Chapter 8 CHAPTER VIII THE MESSAGE Brought by the Eagle

On the far side of the open field, in the shadows of the trees, something was moving.It is slowly gliding north.At first glance, you'd mistake it for smoke, because it's off-white and you can see through it.But that stench of corpses was not the stench of smoke.The thing kept its shape, too, not billowing and curling like smoke.At first glance it had the shape of a human being, but it had the head of a bird, some kind of bird of prey with a vicious hooked beak.It had four arms, raised above its head, stretched out to the north, as if to hold all Narnia in its palm; and its fingers--twenty of them in all--were Curved like a mouth, the tips are not nails, but long, pointed bird-like claws.Instead of walking, it floated on the grass, and the grass seemed to wither beneath it.Puzzled looked at it for a moment, then let out a donkey whine, and ran into the fortress.And Jill (you know, she's no coward) covers her face with her hands, blocking her view.The others may have watched the scene for a minute, until it disappeared into the depths of the woods on the right.Then the sun came out again, and the birds began to sing again.

Everyone began to breathe normally and move normally.When the thing was visible, everyone remained motionless, like clay sculptures. "What is it?" asked Eustace in a low voice. "I saw it once before," said Tirian, "but that time it was carved out of stone, inlaid with gold, and had hard diamonds for eyes. I was no older than you now, and I went to the tower I was a guest in the court of 'Tisrok' in Shiban City. 'Tisrok' took me into the great temple of God Tash. I saw it in the temple, carved on the top of the altar." "So that - that thing - is the god Tash?" asked Eustace.

But Tirian didn't answer his question. He put his arm behind Jill's shoulder and asked, "What's the matter with you, miss?" "Fine, fine," said Jill, pulling her hand from her pale face and trying to smile, "I'm fine. It just makes me feel like I'm going to throw up for a while." "So, it seems," said the Unicorn, "that there is a real Tash after all." "Yes," said the little man, "this foolish Ape, who does not believe in Tash, will get more than he bargained for. He calls to Tash: Tash has come gone."

"Where did it—this thing—go?" Jill asked. "Go north into the heart of Narnia," said Tirian, "and he has come to live with us. They call him, and he comes." "Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha," said the dwarfs, grinning and rubbing their hairy hands together, "would startle the apes. People shouldn't call on the devil unless what they say is really what they think." ." "Who knows if an ape can see Tash?" said Jewel. "Where's the confusion?" said Eustace. They all chanted Puzzling's name, and Jill went around to the other side of the fort to see if it had gone that way.They looked for it everywhere, and when they couldn't even bother to look for it, its big gray head finally poked out cautiously from the door, looked around, and asked. "Is he gone?" When they finally dragged Puzzle out of the keep, he was shaking like a dog in a thunderstorm.

"I see now," said Puzzled, "I was a very bad ass indeed. I should never have listened to Shift. I never thought such a thing could happen." "If you spend less time saying you're not smart, and more time trying to be as smart as possible—" Eustace started when Jill cut him off. "Poor Puzzle, old and old, let it be," she said, "it was all a mistake, wasn't it, dear Puzzle?" She kissed the donkey on the nose.Shocked as they were by what they had seen, they all now sat down to continue their conversation. Jumbo has nothing to tell them.As a captive he spent almost all his time tied up behind the stable, and certainly never heard of the enemy's plans.He had been beaten and kicked (and he kicked back), threatened with death, unless he would say that he believed it was indeed Aslan that he took out every night to show them by firelight. took it.In fact, it would have been executed that morning if Tirian hadn't saved it.It does not know the calamity that has befallen the lamb.

The question which they had to decide was whether they should go back to the Mount of Horses that night, and lay the delusion before the people of Narnia, and try to make them understand that they had been deceived, or whether they should steal away eastward to meet the Reinforcements brought by Centaur Witt from Cair Paravel meet, and together they turn around and attack the Ape and its Calormene soldiers.Tirian was very tempted to adopt the first option, and he could not bear the thought of allowing the Ape to continue his tyranny over Narnia, even for a brief moment, needlessly.But on the other hand, the attitude of the dwarfs last night was a warning.Obviously, if you use deception to show the public, no one can be sure what attitude everyone will take.And to deal with the Calormene soldiers.Poggin estimated that there were about thirty Calormene soldiers.Tirian felt quite sure that if the crowd of Narnia were on his side, he and the Unicorn, together with the children and Poggin the Dwarf (donkey bewilderment was nothing) would have a good chance of defeating the enemy.But what if half the people of Narnia - including all the dwarves - just sat there and watched? Or even fought him? The risk was too great.And Tash, who looks like Yunjiang, what kind of tricks might he be up to?)

And, as Poggin pointed out, it might as well give the Ape a day or two to cope with his difficulties.Now it has no donkey to pull out for public display.It seemed that the Ape—or Ginger—was going to have a hard time trying to invent a story to explain the problem.If the Beasts demanded to see Aslan night after night, and the Apes could not get him, even the simplest of Beasts would become suspicious. At the end of the discussion, everyone agreed that the best strategy was to leave here and try to join forces with Longwitt. They had just made this decision, and, strange to say, everyone was much happier.To tell you the truth, I don't think it was because any of them were afraid of fighting (with the possible exception of Jill and Eustace), but I would venture to say that each of them, in their hearts, was afraid of not fighting. It was a great relief to be nearer—or not yet—that horrible thing with the bird's head.This thing, seen or not, is probably haunting Stable Hill right now.In any case, one always feels better when one has made up one's mind.

They had better take off their disguise, said Tirian, for they did not want to be mistaken for Calormenes, nor perhaps attacked by loyal Narnians they might meet.The dwarf made an ugly paste out of the ashes from the hearth and the oil for swords and spears he kept in his grease bottle.So they took off their Calormene armor, and went to wash in the brook.The filthy mixture turned into a foamy mush, like half-liquid soap.Tirian and the two children knelt by the water, rubbing the backs of their necks, spraying and blowing as the water splashed off the foamy goo, and it looked like a happy, domestic picture.Then they went back to the fort, flushed, like people who take a good, hard wash before going to a feast.They rearmed themselves in true Narnian fashion with straight swords and three-horned shields. "Give me my body back," said Tirian, "that would be better. I feel like I'm a real man again." Puzzle begged with great urgency to have the lion pelt taken off him.He said it was too hot in the fur and the way the fur folded over his back was uncomfortable and made him look silly.But they told him that he would have to wrap himself in the lion-skin for a while longer, because they still wanted to show him in this dress to the other beasts, even if they were going to meet Longwett first.

It wasn't worth taking the leftovers of pigeon and hare, but they brought some biscuits.Then Tirian locked the gates of the fort, and their rest in the fort ended. They set off a little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the first really warm day of that spring, and the young leaves seemed to be growing better than yesterday, and the snowdrops had fallen, but they saw a few primroses.The sun slanted through the trees, the birds sang, and there was always the sound of rushing water (though often invisible).Don't think of scary things like the God Tash anymore.The children felt that "the real Narnia was at last." Even Tirian's heart was lighter, and he walked ahead of the others, humming an old Narnia march.There is a refrain in the song

Ah, the drums are rushing and roaring, Dongdong and Dongdong, Dongdong and Dongdong. After the King came Eustace and Poggin the Dwarf.Poggin was telling Eustace the names of all the trees, birds, and crops of Narnia that he did not yet know.Sometimes Eustace told Poggin their English names too. Behind them was Puzzle the donkey, and behind the donkey Jill and Jewel the unicorn walked close together.You could say that Jill has become quite attached to unicorns.She thought—and she wasn't too wrong—that he was the finest, most delicate, most refined beast she had ever met, and he was so gentle and soft-spoken that if you looked at him Unfamiliar with it, you just can't believe how ferocious and fearsome it can be in combat.

"Oh, it's such a pleasure!" said Jill. "It's a walk like this. I wish there were more adventures like it. But there's always a lot of trouble in Narnia." But the Unicorn explains to Jill that she's completely mistaken.It said that the children and grandchildren of Adam and Eve were sent to Narnia from their own strange worlds only when Narnia was in turmoil or was overthrown, but she couldn't think that Narnia was always like that very messy.Between their two visits, hundreds of years or even thousands of years passed, one peaceful king after another, it was almost impossible to remember the names of the kings, to count the kings, and the history books did. Nothing is recorded.It went on to speak of old queens and heroes she had never heard of.It tells of the White Swan Queen, born before the time of the White Witch and the reign of Eternal Winter, who was so beautiful that she looked into any pond in the woods, and the reflection of her face would spring from the water. Shine brightly, like a star in the dark night, and shine for a year and a day from now on.It told of Moonwood the Hare, who had magical ears, and sat under the thundering waterfall of the Cauldron Deep, and could hear the whispers of the people of Cair Paravel.It tells how Frank I's ninth-generation grandson, King Gal, sailed far to the East Sea and rescued the Lonely Islands from the evil dragon. .It told of how happy the whole of Narnia was for centuries, that the only things remembered were the famous dances and feasts, or at best tourneys, and that today was better than yesterday, and this week was always better than yesterday. Better than last week.As the unicorn went on talking, all these pictures of happy days, thousands of pictures, piled up in Jill's head, and at last it was as if standing on a high mountain overlooking a large rich, beautiful and lovely plain, the plain The sky is full of forests, rivers and wheat fields, stretching continuously into the distance, and finally faded and blurred.she says" "Ah, I wish we could solve the ape problem before long and restore those wonderful and common times. And then these wonderful times would go on forever and ever. Our own world will end someday. Maybe this world It won't end. Jewel - wouldn't it be wonderful if Narnia lived on - as happy and beautiful as it once was (as you say)?" "No, little sister," replied Jewel, "all worlds will come to an end except Aslan's own." "Oh, at least," said Jill, "I hope the world ends in aeons and years—hey! Why don't we stop?" The King, Eustace, and the Dwarf were all looking up at the sky.Jill shivered, remembering the horrors she had just seen.But this time it wasn't such a thing.It is small and looks black against the blue sky. "I can swear it," said the Unicorn, "from the way he flies, he is a bird that can only speak human." "I think so too," said the King, "but is he a friend, or a spy of the Ape?" "It seems to me, sire," said the little man, "that it has the air of an eagle's clairvoyance." "Should we hide under a tree?" asked Eustace. "No," said Tirian, "it's better to stand still, like a stone. If we move, he will surely see us." "Look! It's circling, it's seen us," said Jewel, "and it's circling down in a big circle." "The arrow is on the string, miss," said Tirian to Jill, "but I won't order you to shoot it anyway. It may be a friend." It is a pleasure to watch the great bird glide down with such grace and deliberation, if one knows what is going to happen next.Perched on a cliff a few feet from Tirian, he bowed his crested head, and said with his strange eagle noise, "Yes, King." "Well, clairvoyant eagle," said Tirian, "since you call me king, I might as well believe that you are not a follower of the Ape and his false Aslan. I am glad you have come. " "My lord," said the eagle, "when you hear the news I bring, my coming will grieve you more than the worst calamity that has ever befell you." Tirian's heart seemed to stop beating at these words, but he gritted his teeth and said, "Go on, please." "I saw two visions," said the clairvoyant eagle, "the first vision: the city of Cair Paravel filled with dead Narnians and living Calormenes: The banners were planted on the battlements of your royal city.: Thy people fled from the city--by this way or that, into the forest. Cair Paravel was captured by an enemy from the sea. Yes. The night before yesterday, in the darkness of the night, twenty Calormene ships came in." No one spoke. "The second vision was that, not fifteen miles from Cair Paravel, Centaur Witt, struck in the side by a Calormene arrow, fell dead; and in his last hour, I was With him, he told me to send this message to His Majesty, keep in mind that all worlds come to an end, and that noble sacrifice is a treasure, and no one is so poor that he cannot afford it." "So," said the King after a long silence, "the Kingdom of Narnia is no more."