The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

within an hour. And if it is, I give it all to you. I reserve no booty for myself. Kill me
every barbarian male within its walls, down to the child that was born yesterday, and
everything else is yours to divide as you please - the women, the gold, the jewels, the
weapons, and the wine. The man that I see hanging back when we come to the gates shall
be burned alive. In the name of Tash the irresistible, the inexorable forward!"
With a great cloppitty-clop the column began to move, and Shasta breathed again. They
had taken the other road.
Shasta thought they took a long time going past, for though he had been talking and
thinking about "two hundred horse" all day, he had not realized how many they really
were. But at last the sound died away and once more he was alone amid the drip-drip
from the trees.
He now knew the way to Anvard but of course he could not now go there: that would
only mean running into the arms of Rabadash's troopers. "What on earth am I to do?" said
Shasta to himself. But he remounted his horse and continued along the road he had
chosen, in the faint hope of finding some cottage where he might ask for shelter and a
meal. He had thought, of course, of going back to Aravis and Bree and Hwin at the
hermitage, but he couldn't because by now he had not the least idea of the direction.
"After all," said Shasta, "this road is bound to get to somewhere."
But that all depends on what you mean by somewhere. The road kept on getting to
somewhere in the sense that it got to more and more trees, all dark and dripping, and to
colder and colder air. And strange, icy winds kept blowing the mist past him though they
never blew it away. If he had been used to mountain country he would have realized that
this meant he was now very high up - perhaps right at the top of the pass. But Shasta
knew nothing about mountains.
"I do think," said Shasta, "that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the
whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me. Those Narnian lords and
ladies got safe away from Tashbaan; I was left behind. Aravis and Bree and Hwin are all
as snug as anything with that old Hermit: of course I was the one who was sent on. King
Lune and his people must have got safely into the castle and shut the gates long before
Rabadash arrived, but I get left out."
And being very tired and having nothing inside him, he felt so sorry for himself that the
tears rolled down his cheeks.
What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or
somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the
Thing (or Person) was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he
could hear was breathing. His invisible companion seemed to breathe on a very large
scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had come to