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"And there's another thing I don't understand about that story," said Shasta. "You're not grown up,I don't believe you're any older than I am.I don't believe you're as old.How could you be getting married at your age ?"
Aravis said nothing,but Bree at once said, "Shasta,don't display your ignorance.They' re always married at that age in the great Tarkaan families."
Shasta turned very red though it was hardly light enough for the others to see this and felt snubbed. Aravis asked Bree for his story.Bree told it,and Shasta thought that he put in a great deal more than he needed about the falls and the bad riding.Bree obviously thought it very funny,but Aravis did not laugh.When Bree had finished they all went to sleep.
Next day all four of them ,two horses and two humans, continued their journey together.Shasta thought it had been much pleasanter when he and Bree were on their own.For now it was Bree and Aravis who did nearly all the talking.Bree had lived a long time in Calormen and had always been among Tarkaans and Tarkaans' horses, and so of course he knew a great many of the same people and places that Aravis knew. She would always be saying things like,"But if you were at the fight of Zulindreh you would have seen my cousin Alimash,"and Bree would answer,
"Oh, yes, Alimash, he was only captain of the chariots, you know. I don' t quite hold with chariots or the kind of horses who draw chariots. That's not real cavalry. But he is a worthy nobleman. He filled my nosebag with sugar after the taking of Teebeth." Or else Bree would say, "I was down at the lake of Mezreel that summer," and Aravis would say, "Oh, Mezreel! I had a friend there, Lasaraleen Tarkheena. What a delightful place it is. Those gardens, and the Valley of the Thousand Perfumes !" Bree was not in the least trying to leave Shasta out of things, though Shasta sometimes nearly thought he was. People who know a lot of the same things can hardly help talking about them, and if you' re there you can hardly help feeling that you' re out of it.
Hwin the mare was rather shy before a great warhorse like Bree and said very little. And Aravis never spoke to Shasta at all if she could help it.
Soon, however, they had more important things to think of. They were getting near Tashbaan. There were more, and larger, villages, and more people on the roads. They now did nearly all their travelling by night and hid as best they could during the day. And at every halt they argued and argued about what they were to do when they reached Tashbaan. Everyone had been putting off this difficulty, but now it could be put off no longer. During these discussions Aravis became a little, a very little, less unfriendly to Shasta;one usually gets on better with people when one is making plans than when one is talking about nothing in particular.
Bree said the first thing now to do was to fix a place where they would all promise to meet on the far side of Tashbaan even if, by any ill luck, they got separated in passing the city. He said the best place would be the Tombs of the Ancient Kings on the very edge of the desert. "Things like great stone beehives”he said,
"you can't possibly miss them. And the best of it is that none of the Calormenes will go near them because they think the place is haunted by ghouls and are afraid of it."Aravis asked if it wasn' t really haunted by ghouls. But Bree said he was a free Narnian horse and didn' t believe in these Calormene tales. And then Shasta said he wasn' t a Calormene either and didn' t care a straw about these old stories of ghouls. This wasn' t quite true. But it rather impressed Aravis though at the moment it annoyed her too and of course she said she didn' t mind any number of ghouls either. So it was settled that the Tombs should be their assembly place on the other side of Tashbaan, and everyone felt they were getting on very well till Hwin humbly pointed out that the real problem was not where they should go when they had got through Tashbaan but how they were to get through it.
"We'll settle that tomorrow,Ma'am," said Bree. "Time for a little sleep now."
