《最后一战》第53期:穿过马厩的门(1)

Chapter 12 Through the Stable Door

JILL ought to have been back at the white rock already but she had quite forgotten that part of her orders in the excitement of watching the fight. Now she remembered. She turned at once and ran to it, and arrived there barely a second before the others. It thus happened that all of them, for a moment, had their backs to the enemy. They all wheeled round the moment they had reached it. A terrible sight met their eyes.

A Calormene was running towards the stable door carrying something that kicked and struggled. As he came between them and the fire they could see clearly both the shape of the man and the shape of what he carried. It was Eustace.

Tirian and the Unicorn rushed out to rescue him. But the Calormene was now far nearer to the door then they. Before they had covered half the distance he had flung Eustace in and shut the door on him. Half a dozen more Calormenes had run up behind him. They formed a line on the open space before the stable. There was no getting at it now.

Even then Jill remembered to keep her face turned aside, well away from her bow. "Even if I can't stop blubbing, I won't get my string wet," she said.

"Ware arrows," said Poggin suddenly.

Everyone ducked and pulled his helmet well over his nose. The Dogs crouched behind. But though a few arrows came their way it soon became clear that they were not being shot at. Griffle and his Dwarfs were at their archery again. This time they were coolly shooting at the Calormenes.

"Keep it up, boys!" came Griffle's voice. "All together. Carefully. We don't want Darkies any more than we want Monkeys - or Lions - or Kings. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs."

Whatever else you may say about Dwarfs, no one can say they aren't brave. They could easily have got away to some safe place. They preferred to stay and kill as many of both sides as they could, except when both sides were kind enough to save them trouble by killing one another. They wanted Narnia for their own.

What perhaps they had not taken into account was that the Calormenes were mail-clad and the Horses had had no protection. Also the Calormenes had a leader. Rishda Tarkaan's voice cried out:

"Thirty of you keep watch on those fools by the white rock. The rest, after me, that we may teach these sons of earth a lesson."

第12章 穿过马厩的门

吉尔早该已经回到白石头那儿的，但她兴奋地观战时把她所接受的这一部分命令完全忘记了。现在她记了起来。她立刻转身向白石头跑去，仅仅比其他的人早到一秒钟。撤退之际，他们大家有一阵子都是背对着敌人的。他们到达白石头时便转过身来。他们的眼睛见到了一个可怕的景象。

一个卡乐门士兵正向马厩的门跑去，他手里还挟着个正在踢脚挣扎的东西。卡乐门士兵来到他们与篝火之间时，他们能清清楚楚地看到士兵和士兵所挟着的东西的形体。原来是尤斯塔斯。

蒂莲和独角兽跑过去抢救尤斯塔斯。但那卡乐门士兵现在比他们离马厩的门近得多。他们还没有走近一半距离，士兵已经把尤斯塔斯扔进门去，而且把门关上了。六七个卡乐门士兵在他后面赶了上来。士兵们在马厩前的空地上布成了阵势。现在没法儿突过去了。

这时吉尔也记住了转过脸去离开弓弦的嘱咐。“即使我不能停止哭泣，我也不会沾湿我的弓弦了。”她说。

“留神利箭。”波金突然说道。

大家都低下头来，把头盔拉得遮住鼻子。狗儿们蹲伏在他们的背后。然而，尽管有几支箭向他们这边射来，不久就弄明白了：他们并不是对方要射杀的对象。格里夫尔和他的小矮人们又在摆弄弓箭了，这一次他们正在冷静地射杀卡乐门士兵。

“孩子们，鼓足勇气！”传来格里夫尔的声音，“大家一起干。谨慎小心。我们不要黑皮，正如我们不要无尾猿——狮子——国王，一模一样。小矮人总是拥护小矮人。”

不论你会怎样议论小矮人，可没有人能说它们是不勇敢的。它们满可以轻易地离开现场，到某一个安全地区去。它们却宁可待在原地，尽其所能地杀掉双方的许多战士：除非双方互相杀戮，从而仁慈地省得麻烦小矮人们动手。小矮人们要纳尼亚成为小矮人们自己的纳尼亚。

小矮人或许没有估计到的是：卡乐门士兵穿着铠甲，马儿却毫无保护。卡乐门士兵还有个指挥作战的头目。利什达的声音在大叫大喊：

“你们三十个人监视白石头旁边的那些傻瓜，其余的人都跟我来，我们不妨给这些泥土的儿子们一个狠狠的教训。”