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Aravis's Letter

Col Klink
(@col-klink)
NarniaWeb Junkie

In Chapter 3 of The Horse and his Boy, Aravis says that thanks to the forged letter she sent, her father wouldn't be looking for her until after she'd left Tashbaan. But when she is in Tashbaan, Lasaraleen says her father is there, already looking for her. So presumably he hasn't received the letter yet. (Maybe her slave girl woke up earlier than she thought.) 

Recently, this made me wonder what his reaction will be when he gets it. He'll know it's fake and that Aravis must be responsible. Would he punish his secretary for helping her? Actually, he'd probably do that eventually anyway. Even if Aravis plan had been entirely successful, the truth was going to come out sometime. In a culture where getting drugged earns you a beating, the punishment for forging a letter from a Tarkaan must be way worse. 

If so, it seems weird that Aslan would punish Aravis for leaving her stepmother's slave to be beaten but not for leaving the secretary, who, unlike the slave girl, was loyal and devoted to her, to his grim fate

For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
-The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen check out my new blog!

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Topic starter Posted : July 18, 2022 4:09 pm
coracle
(@coracle)
NarniaWeb's Auntie Moderator

Lewis doesn't give us the rest of that story. Perhaps the beating of the servant girl was a more important lesson for Aravis to learn about?  Maybe her father never finds out who wrote the letter?

There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."

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Posted : July 18, 2022 6:45 pm
Cobalt Jade
(@cobalt-jade)
NarniaWeb Nut

Wasn't Lasaraleen delayed in reaching Tashbaan by her meeting Shasta when the "lion" drives them together?

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Posted : July 20, 2022 10:24 am
Col Klink liked
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