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The Horse and His Boy is the fifth book in C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia fantasy series. It is the third in chronological order.
In this story, a slave boy named Shasta comes across a talking horse named Bree. They set off to free their own world and to live in Narnia.
Plot Summary:
A young boy called Shasta was raised as a slave to an old Calormene fisherman named Arsheesh, whom Shasta referred to as “Father”. The story begins in earnest when a powerful Calormene war general demands hospitality of Arsheesh. Shasta eavesdrops on the conversation had by Arsheesh and the general. The General offers to buy Shasta from Arsheesh, pointing out that the boy is clearly not his son but is a “fair-skinned barbarian from the north”. In response Arsheesh then tells the story of how one night, not being able to sleep, he went out to the beach and found a boat washed ashore with a dead man holding a live baby. The fisherman kept the baby and raised him as a slave, teaching the boy to call him father.
After hearing this Shasta goes to the stable to tend the General's horse he wonders aloud what kind of man the General is, and what it would be like to be his slave. Unknown to Shasta, and for that matter to the general, the horse is a Talking Narnian horse. The horse, after seeing that Shasta is not a Calormen, answers Shasta's question by telling him that the General is a horrible, and cruel man. Shasta and the horse, named Bree, then plot to escape to the north after the men go to bed.
As they are traveling they are chased by a lion and encounter another rider in full Calormene armor who is also being chased by a Lion. The two lions chase the horses and riders so that they are right next to each other. At this point Shasta and Bree hear the other Horse speak to its rider, and they also hear the rider's voice and find that it is a girl. The lions give up the chase and Bree insists on speaking with this other horse. Reluctantly the other rider agrees to camp together for the night. Shasta and Bree learn that the other horse, named Hwin, was kidnapped from the southern fields of Narnia as a colt just as Bree was. They two horses find that they knew several of the same people and are distantly related. The other rider, named Aravis, then tells her story of how and why she is running away wearing her brother's armor.
Aravis describes how she grew up the daughter of a Tarkaan. After her brother's death in battle, Aravis' father made arrangements for her to marry Ahoshta Tarkaan. Ahoshta is an old man with a hump on his back who is the sniveling advisor to the Tisroc. Upon learning of this Aravis decided to commit suicide, and goes to the forest with her horse to kill herself. Just before she acts, her Horse, Hwin, asks her not to kill herself. From there Aravis and Wynn agree to escape to the north, much like Shasta and Bree.
Though the two humans do not like each other the four of them agree to pool their resources and travel together. When they come to Tashbaan, the capital city of Calormen, they cannot go around so they travel through the city. Before they enter they agree to wait for each other at the gate on the far side of the city if they get separated. As they are traveling through the city they encounter a procession of Narnian royalty visiting the City of Tashbaan. The Narnian King spots Shasta in the crowd and mistakes him for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who was traveling with the Narnians but had run off. Before Shasta can say anything he is taken by the Narnians to where they are staying. The Narnians continue to assume that he is Corin, but because he isn't saying anything they presume he has heat stroke. While he is resting and eating ice cream he hears the Narnians talking about Rabadash, the prince of Calormen, and Queen Susan. They fear that if Queen Susan refuses the prince's hand in marriage then Calormen will go to war against Narnia and force the Queen into the marriage. On the other hand nobody wants the Queen to marry the prince so they plot an escape from Calormen and a hasty return to Narnia to prepare against war. A crow in the company tells the group of the various ways of getting to Narnia from Tashbaan, Shasta listens to this carefully so that he and his friends can travel across the great desert safely. After the plan is made everyone leaves the room to let 'Prince Corin' recover. When Shasta is by himself the real Prince Corin climbs through the window with a black eye. Corin tells Shasta how to get out through the window and out of the City. Corin also asks Shasta to come and see him when he gets to the Northern lands because Shasta does look so remarkably like Corin. Shasta follows Corin's instructions and reaches the north gate just before nightfall when the gates are locked. He sees no trace of Aravis or the horses and wonders if they had gone on without him. He contemplates going on without them rather then waiting for them by himself near the tombs of the great kings. A large cat appears and sits with Shasta through the night to comfort him.
After Shasta was taken by the Narnians, Aravis took both the horses and continued on her way through the city. A little bit later she encounters a procession with one of her childhood friends, Lasaraleen. Lasaraleen spots her in the crowd and calls out to her. Aravis, rather than create a scene, joins Lasaraleen in the litter and insists on having the curtains drawn, and instructs the servants to take the horses. They are taken to Lasaraleen's house where Aravis tells Lasaraleen of her escape. Lasaraleen doesn't understand why Aravis doesn't want to marry Ahoshta, but agrees to help her. Lasaraleen tells Aravis of a way out of the City other than the back gates. This other way out is the water entrance to the Kings Palace through his gardens. Lasaraleen claims to be so popular at the palace that she knows her way around and can go about freely. They arrange to have a servant take the horses to the north gate and Lasaraleen will go the palace with Aravis dressed as a servant. Lasaraleen gets lost within the palace. When they see servants coming up the stairs backwards they know that the Tisroc is coming and try to hide from him in a room. Hiding behind a couch they see the servants enter and then the Tisroc, Ahoshta and Prince Rabadash. They hear the three of them make plans to go to war against Narnia after the escape from Tashbaan of the Narnian Royalty. They agree that the Prince will take an army early in the morning and cross the desert towards Narnia; this way if the Prince fails then the Tisroc may claim that he did not know of it and thereby remain on good terms with Narnia. After they leave Aravis and Lasaraleen find their way to the garden where Aravis goes on by herself. By the time Aravis meets up with Shasta and the Horses, Shasta had been waiting for them for a night and a day.
The four of them make the unpleasant journey across the desert following the instructions Shasta heard from the crow in Tashbaan. Their journey is hastened by the need to warn the people of the north about the Prince and his army coming to war against them. When they reach the end of the desert they are so exhausted that they move slowly and the urgency they felt is gone, only Hwin continues to push the others on. At this point another lion shows up and chases them all the way into the safety of a hermit's garden. The hermit tells Shasta the way to Archenland and sends him on without the others to warn the king of Archenland of the coming army.
The entire story is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When King Lune of Archenland had twin sons named Cor and Corin he brought them to a Centaur who told him that one day Cor would save all of Archenland from the greatest danger it had ever faced. A Calormene spy in the court of Archenland heard this, kidnapped Cor and took him on a ship headed for Calormen. King Lune gave chase and overtook the ship. Before the ship was boarded a sailor took Cor in a lifeboat. The sailor kept Cor alive but died himself before reaching the shore. This is how Arsheesh found Cor, and later named him Shasta.
One also finds that Aslan acts as a driving force throughout the whole book. One learns that he pushed the boat ashore where Arsheesh would find it. Aslan was also the 'two' lions that chased Shasta and Bree so they would find Aravis and Hwin. Later he was the large cat that comforted Shasta outside of Tashbaan so he would wait for the others. Finally he was the lion that chased them on the far side of the desert to give them the added strength they needed to reach Archenland in time.
In writing this story Lewis relates that he was particularly interested in the narrative structure of the story, which he compares to the Greek drama Oedipus in as much as it features a self fullfilling prophecy.
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