The lines are drawn. The last battle begins.

Good news: Shift finally gets his comeuppance, thrown into the stable to face whatever horror he’d summoned.  Bad news: There are still the Calormenes to be dealt with.

No one except Farsight the Eagle, who has the best eyes of all living things, noticed the face of Rishda Tarkaan at that moment. And from what Farsight saw he knew that Rishda was just as surprised, and nearly frightened, as everyone else. “There goes one,” thought Farsight, “who has called on gods he does not believe in. How will it be for him if they have really come?”

A fair amount of the Beasts join Tirian when he calls, but most of them are too frightened to join either side. And then there are the Dwarfs.

“Listen!” said Jewel: and then “Look!” said Farsight. […] With a thunder a hoofs, with tossing manes, over a score of Talking Horses of Narnia came charging up the hill. […]

Poggin the Dwarf and the children opened up their mouths to cheer but that cheer never came. Suddenly the air was full of the sound of twanging bow-strings and hissing arrows. It was the Dwarfs who were shooting and – for a moment Jill could hardly believe her eyes – they were shooting the Horses. Dwarfs are deadly archers. Horse after Horse rolled over. Not one of those noble Beasts ever reached the King.

That’s the book in a nutshell: My heart shattering with another hope destroyed.

“Thought we were on your side, did you? No fear. We don’t want any Talking Horses. We don’t want you to win any more than the other gang. You can’t take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”

The Dwarfs are really the most human in their faults, if more prone to skepticism than most.  They want to rule their own lives, and are rather forgetful of the good that is done for them.  So they stand on the sidelines shooting down both sides, mistaking that for free-thinking.  It’s no way to live one’s life, and sure to get them killed sooner or later.

I feel like I haven’t really been writing that much lately – my posts are all full of quotes! That’s really a testament to the writing more than anything else, though, as Lewis is just better at conveying his points than me. But I’ll have plenty to say…

…Next time.