《能言馬與男孩》第31期:沙斯塔在墳場裏(1)

Chapter 6 Shasta among the Tombs

SHASTA ran lightly along the roof on tiptoes. It felt hot to his bare feet. He was only a few seconds scrambling up the wall at the far end and when he got to the corner he found himself looking down into a narrow, smelly street, and there was a rubbish heap against the outside of the wall just as Corin had told him. Before jumping down he took a rapid glance round him to get his bearings. Apparently he had now come over the crown of the island-hill on which Tashbaan is built. Everything sloped away before him, flat roofs below flat roofs, down to the towers and battlements of the city's Northern wall. Beyond that was the river and beyond the river a short slope covered with gardens. But beyond that again there was something he had never seen the like of - a great yellowish-grey thing, flat as a calm sea, and stretching for miles. On the far side of it were huge blue things, lumpy but with jagged edges, and some of them with white tops. "The desert! the mountains!" thought Shasta.

He jumped down on to the rubbish and began trotting along downhill as fast as he could in the narrow lane, which soon brought him into a wider street where there were more people. No one bothered to look at a little ragged boy running along on bare feet. Still, he was anxious and uneasy till he turned a corner and there saw the city gate in front of him. Here he was pressed and jostled a bit, for a good many other people were also going out; and on the bridge beyond the gate the crowd became quite a slow procession, more like a queue than a crowd. Out there, with clear running water on each side, it was deliciously fresh after the smell and heat and noise of Tashbaan.

When once Shasta had reached the far end of the bridge he found the crowd melting away; everyone seemed to be going either to the left or right along the river bank. He went straight ahead up a road that did not appear to be much used, between gardens. In a few paces he was alone, and a few more brought him to the top of the slope. There he stood and stared. It was like coming to the end of the world for all the grass stopped quite suddenly a few feet before him and the sand began: endless level sand like on a sea shore but a bit rougher because it was never wet. The mountains, which now looked further off than before, loomed ahead. Greatly to his relief he saw, about five minutes' walk away on his left, what must certainly be the Tombs, just as Bree had described them; great masses of mouldering stone shaped like gigantic bee-hive, but a little narrower. They looked very black and grim, for the sun was now setting right behind them.

He turned his face West and trotted towards the Tombs. He could not help looking out very hard for any sign of his friends, though the setting sun shone in his face so that he could see hardly anything. "And anyway," he thought, "of course they'll be round on the far side of the farthest Tomb, not this side where anyone might see them from the city."

There were about twelve Tombs, each with a low arched doorway that opened into absolute blackness. They were dotted about in no kind of order, so that it took a long time, going round this one and going round that one, before you could be sure that you had looked round every side of every tomb. This was what Shasta had to do. There was nobody there.

It was very quiet here out on the edge of the desert; and now the sun had really set.

第6章 沙斯塔在墳場裏

沙斯塔踮起腳尖沿着屋頂輕輕地跑去，覺得他的光腳丫子發燙。不到幾秒鐘他就爬到了牆垣的另一頭，他到了牆角，俯瞰一條狹窄、發臭的小街，正如科林告訴他的，牆外有個垃圾堆。跳下去之前，他先向周圍迅速地掃了一眼，以便認清方位。顯而易見，他已經來到塔什班島城的山頂上了。一切都在他面前迤邐而下，平坦屋頂下方又有平坦屋頂，一直接連到北城城牆及其塔樓和維蝶。城牆外是河流，河流外是一個遍佈花園的短坡。再過去便是他從來沒看見過有什麼跟它類似的景象——灰黃色，平坦得像個平靜的海，綿亙好多英里。它的遙遠邊緣上是大塊大塊藍色，凹凹凸凸，參差不齊，有些頂上是雪白的。”大沙漠！大山大嶺！！”沙斯塔心裏想道。

他往下跳到了垃圾堆上。他開始在小巷裏儘可能快地跑下山去小巷不久便把他帶到了更加寬闊的街道上，那兒的行人就更多了。沒有人留意一個衣衫謐樓的孩子光着腳丫子跑過，但他仍舊焦急不安，直至他在一個角落上轉彎過去，看到了他面前的城門。城門口就有點兒推推操操的，因爲好多人也在出城去；城門外大橋上的人羣變成了一個慢慢前進的行列，與其說它是人羣，倒更像是支隊伍。經歷了塔什班城的臭味、炎熱和喧鬧，來到城外，橋的兩邊清澈的流水奔騰，就覺得空氣新鮮宜人了。

沙斯塔走到大橋橋堍，發覺人羣分流疏散了；彷彿大家下了橋，不是向左便是向右，分別沿着河岸走去。他筆直地向前走上了一條大路，大路介於花園之間，看來不大有人馬走過。他走了幾步便只剩下他一個人了，再走幾步便到了山坡的頂上。他站在坡頂上凝望。他彷彿來到了世界的盡頭，因爲所有的萋萋芳草突然在前面幾步路的地方消失了，大片黃沙開始了，無窮無盡的平坦的黃沙，就像海濱沙灘一樣，只是比較粗糙一些，因爲它可是永遠乾燥的。大山大嶺隱約出現在前方，現在看起來反而比先前更遠了。使他大爲寬慰的是:他看到左邊兒，大約走上五分鐘的路程，必定就是布里描繪過的那個古代國王的墳場。大塊大塊正在風化的石頭，建成巨大蜂房似的形狀，不過稍爲狹了一點兒。看上去黑暗而冷森，因爲太陽現在已經在墳墓後面落下去了。

沙斯塔把臉轉向西方，朝墳場快步走去。他禁不住費力地東張西望，看看可有他的朋友們的蹤跡，夕陽照在他的臉上，他什麼也看不清楚。”無論如何，”他心中想道，”他們總會繞到墳場那一邊去等候的，決不會在城裏任何人都看得到他們的這一邊等。”

墳場共計十二個墓，每個墓前有個低矮拱廊通向絕對的黑暗。墳墓星羅棋佈，卻不是井然有序，所以得花費很長時間，這兒繞一圈，那兒繞一圈，才能使你心中確信，你已經把每個墓的每一邊都找遍了。這就是沙斯塔要辦的事。墳場裏一個人也沒有。

這兒位於大沙漠的邊緣，十分安靜，現在太陽確實已經落山了。