《能言馬與男孩》第73期:安瓦德之戰(1)

Chapter 13 The Fight at Anvard

By about eleven o'clock the whole company was once more on the march, riding westward with the mountains on their left. Corin and Shasta rode right at the rear with the Giants immediately in front of them. Lucy and Edmund and Peridan were busy with their plans for the battle and though Lucy once said, "But where is his goosecap Highness?" Edmund only replied, "Not in the front, and that's good news enough. Leave well alone."

Shasta told Corin most of his adventures and explained that he had learned all his riding from a horse and didn't really know how to use the reins. Corin instructed him in this, besides telling him all about their secret sailing from Tashbaan.

"And where is the Queen Susan?"

"At Cair Paravel," said Corin. "She's not like Lucy, you know, who's as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy. Queen Susan is more like an ordinary grown-up lady. She doesn't ride to the wars, though she is an excellent archer."

The hillside path which they were following became narrower all the time and the drop on their right hand became steeper. At last they were going in single file along the edge of a precipice and Shasta shuddered to think that he had done the same last night without knowing it. "But of course," he thought, "I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time."

Then the path went left and south away from the cliff and there were thick woods on both sides of it and they went steeply up and up into the pass. There would have been a splendid view from the top if it were open ground but among all those trees you could see nothing - only, every now and then, some huge pinnacle of rock above the tree-tops, and an eagle or two wheeling high up in the blue air.

"They smell battle," said Corin, pointing at the birds. "They know we're preparing a feed for them."

Shasta didn't like this at all.

When they had crossed the neck of the pass and come a good deal lower they reached more open ground and from here Shasta could see all Archenland, blue and hazy, spread out below him and even (he thought) a hint of the desert beyond it. But the sun, which had perhaps two hours or so to go before it set, was in his eyes and he couldn't make things out distinctly.

Here the army halted and spread out in a line, and there was a great deal of rearranging. A whole detachment of very dangerous-looking Talking Beasts whom Shasta had not noticed before and who were mostly of the cat kind (leopards, panthers, and the like) went padding and growling to take up their positions on the left. The giants were ordered to the right, and before going there they all took off something they had been carrying on their backs and sat down for a moment. Then Shasta saw that what they had been carrying and were now putting on were pairs of boots: horrid, heavy, spiked boots which came up to their knees. Then they sloped their huge clubs over their shoulders and marched to their battle position. The archers, with Queen Lucy, fell to the rear and you could first see them bending their bows and then hear the twangtwang as they tested the strings. And wherever you looked you could see people tightening girths, putting on helmets, drawing swords, and throwing cloaks to the ground. There was hardly any talking now. It was very solemn and very dreadful. "I'm in for it now - I really am in for it now," thought Shasta. Then there came noises far ahead: the sound of many men shouting and a steady thud-thud-thud.

第13章 安瓦德之戰

十一點鐘光景，整個部隊重新行軍，向西飛馳而去，大山在他們的左邊。科林和沙斯塔騎馬殿後，巨人們在他們的前邊兒。露茜、愛德蒙和珀裏丹忙於商量作戰計劃；雖然露茜說過：“可鵝帽殿下在哪兒啊?”愛德蒙只是答道，“不在先頭部隊裏，那就真是好消息了。隨他去吧。”

沙斯塔把他大部分驚險經歷告訴了科林，並且解釋道：他是跟一匹馬兒學習騎馬的，因此他確實不知道怎樣使用繮繩。科林便教他，還把他們從塔什班城祕密出航的經過告訴了他。

“那麼蘇珊女王在哪兒呢?”

“在凱爾帕拉維爾，”科林說，”她不像露茜，你要知道，她像男子漢一樣，或者，無論如何也像男孩子一樣。蘇珊女王更像一位長大成人的普通小姐。她並不騎着馬去作戰，儘管她是個射箭好手。”

他們正在走的山徑愈來愈狹窄，右首的山坡也更加陡了。最後，他們改成單行沿着懸崖的邊緣走去；沙斯塔不寒而慄地想到上一夜他是不知不覺地在這懸崖邊上走過去的。”然而，當然啦，”他心中想道，”我是十分安全的。那就是爲什麼獅子始終走在我左邊的緣故。獅子自始至終是走在我和懸崖之間啊。”

接着，山徑向左首延伸，背離懸崖向南而去，這時兩旁都是密密的樹林，山徑險峻陡急，他們不斷地往上、往上登高，終於進入關隘。如果關隘是片開闊地帶，從頂上俯瞰，準是一片好風景，可是如今置身這許多樹木之中，你就什麼也看不見了——只是育時看見一些巨大的石峯矗立在樹頂的上方，一兩隻鷹在高高的藍天裏盤旋飛翔。

“鷹嗅到戰爭的氣息了，”科林指點着鳥兒說道，”它們知道我們在爲它們準備美餐哩。”

沙斯塔壓根兒不喜歡這種俏皮話。

當他們經過了隘口，又往下走了好多路，便來到比較開闊的地帶，沙斯塔從這兒能看見全部阿欽蘭國土，藍悠悠，霧濛濛，展現在他的腳下，(他認爲，)他甚至望見了阿欽蘭背後隱隱約約的大沙漠。然而，也許再過兩個鐘點就要下山的太陽，光芒直射他的眼睛，他眼花繚亂，沒法兒把景物看個清清楚楚。

軍隊在這兒止步了，展開成爲一條戰線，而且做了許多新的安排。整整一隊是外貌猙獰的說人話的野獸，沙斯塔以前不曾注意它們；它們大部分都屬於貓科(花豹、黑豹，諸如此類)，咆哮着大踏步走到左邊去進入陣地。巨人們奉命開拔到右邊去，開拔之前，他們都從背上卸下他們所背的東西，並且在地上坐了～會兒。於是沙斯塔看到巨人們剛纔揹着的、現在正穿上腳去的，乃是一雙雙的靴子：可怕的、沉重的、底部有尖釘的、長及膝頭的靴子。巨人們接着就掮着大棒進入他們的陣地。弓箭手以及露茜女王調到了後邊兒，你能首先看見他們彎弓，其次聽到他們試拉弓弦的嘣嘣聲。不論你朝哪兒看，你處處看得見人們在收緊肚帶，戴上頭盔，抽出刀劍，把大氅丟在地上。現在沒有什麼人談話了。十分莊嚴，十分可怕。”現在我已經不能中途退回了——現在我確確實實不能中途退回了。”沙斯塔心中想道。從前邊兒遠遠地傳來嘈雜喧鬧的聲音：許多人在大叫大嚷，還有一種穩定不變的砰砰聲。