《最後一戰》第55期:穿過馬廄的門(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.

“聽着，”他說，“如果野豬、狗和獨角獸願意到我這兒來，哀求我大發慈悲。我可以饒它們的命。野豬可以到‘蒂斯羅克’御花園的籠子裏去；狗兒們可到‘蒂斯羅克’的養狗場去，獨角獸，在我鋸掉它的角以後，可以去拉車，但，老鷹、孩子們和那個做國王的人，今夜都要當做祭品，上供給塔什神。”

惟一的回答是憤怒的號叫。

“戰士們，上！”泰坎下令道，“殺死那些畜生，活捉那幾個兩腳的人。”

於是，納尼亞最後一個國王的最後一戰開始了。

除了敵人人多勢衆外，使戰鬥勝利無望的，乃是敵人的長矛。幾乎從開頭起一直跟無尾猿沆瀣一氣的卡樂門人是沒有長矛的：因爲他們是一個兩個地喬裝成商人進入納尼亞的，他們當然不帶長矛，長矛可不是件能藏起來的東西。新的卡樂門人必定是以後纔來的，那時無尾猿已經強大，卡樂門人可以公開地行軍了。有了長矛，情況就截然不同。如果你動作敏捷，頭腦鎮靜的話，手持長矛，你便可以在獠牙還夠不着你時把野豬刺死，在獨角還夠不着你時把獨角獸刺死。如今並舉的許多長矛都在向蒂蓮和他最後的朋友們逼攏來了。他們不久都在爲保全生命而戰鬥拼搏了。

說不定你會認爲：從某一方面看來，這樣拼命戰鬥倒也不壞。

當你充分運用全身的肌肉——這兒低頭避過矛尖，那兒跳過矛尖，忽而猛烈前衝，忽而往後退縮，忽而旋轉又旋轉——你就沒有時間感到驚惶或悲哀了。蒂蓮知道現在他對其他的人馬無能爲力了：他們大家都在劫難逃。他模糊地看到野豬在他的身邊倒下了，珍寶在另一邊猛烈地戰鬥。他從一隻眼睛的眼角上望見，只是勉強望見，一個卡樂門大個兒揪住吉爾的頭髮，把她拉到什麼地方去了。但他很難考慮這些事情，哪一件也考慮不起來。他現在惟一的思想是盡其所能爲自己的生命索取高昂的代價。最糟糕的是他不能固守住白石頭下他最初所選定的陣地。一個人同時與十幾個敵人作戰，必須利用他能在任何地方碰到的機會；他在任何地方看到敵人的未曾保護的胸膛或頸子，就必須衝過去。而剛砍了幾刀，就會使你離你出發的地點相當遠了。蒂蓮不久就發現自己愈來愈往右邊兒前進，離馬廄更近了。他腦子裏有個朦朦朧朧的概念：遠離馬廄是大有道理的。但他沒法兒把這道理記起來了。無論如何，他身不由己，無可奈何。

突然之間，一切又變得相當清楚了。他發現自己正在跟那泰坎作戰。篝火(殘餘的那點兒火焰)在他的正前方。事實上，他正在馬廄的門口作戰，因爲馬廄的門洞開着，兩個卡樂門士兵掌握着門，準備在他剛進門的瞬間立刻把門關上。現在他把一切都記起來了，他認識到敵人從戰鬥剛開始時起，便一直存心要把他逐漸逼到馬廄那兒去。他想到這一點時，仍在同泰坎作戰，他盡力拼搏。