The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy takes place during the Golden Age, when the High King Peter, Queen Susan, Kind Edmund, and Queen Lucy ruled Narnia fairly and everyone was happy and safe.  In Calormen, the empire to the south of the Great Desert, is a boy named Shasta who lives with Arsheesh, a fisherman who Shasta calls "father."  Arsheesh treats Shasta badly, makes him work all the time, and more often than not makes him sleep in the shed with the donkey.  Shasta will often ask him, "O my father, what lies beyond that hill to the north?"  And Arsheesh will either give him a noncommittal answer if he's in a good mood, or tell him it's none of his business if he's in a black mood.  One day, a Tarkaan comes to Arsheesh's cottage by the sea and demands food and shelter.  Shasta is turned out of the cottage with a hunk of bread, while Arsheesh and the Tarkaan haggle over how much Shasta is worth, because the Tarkaan wants to buy him for a slave.  Shasta goes into the shed where the Tarkaan's horse is stabled.  He tells the horse his troubles, and then unhopefully wishes that the horse could talk.  "But I can," says the horse.  Shasta is practically knocked over with the horse's response.  He gets control of himself, and the horse tells him that he would be better off dead tonight than be a slave in the Tarkaan's house tomorrow.  Shasta wants to know where the horse learned to talk, and the horse says that he is originally from Narnia, where the animals talk.  He was kidnapped as a colt, and he suggests that they both escape that night.  Shasta takes some food from the cottage while Arsheesh and the Tarkaan sleep, and he and the horse then begin to travel up the coast.  Shasta learns that the horse's name is Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah, but he agrees to be called simply Bree.  A little way into their journey, they are chased by lions, and then meet with Aravis Tarkheena and another horse, who is also a talking horse.  Her name is Hwin.  Aravis does not think much of Shasta, but tells the group her story:  She was meant to marry the tiresome Ahoshta Tarkaan, but Hwin told her of Narnia, and Aravis decided that she would rather be a free "nobody in Narnia" than a "petted and petty somebody in Calormen."  She contrived to escape, and did.  Bree then suggests that they all travel together, which Aravis agrees to somewhat ungracefully.  The group is soon faced with a dilemma:  how to get through Tashbaan, the capital city of Calormen.  They decide to disguise themselves as slaves and workhorses.  In the streets of Tashbaan, there are processions of travleing Tarkaans and Tarkheenas quite often, and everyone is forced to crush against the walls in order to make way.  One procession has only once Calormene in it.  The rest are lords and ladies from Narnia.  Shasta feels he must get a look at these people.  It would have been better if he had not, because one lord recognizes him as Prince Corin of Archenland.  Shasta is swept into the procession, and taken to a nice house where the Narnian embassage is staying.  The King Edmund and the Queen Susan talk about whether the Queen will accept Prince Rabadash's proposal of marriage.  Rabadash is the eldest son of the Tisroc of Calormen.