《最后一战》第55期:穿过马厩的门(3)

"Hearken," he said. "If the Boar and the Dogs and the Unicorn will come over to me and put themselves in my mercy, their lives shall be spared. The Boar shall go to a cage in The Tisroc's garden, the Dogs to The Tisroc's kennels, and the Unicorn, when I have sawn his horn off, shall draw a cart. But the Eagle, the children, and he who was the King shall be offered to Tash this night."

The only answer was growls.

"Get on, warriors," said the Tarkaan. "Kill the beasts, but take the two-legged ones alive."

And then the last battle of the last King of Narnia began.

What made it hopeless, even apart from the numbers of the enemy, was the spears. The Calormenes who had been with the Ape almost from the beginning had had no spears: that was because they had come into Narnia by ones and twos, pretending to be peaceful merchants, and of course they had carried no spears for a spear is not a thing you can hide. The new ones must have come in later, after the Ape was already strong and they could march openly. The spears made all the difference. With a long spear you can kill a boar before you are in reach of his tusks and a unicorn before you are in reach of his horn; if you are very quick and keep your head. And now the levelled spears were closing in on Tirian and his last friends. Next minute they were all fighting for their lives.

In a way it wasn't quite so bad as you might think.

When you are using every muscle to the full - ducking under a spear-point here, leaping over it there, lunging forward, drawing back, wheeling round - you haven't much time to feel either frightened or sad. Tirian knew he could do nothing for the others now; they were all doomed together. He vaguely saw the Boar go down on one side of him, and Jewel fighting furiously on the other. Out of the corner of one eye he saw, but only just saw, a big Calormene pulling Jill away somewhere by her hair. But he hardly thought about any of these things. His only thought now was to sell his life as dearly as he could. The worst of it was that he couldn't keep to the position in which he had started, under the white rock. A man who is fighting a dozen enemies at once must take his chances wherever he can; must dart in wherever he sees an enemy's breast or neck unguarded. In a very few strokes this may get you quite a distance from the spot where you began. Tirian soon found that he was getting further and further to the right, nearer to the stable. He had a vague idea in his mind that there was some good reason for keeping away from it. But he couldn't now remember what the reason was. And anyway, he couldn't help it.

All at once everything came quite clear. He found he was fighting the Tarkaan himself. The bonfire (what was left of it) was straight in front. He was in fact fighting in the very doorway of the stable, for it had been opened and two Calormenes were holding the door, ready to slam it shut the moment he was inside. He remembered everything now, and he realized that the enemy had been edging him to the stable on purpose ever since the fight began. And while he was thinking this he was still fighting the Tarkaan as hard as he could.

“听着，”他说，“如果野猪、狗和独角兽愿意到我这儿来，哀求我大发慈悲。我可以饶它们的命。野猪可以到‘蒂斯罗克’御花园的笼子里去；狗儿们可到‘蒂斯罗克’的养狗场去，独角兽，在我锯掉它的角以后，可以去拉车，但，老鹰、孩子们和那个做国王的人，今夜都要当做祭品，上供给塔什神。”

惟一的回答是愤怒的号叫。

“战士们，上！”泰坎下令道，“杀死那些畜生，活捉那几个两脚的人。”

于是，纳尼亚最后一个国王的最后一战开始了。

除了敌人人多势众外，使战斗胜利无望的，乃是敌人的长矛。几乎从开头起一直跟无尾猿沆瀣一气的卡乐门人是没有长矛的：因为他们是一个两个地乔装成商人进入纳尼亚的，他们当然不带长矛，长矛可不是件能藏起来的东西。新的卡乐门人必定是以后才来的，那时无尾猿已经强大，卡乐门人可以公开地行军了。有了长矛，情况就截然不同。如果你动作敏捷，头脑镇静的话，手持长矛，你便可以在獠牙还够不着你时把野猪刺死，在独角还够不着你时把独角兽刺死。如今并举的许多长矛都在向蒂莲和他最后的朋友们逼拢来了。他们不久都在为保全生命而战斗拼搏了。

说不定你会认为：从某一方面看来，这样拼命战斗倒也不坏。

当你充分运用全身的肌肉——这儿低头避过矛尖，那儿跳过矛尖，忽而猛烈前冲，忽而往后退缩，忽而旋转又旋转——你就没有时间感到惊惶或悲哀了。蒂莲知道现在他对其他的人马无能为力了：他们大家都在劫难逃。他模糊地看到野猪在他的身边倒下了，珍宝在另一边猛烈地战斗。他从一只眼睛的眼角上望见，只是勉强望见，一个卡乐门大个儿揪住吉尔的头发，把她拉到什么地方去了。但他很难考虑这些事情，哪一件也考虑不起来。他现在惟一的思想是尽其所能为自己的生命索取高昂的代价。最糟糕的是他不能固守住白石头下他最初所选定的阵地。一个人同时与十几个敌人作战，必须利用他能在任何地方碰到的机会；他在任何地方看到敌人的未曾保护的胸膛或颈子，就必须冲过去。而刚砍了几刀，就会使你离你出发的地点相当远了。蒂莲不久就发现自己愈来愈往右边儿前进，离马厩更近了。他脑子里有个朦朦胧胧的概念：远离马厩是大有道理的。但他没法儿把这道理记起来了。无论如何，他身不由己，无可奈何。

突然之间，一切又变得相当清楚了。他发现自己正在跟那泰坎作战。篝火(残余的那点儿火焰)在他的正前方。事实上，他正在马厩的门口作战，因为马厩的门洞开着，两个卡乐门士兵掌握着门，准备在他刚进门的瞬间立刻把门关上。现在他把一切都记起来了，他认识到敌人从战斗刚开始时起，便一直存心要把他逐渐逼到马厩那儿去。他想到这一点时，仍在同泰坎作战，他尽力拼搏。