Mattimeo raised his head, taking in the scene around him. The earth was flat, dry and dusty; no trees grew and there was little sign of any gra.s.s, shrubs or greenery. It was a dusty brown desolation stretching out before them.

"I tell you, Tess, I don't like it myself. This far south Mossflower country is very odd. Listen, you can't even hear a single bird singing. What sort of land is it where even the birds cannot live?"

Young Jube the hedgehog stirred in his sleep, he whimpered and turned restlessly. Tess pa.s.sed her paw gently over his headspikes, and he settled down into a quiet slumber.

"Poor little Jube," she said sympathetically. "He used to be so confident that his father would rescue him, and treated the whole thing as if he were only along with us for part of the journey. I'm worried about him, he's so thin and sad-looking these days."

Mattimeo smiled at the churchmouse. "You sounded just like your mum then, Tess, always fussing and worrying over some young one. You're right, though, Jube isn't his old self anymore. In fact, none of us are, we're much thinner and older. I'm not surprised, after all we've been through since that night of the feast at Redwall."

Tess looked at her habit. It was torn, dusty and stained.

"It all seems so long ago. I think we've grown up a lot since then. Ah, well, the main thing is that we're still together. We've made friends, too. Look at Auma; I couldn't imagine life without her and Jube anymore."

Slavers and captives alike began wakening. Mattimeo winked at Tess and smiled as cheerfully as he could.

"We'll come through it all, you wait and see," he said comfortingly. "Ho hum! Another nice sunny day for a walk, eh, Tess? I wonder where old Slagar is taking us today. Nut-gathering? Bcknkking? What do you think?"

Tess stood up, looking a bit more like her old self. "Oh, I think we'd better just stay with the rest and have a nice ramble," she chuckled. "What about you? Would you like to play follow my leader - or should I say, follow my Slagar? Come on, mouse, pick up your daisy chain and lef s go."

Bageye checked their manacles, muttering in a sullen voice, "Huh, don't know what you two have got to laugh about."

259.

Orlando waded ash.o.r.e towing the raft behind him. It had been a hard and dangerous night, fighting their way out of the main current back into the shallows. The crew had poled the raft into a small bay. Wet and weary, they stumbled onto dry land in the pale dawn light shivering after their nightlong ordeal on the swift choppy river. v Basil slicked water from his long drooping ears. "Whaaw! Here's one old soldier who won't complain when the sun starts getting hot. No chance of a bite o' breakfast, I suppose?"

Matthias dried his sword carefully on a tussock of gra.s.s. "No chance at all, old soldier. Those rats will be dashing along the banks right now, hoping they'll catch up with us. We'd better move fast if we want to stay alive. Log-a-Log, you and Cheek tow the raft out a bit. The current will carry it away; no sense leaving it here as a marker where we came ash.o.r.e. Jess/ Jabez, would you take the rear and try to cover our tracks from the bank? Leave them as few clues as possible; it may buy us a bit of time."

Jess Squirrel bounded up a nearby tree, took a quick look around and descended speedily.

"Matthias, we'd better hurry," she urged. "I could see movement in the bushes further up the bank. If we stay here much longer we're going to have company."

"Right, Jess. Come on, everybody. Keep me in sight. I'm going to take a curving sweep into these trees, then with a bit of luck we'll circle south and miss the rats. Hurry now, let's get out of he-"

An arrow bedded in the ground. It stood quivering a fraction from Orlando, who kicked it into the river.

"Thaf s the trouble with being my size, you make a good target. Lef s run for it!"

The rat advance scout fired a whistling arrow upwards to alert the main body. Stonetleck turned in its direction.

"They're trying to head south through the trees. Follow me, we'll cut them off."

260.

He set off at a tangent, cutting into the woodland to outflank Matthias.

Morning sunlight slanted into the trees as swarms of rats ran silently, keeping abreast of their leader. Stone-fleck halted on a sloping hillside and listened carefully: they were coming. Nodding to his followers, he dropped down behind an oak. The rats spread themselves among the other trees, notching arrows onto bowstrings. He could not have timed it better. The woodlanders came hurrying through the forest below, looking back over their shoulders to see if they were being pursued.

Stonefleck let fly a shaft at the mouse in the lead, hoping to catch him in the side of his neck. The mottled rat gave a grunt of disappointment as the arrow pinged harmlessly oft the hilt of a big sword the mouse was carrying slung across his back and shoulders. A hail of arrows. .h.i.t the main party below, shrews fell slain and wounded as the mouse in the lead shouted: "Ambush! They're on our right flank. Follow me!"

They rushed for cover in the protection of the forest to their left, Stonefleck dashed down the hill after them.

"Charge!"

It was a lucky accident that Stonefleck tripped over a protruding tree root. The rats swarmed past him in a headlong attack, only to be met by Matthias and Orlando.

The two warriors had taken a temporary stand, allowing the rest of their party to get away. Armed only with bows and arrows, the rats could not fire in dose combat. Orlando took the first two with a cleaving sideways chop of the huge war axe, while Matthias stepped swiftly from behind a tree and slew a rat who was dashing past. Turning quickly, he took another on the point of his sword. Orlando thundered into a group of the front runners. Wielding his axe, he scattered them like chaff, roaring aloud his battlecry: "Eulaliaaaaa!"

"Redwalffll!"

261.

Matthias was at his side, the scything, whirling blade cutting a deadly pattern of cold steel amid the rats.

Stunned by the shock of the wild attack, the rat horde fell back. Stonefleck ran up, urging them forward.

"Rush them, there's only two. Come on!"

They regrouped and dashed in, yelling wildly, but the two warriors were gone!

Matthias and Orlando ran panting into the main party a short distance ahead. The warrior mouse was angry.

"Why didn't you keep running? We would have caught up with you."

Basil shook his head. "We couldn't, not after we heard all the screams and shouts from back there. We were about to go back and help you."

"You should have kept going," Matthias repeated. "No time to argue now, here they come again."

Log-a-Log broke into a run, pointing ahead. "Look, there's a clearing over that way. Lef s get to the other side of it and hold them off with our slings."

Stonefleck and his horde were hot on the trail. They had covered half the clearing when a deep shrew voice called out: "Sling!"

A rain of hard river pebbles struck the rats, felling several and driving the rest back. Stonefleck grouped his force at the other side of the clearing. They stood among the trees and returned fire with arrows. Screams and cries rang out as the battle raged back and forth, shafts going one way, stones flying the other. Basil took charge of the slingers, forming them into three ranks.

"First rank, sling and reload! Second rank, sling and reload! Third rank, sling and reload!" he ordered.

Matthias and his friends did as best as they could, dodging from tree to tree, picking off the odd rat with their slings.

Jess took a brief respite and dropped down by Matthias.

262.

"I'm out of stones. Have you got many left?" she asked the warrior mouse.

"Hardly any. They're no match for arrows, Jess. Look, there's more rats arriving by the moment; we're outnumbered by at least ten to one."

"At least. They only have to follow us and pick us off one by one, and we can't make a run for it now, their firepower is too heavy. I'd hate to die this far from Redwall, Matthias."

"Me too, Jess, but they've got us pinned down now. It was a mistake to try and make a stand, but they'd have caught us if we'd kept running. I'll have to rack my brains and see if I can't come up with- Whafs that?"

"Sparra kill! Kill! Kill! Eccecccceoc!"

Queen Warbeak and her Sparra fighters hurtled into the rats like a winged shower of small beaks and talons.

Jess leapt forward. "Matthias, if s Warbeak and her Sparra folk. What are they doing here?"

"I don't know, but they'll be ma.s.sacred if we don't help them. Basil, Log-a-Log! Come on. Chaaaaarge!"

Quickbill and his two brothers Brightback and Diptail had found an easy source of supply for Ironbeak's fighters. Why forage in the woods when mere was a beautiful orchard right in the grounds of the big redstone house?

With the Redwall inhabitants forced to stay indoors, the three magpies had grown bold. Now they did not even bother foraging by night. Each day they would fly down to the orchard and eat their fill before loading up with supplies to take to the roofs.p.a.ce. Quickbill was amazed at so much different fruit growing in one place; he had never encountered an orchard before.

"Hakka! The northlands were never like this, brothers; apples, pears, plums and look, look at those juicy red berries!"

The trio stood around the strawberries on the ground, unhurried, each seeking out a bigger strawberry than the one his brother was eating. They were behaving like naughty young ones raiding the orchard.

263.

"Chakka! Look at this one, it is like two stuck together."

"Yaah, but this berry is more red and shiny, see."

"Kacha! I will eat them all as long as they are fat and juicy."

The magpies' long tails dipped and jerked as they gobbled the strawberries with swift bobbing head movements. They carried on, comparing berries as they greedily ravaged the well-tended strawberry patch. Suddenly Brightback belched, then he staggered and fell awkwardly.

His two brothers cackled aloud at the sight.

"Chahaha! The red berries are making you too fat to stand, brother. We will load our bags and fly back up."

Diptail pecked at a berry and missed. His beak struck the soil. Smiling foolishly, he flapped his wings and fell flat.

"Yakko! The red berries are magic. I cannot fly," he giggled.

Quickbill yawned. He lay in the soil, flapping his wings against it with a silly grin on his face.

"Coohoo! Look at me, I'm flying."

Led by Constance, a group of Redwallers crept out from behind a b.u.t.tress at the east corner of the Abbey. They were carrying nets.

"Easy now, lef s bag all three at once."

Quickbill was the strongest of the three. He saw the shadow of the net spreading over him, but he felt unable to do anything about it. Diptail was in a deep drugged sleep. Brightback tried to keep his eyes open, but they snapped shut. The net fell on them, trapping the three birds squarely at its center. They lay stunned amid the remains of the knockout strawberries.

Little Sister May came out from behind the raspberry canes, wagging a paw at the sleeping thieves. "It serves you right. I hope you wake with dreadful headaches!"

Constance and Winifred rolled the magpies tightly in the nets. "They can't hear you, Sister," Constance told her. "Let's get them inside before we're spotted."

264.

Pushing and tugging, they lugged their feathered hostages inside.

The Abbot dusted off his paws. "Well done, my friends. What do we do now, wait until the appointed time or open negotiations right away?"

Constance gave a huge grin. She was beginning to enjoy herself.

"Allow me. Father Abbot. Leave it to Ambrose and me. We'll go and inform Ironbeak that we have three chickens in the bag. The rest of you, take up your posts at the windows, and make sure there are plenty of arrows and spears showing."

Constance and Ambrose strolled out in leisurely fashion. The badger threw her head back and called up to the roof, "Hey, you up there! Irontrousers, or whatever you call yourself. Get down here, I want a word with you."

Ambrose sn.i.g.g.e.red into his paws. "I wish Basil Stag Hare was here, he'd think of some good names to caU that bird."

There was a short silence, then Mangiz appeared at the eaves. The crow flapped down to a lower roof level.

"Are you ready to surrender so early, stripedog?" he asked.

"Go and boil your beak, featherbag!"

"Silence, earthcrawler. My General sent me to speak with you."

Ambrose wrinkled his snout at Mangiz. "Listen, maggorbrain, you just flap back to your Chief and tell him that we want to speak to the big fish and not the little worm. Hurry up now, don't stand there gawpin'!"

The seer crow was outraged. "Mangiz does not forget an insult, hedgepig."

Ambrose smiled cheekily. "Good, then here's a few more for you to remember, you pot-bellied, cross-eyed, feather-bottomed excuse for a duck. Now be off with you before I really get goin'!"

When the crow had gone, Ambrose turned to Con- 265.

stance. "What d'you think, stripedog, was I a bit too hard on him?"

Constance thought for a moment. "No, no, on the whole I thought you did quite well, hedgepig."

Ironbeak flew out with Mangiz and several of the rooks. They came down to the lowest roof. Constance did not mince her words.

"h.e.l.lo there, Ironb.u.m, or is it Tinbeak? I can never remember. Anyhow, about the three hostages you're holding, don't you think if s high time you let them go?"

Ironbeak suspected by the badger's tone that something was amiss, but he kept up a bold imperious front.

"If you have not come to surrender, they will die, earthcrawler."

Ambrose wriggled his spikes. "I knew you'd do no good talking politely to that bird."

Constance stopped her teasing. Now that she had drawn the raven out, her tone became harsh and serious.

"Listen to me, Ironbeak. We are holding your three magpies prisoner. If you harm a single hair of those hostages, I will personally drown those birds in our Abbey pond. Is that clear?"

The birds on the roof cawed and cackled in consternation. Ironbeak silenced them with a wave of his wing.

"You have captured Quickbill and his brothers? I do not believe it."