs," she said. "No
more of those packs. You'll be saddled and bridled again. But there'll have to be food in
Hwin's saddle-bags and a full water-skin behind yours, Bree. The man has orders to let
you both have a good long drink at the far side of the bridge."
"And then, Narnia and the North!" whispered Bree. "But what if Shasta is not at the
Tombs."
"Wait for him of course," said Aravis. "I hope you've been quite comfortable."
"Never better stabled in my life," said Bree. "But if the husband of that tittering
Tarkheena friend of yours is paying his head groom to get the best oats, then I think the
head groom is cheating him."
Aravis and Lasaraleen had supper in the pillared room.
About two hours later they were ready to start. Aravis was dressed to look like a superior
slave-girl in a great house and wore a veil over her face. They had agreed that if any
questions were asked Lasaraleen would pretend that Aravis was a slave she was taking as
a present to one of the princesses.
The two girls went out on foot. A very few minutes brought them to the palace gates.
Here there were of course soldiers on guard but the officer knew Lasaraleen quite well
and called his men to attention and saluted. They passed at once into the Hall of Black
Marble. A fair number of courtiers, slaves and others were still moving about here but
this only made the two girls less conspicuous. They passed on into the Hall of Pillars and
then into the Hall of Statues and down the colonnade, passing the great beatencopper