Aravis sneaks into the palace and overhears Rabadash’s invasion plan

Aravis sneaks into the palace and overhears Rabadash’s invasion plan during her attempt to escape Tashbaan. A route out of the city turns into a dangerous hiding place: concealed with Lasaraleen, she hears the Tisroc, Rabadash, and Ahoshta Tarkaan discuss a covert attack on Archenland and a later seizure of Queen Susan. The scene makes Aravis an accidental witness to the political decision that puts Anvard and Narnia in danger.

Escape Plan and Palace Entry

Aravis and Lasaraleen first consider getting horses through Tashbaan’s North Gate, where grooms in fine clothing could lead a war horse and a lady’s saddle horse to the river without attracting questions. Aravis herself could not simply leave in a curtained litter: Lasaraleen warns that litters are used within the city, and taking one through the gate would invite scrutiny. She proposes another way out: the Tisroc’s garden reaches the water and has a small water-door, with punts tied up outside. Lasaraleen means to use her familiarity with the palace to slip Aravis inside and then guide her out after dark; Aravis recognizes the peril if they are caught.

They enter on foot about two hours after supper. Aravis is veiled and dressed to resemble a high-ranking household’s slave-girl; if questioned, Lasaraleen is to present her as a gift for one of the princesses. The palace officer knows Lasaraleen and salutes her, allowing them to pass the guards. They move through the Hall of Black Marble, the Hall of Pillars, the Hall of Statues, and a colonnade beside the throne room’s beaten-copper doors, then descend through the garden-court toward the Old Palace. Their intended passage becomes uncertain in a dark maze of corridors. Lasaraleen is unsure which way to turn, but they take the left passage and descend steps.

Discovery and Concealment

A moving light reveals two men carrying candles and walking backward, a sign that a royal person is approaching. Lasaraleen, suddenly frightened, hurries Aravis back up the steps and feels along the wall until she finds a door. They slip inside and close it behind them, finding themselves in complete darkness. Aravis can tell from Lasaraleen’s breathing that her companion is terrified.

The room offers only the narrow space between a sofa and a curtained wall. Lasaraleen gets the more concealed position; part of Aravis’s veiled face remains exposed, and the girls lie still, trying not to make noise. The door opens and light enters. Aravis can see the visitors from her position: first the two candle-bearing slaves, then the Tisroc, followed by a visibly agitated young man and, last, Ahoshta Tarkaan, whom Aravis recognizes as her betrothed and the new Grand Vizier. The men take positions around the sofa, inadvertently helping obscure her from view. What had begun as a route out of the palace has left Aravis hidden within the room where a secret council is about to meet.

Rabadash’s Proposal and the Tisroc’s Terms

The young man is Prince Rabadash, and his grievance is the departure of the Narnian visitors. He blames the Tisroc for delaying his pursuit of their ship and says that he must have Queen Susan. His father counsels restraint, but Rabadash then proposes an invasion: he wants to take two hundred horse across the desert, surprise King Lune’s castle of Anvard in Archenland, and proceed through Narnia to Cair Paravel. He expects the High King to be away, and imagines seizing Queen Susan when she arrives aboard the Splendor Hyaline, then carrying her back to Anvard.

The proposal is not an openly declared war. Rabadash presents the expedition as a way to extend the Tisroc’s power while allowing him to deny involvement if it fails. The Tisroc asks whether the attempt might cost either King Edmund or Rabadash his life. Rabadash’s stated plan is to take Anvard before its defenders can prepare, move onward, and use as little Narnian bloodshed as possible while waiting for Susan’s ship. Ahoshta supports the likelihood that Anvard will fall and argues that success would put Narnia at their mercy.

The Tisroc gives permission, but sharply limits his commitment. Rabadash is to receive no help or public support; the Tisroc will neither avenge him if he is killed nor rescue him if he is imprisoned. He also warns that unnecessary deaths among Narnian nobles, and the resulting open war, would cost Rabadash his favor and position in favor of another brother. Rabadash accepts and leaves. The Tisroc’s terms turn the invasion into a gamble for the prince: he may attempt the conquest, but cannot count on the state to bear its costs if it goes wrong.

Intelligence and the Wider Campaign

Aravis’s hiding place makes her a witness to the invasion plan, but the available account does not describe her relaying it or show that her overheard information changes the course of the campaign. The threat is also tied to practical knowledge of the desert. Elsewhere, the Raven Sallowpad explains that the Great Oasis cannot supply a large invading army and describes an alternative route: from the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, riders must head northwest with the double peak of Mount Pire ahead, find a narrow stony valley, and follow its river into Archenland. This account establishes that the desert is not an impassable barrier, even though its water supplies constrain an army’s movement.

The later attack at Anvard demonstrates the danger embodied in Rabadash’s scheme. Rabadash’s force reaches the castle and attacks its closed gate with a tree trunk as the Narnians arrive. The defense and counterattack turn the proposed surprise into a battle: King Lune leads a sortie, while King Edmund and the Narnian forces join the fighting. The Calormenes are defeated, and the castle gates open. That outcome supplies the campaign’s consequence, but it does not establish that Aravis’s overhearing itself caused the defenders to be ready.

Narrative Function

The palace episode connects a private escape attempt to a larger political conflict. Aravis enters the palace seeking a way out of Tashbaan; the concealed door delays that escape but places her within hearing of a plan that endangers two kingdoms. The sequence moves from disguise and uncertain navigation, to concealment, to overheard deliberation, revealing the stakes through the adversaries’ own discussion rather than through an account of battle.

The scene also distinguishes Rabadash’s ambition from the Tisroc’s calculation. The prince proposes conquest and the capture of Susan, while his father permits the venture only on terms designed to preserve his own deniability and authority. The hidden route through the palace therefore opens onto a hidden political arrangement: the attack is planned in secret, yet its consequences reach beyond the room, eventually to the walls of Anvard.