They would never have made it out. They learned that quickly, in the coming year. Shasta learnt it through blows at Tashbaan's worst butcher shop, arms soaked with sweat and the blood of too many different beasts, including his own, and he tried not to think of Bree. Aravis learnt it under Ahoshta's sharp nails and rancid breath, and the tightening claustrophobia of an inescapable fate.

Still, they planned. Not to run North, but to dig their heels into the South. To make them pay. A year after they crossed the fateful gates of Tashbaan, Aravis' order of lamb arrived -- and hidden within it, a long, sharp dagger.