"Where hast been, Corin?" said the lady, her hands still on Shasta's shoulders.
    
    "I-I don't know," stammered Shasta.
    
    "There it is, Susan," said the King. "I could get no tale out of him, true or false."
    
    "Your Majesties! Queen Susan! King Edmund!" said a voice: and when Shasta turned to 
look at the speaker he nearly jumped out of his skin with surprise. For this was one of 
these queer people whom he had noticed out of the corner of his eye when he first came 
into the room. He was about the same height as Shasta himself. From the waist upwards he 
was like a man, but his legs were hairy like a goat's, and shaped like a goat's and he 
had goat's hooves and a tail. His skin was rather red and he had curly hair and a short 
pointed beard and two little horns. He was in fact a Faun, which is a creature Shasta had 
never seen a picture of or even heard of. And if you've read a book called The Lion, the 
Witch and the Wardrobe you may like to know that this was the very same Faun, Tumnus by 
name, whom Queen Susan's sister Lucy had met on the very first day when she found her way 
into Narnia. But he was a good deal older now for by this time Peter and Susan and Edmund 
and Lucy had been Kings and Queens of Narnia for several years.
    
    "Your Majesties," he was saying, "His little Highness has had a touch of the sun. 
Look at him! He is dazed. He does not know where he is."
    
    Then of course everyone stopped scolding Shasta and asking him questions and he was 
made much of and laid on a sofa and cushions were put under his head and he was given 
iced sherbet in a golden cup to drink and told to keep very quiet.
    
    Nothing like this had ever happened to Shasta in his life before. He had never even 
imagined lying on anything so comfortable as that sofa or drinking anything so delicious 
as that sherbet. He was still wondering what had happened to the others and how on earth 
he was going to escape and meet them at the Tombs, and what would happen when the real 
Corin turned up again. But none of these worries seemed so pressing now that he was 
comfortable. And perhaps, later on, there would be nice things to eat!
    
    Meanwhile the people in that cool airy room were very interesting. Besides the Faun 
there were two Dwarfs (a kind of creature he had never seen before) and a very large 
Raven.
    
    The rest were all humans; grown-ups, but young, and all of them, both men and women, 
had nicer faces and voices than most Calormenes. And soon Shasta found himself taking an 
interest in the conversation. "Now, Madam," the King was saying to Queen Susan (the lady 
who had kissed Shasta). "What think you? We have been in this city fully three weeks. 
Have you yet settled in your mind whether you will marry this dark-faced lover of yours, 
this Prince Rabadash, or no?"
    
    The lady shook her head. "No, brother," she said, "not for all the jewels in 
Tashbaan." ("Hullo!" thought Shasta. "Although they're king and queen, they're brother 
and sister, not married to one another.")
    
    "Truly, sister," said the King, "I should have loved you the less if you had taken 
him. And I tell you that at the first coming of the Tisroc's ambassadors into Narnia to 
treat of this marriage, and later when the Prince was our guest at Cair Paravel, it was a 
wonder to me that ever you could find it in your heart to show him so much favour."
    
    "That was my folly, Edmund," said Queen Susan, "of which I cry you mercy. Yet when he 
was with us in Narnia, truly this Prince bore himself in another fashion than he does now 
in Tashbaan. For I take you all to witness what marvellous feats he did in that great 
tournament and hastilude which our brother the High King made for him, and how meekly and 
courteously he consorted with us the space of seven days. But here, in his own city, he 
has shown another face."
    
    "Ah!" croaked the Raven. "It is an old saying: see the bear in his own den before you 
judge of his conditions."
    
    "That's very true, Sallowpad," said one of the Dwarfs. "And another is, Come, live 
with me and you'll know me."
    
    "Yes," said the King. "We have now seen him for what he is: that is, a most proud, 
bloody, luxurious, cruel, and selfpleasing tryant."
    
    "Then in the name of Aslan," said Susan, "let us leave Tashbaan this very day."
    
    "There's the rub, sister," said Edmund. "For now I must open to you all that has been 
growing in my mind these last two days and more. Peridan, of your courtesy look to the 
door and see that there is no spy upon us. All well? So. For now we must be secret."
    
    Everyone had begun to look very serious. Queen Susan jumped up and ran to her 
brother. "Oh, Edmund," she cried. "What is it? There is something dreadful in your face."
    
    
    
    
    CHAPTER FIVE
    
    PRINCE CORIN
    
    "MY dear sister and very good Lady," said King Edmund, "you must now show your 
courage. For I tell you plainly we are in no small danger."
    
    "What is it, Edmund asked the Queen.
    
    "It is this," said Edmund. "I do not think we shall find it easy to leave Tashbaan. 
While the Prince had hope that you would take him, we were honoured guests. But by the 
Lion's Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat denial we shall be no better than 
prisoners."
    
    One of the Dwarfs gave a low whistle.
    
    "I warned your Majesties, I warned you," said Sallowpad the Raven. "Easily in but not 
easily out, as the lobster said in the lobster pot!"