[She says it before she slips away, her guard following her with a bare look at George, to make sure he knows that he's being watched, but he gives a smile, too. Everyone in Narnia knows that Queen Lucy has a soft heart, but that she also has a gift for loyalty.
It's not the next day, or even the one after that. There are games and dinners and hunts and the whole time Lucy pretends she does not see George at Radabash's side, she pretends she has forgotten, so the day that they go on a hunt it is a surprise when she laughs as she turns her horse around. Everyone is smiling, everyone is having a merry time, even the ones from Calormen.
It is a game when Lucy admires the horses from Calormen, when she starts a conversation about how fine they are, but they cannot match Narnian horses. That starts the game of pride, where Radabash laughs and says that is not possible, even if Narnian horses sometimes speak. Lucy is good at this game, because she's so light, because she knows that Radabash thinks she is a silly girl.
It's easy, then, to make him so proud as to agree to a race. Even more when she raises the terms, and he hesitates when he looks at George, and Lucy insists, and shows her cordial, and greed tints his eye.
Edmund is watching this impassively, and when Lucy mounts her horse he nudges her on the leg. You could have chosen someone else to fall in love with, he tells her, and Lucy shakes her head, but she looks over at George and thinks that love at first sight is a silly thing.
They race.
It's true the horses from Calormen are swift. It's true that they are the best in the world. But Lucy is truly good, and she knows the terrain, and she has nothing in the way of fear.
That, and she has far more to lose.
When she wins, it is not easy. It is only by a half-length, her horse stretching that last moment impossibly, and Lucy is laughing. She can see that Radabash is hiding his fury, that he wants to look good in front of Susan, so he claps her on the back and congratulates her, and she says to send George soon, and turns back to her tent.]
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[She says it before she slips away, her guard following her with a bare look at George, to make sure he knows that he's being watched, but he gives a smile, too. Everyone in Narnia knows that Queen Lucy has a soft heart, but that she also has a gift for loyalty.
It's not the next day, or even the one after that. There are games and dinners and hunts and the whole time Lucy pretends she does not see George at Radabash's side, she pretends she has forgotten, so the day that they go on a hunt it is a surprise when she laughs as she turns her horse around. Everyone is smiling, everyone is having a merry time, even the ones from Calormen.
It is a game when Lucy admires the horses from Calormen, when she starts a conversation about how fine they are, but they cannot match Narnian horses. That starts the game of pride, where Radabash laughs and says that is not possible, even if Narnian horses sometimes speak. Lucy is good at this game, because she's so light, because she knows that Radabash thinks she is a silly girl.
It's easy, then, to make him so proud as to agree to a race. Even more when she raises the terms, and he hesitates when he looks at George, and Lucy insists, and shows her cordial, and greed tints his eye.
Edmund is watching this impassively, and when Lucy mounts her horse he nudges her on the leg. You could have chosen someone else to fall in love with, he tells her, and Lucy shakes her head, but she looks over at George and thinks that love at first sight is a silly thing.
They race.
It's true the horses from Calormen are swift. It's true that they are the best in the world. But Lucy is truly good, and she knows the terrain, and she has nothing in the way of fear.
That, and she has far more to lose.
When she wins, it is not easy. It is only by a half-length, her horse stretching that last moment impossibly, and Lucy is laughing. She can see that Radabash is hiding his fury, that he wants to look good in front of Susan, so he claps her on the back and congratulates her, and she says to send George soon, and turns back to her tent.]