The Horse and His Boy

A young boy called Shasta is found as a baby and raised by Arsheesh, a Calormene fisherman. Some years later, he overhears Arsheesh agreeing to sell him to a powerful Calormene feudal noble. Shasta, who has never really loved the fisherman, is relieved to discover that he is not really his son, and awaits his new master in the donkey stable outside the fisherman's house. As he muses aloud, the noble's stallion, Bree, begins to talk to Shasta, who is astounded. Together the pair decide to escape a life of servitude in Calormen by riding north for Narnia. They meet another pair of escaping travellers, Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat, and her talking horse, Hwin. Aravis is fleeing a forced marriage to the Tisroc's grand vizier, a hunchbacked and grovelling old man.