Constance moved to the Abbey door. "Then I will show you the proof. We have cut your supply line; you will starve without the magpies."

Constance went indoors. A moment later, she was dragging out the net with the three magpies inside.

"They say that seeing is believing, what do you say to that?" she called.

Ironbeak peered over the guttering. "I say that it was very clever of you, stripedog. But it wUl do you no good, I will send others out to forage."

"Oh, as I understand it, warriors are warriors, not 266.

scavengers. Your fighters could not do the job, that's why you had magpies."

"Kaahl Then we will become scavengers, we will take the food from that place you call orchard."

Ambrose pointed to the windows. "No you won't, we've got archers, sling-throwers and javelins stationed at the windows facing the orchard. It is not as far to shoot from there as it is from the ground to the rooftop. Send a few of those birds into the orchard now and you'll see what we mean."

Whilst Ironbeak stood on the roof digesting this information, Ambrose pointed at the remains of the strawberries lying in the patch.

"Shoot!"

There was a tw.a.n.g and hiss from the windows. Four arrows and two javelins stood quivering among the strawberries.

Ironbeak swallowed hard. "What do you want?"

Constance kept a heavy paw upon the net. "You know what we want, an exchange of hostages."

"What you ask is not possible."

"Then your army will starve in the roofs.p.a.ces," she warned.

"We will kill your mice if you do not surrender," Ironbeak countered.

"And we will kill your magpies. This net is weighted with stones. They will drown in the pond."

"You are peaceful creatures. I know your ways, you could not do such a thing."

Constance seized the net in her paws and then began dragging it to the Abbey pond.

"Your mistake," she snarled savagely. "They may be peaceable creatures; badgers are not. It will be a pleasure to rid Mossflower of this sc.u.m. I am done with talking!"

The big badger tumbled the net into the shallows.

Revived by the water, the three magpie brothers awoke, spluttering.

"Yflggfl.' Save us, Ironbeak, save us. Help, we will drown trapped in this net, Ironbeak, General, save us!"

267.

The birds on the roof danced anxiously around their leader, cawing and flapping. Mangiz whispered something to him. The raven General c.o.c.ked his head towards the crow, his bright eye roving across the scene at the pond.

When Mangiz had finished, Ironbeak spoke in a level voice: "Stop! Do not drown my magpie brethren. They have served me well. I will talk terms with you."

A great cheer arose from the defenders at the window slits.

Constance gave a silent sigh of relief. "Then you agree to our request, three in exchange for three?"

Ironbeak spread his wings. "So be it! The exchange will take place here, in front of this redstone house when the evening bells toll at sunset."

Ambrose exchanged glances with Constance.

"Let the hostages be freed here and now!" she proposed.

Ironbeak folded his wings and closed his eyes with finality. "Do not stretch your luck, earthcrawlers. You have gained a victory. The exchange will take place as I say. Agreed?"

Constance hauled the net from the shallows. "Agreed!"

When the birds had flown, Ambrose shook his head at Constance. "If s some sort of trap, I can feel it in me spikes. That bird has somethin' in mind for us. Didn't you see him whispering with the crow? They were hatching a plan."

The Abbot came out to greet them.

"I agree with Ambrose," he said. "They are obviously working out a trap. You did well. It was a good bluff, Constance."

The big badger looked grim. "It was no bluff. Father Abbot. I would drown a dozen like these in the net if our Abbey or our creatures were threatened. We will wait and see what they have planned for sunset."

268.

34.

Queen Warbeak and her sparrows stood little chance against the rats. Many of them were shot in the air. But the Queen and her Sparra warriors were brave and reckless fighters, and they plunged in regardless of danger. Matthias and Orlando headed the charge across the clearings; the shrews drew their short swords and followed. Cheek, Jess and Jabez whirled slings loaded with stones as clubs, and Basil hurtled in with both long back legs kicking dangerously. "Redwaaaall! Mossfloweeeer! Guosim! Logalogalog!" The speed of the attack, combined with the sparrow a.s.sault, took the rats off guard. They fought tooth and claw, using arrows to stab with, but they were no match for the force that came at them, despite their superior numbers.

The shrews were fearsome warriors at close quarters, with their short swords. They fought in groups facing outwards. Circling and milling, they created a carousel of slaughter. Rats fell screaming and kicking everywhere. Cheek and Jabez stood back to back, thwacking away with their loaded slings. Sparra warriors fastened their claws into rats' heads and pecked madly at their faces. The rats were unused to being attacked in their own territory and they fought mainly a defensive action.

269.

Many brought down shrews and sparrows. However, they were no match for Matthias and Orlando; the axe and the sword swathed into them at every turn. And rats flew high in the air from Basil's awesome kicks.

The battle raged back and forth. The woodlanders were still greatly outnumbered, though their weapons and fighting skills were superior. It might have gone one way or the other, when Log-a-Log turned the tide. He spied Stonefleck slinking away into the trees, and using his sword as a spear, he launched it at the rat Chieftain. His aim was true. Stonefleck fell, slain by the sword Log-a-Log had thrown.

When the rats saw their leader fall, the fight went out of them. Screaming and wailing, they scurried off into the trees.

Matthias stood leaning on his sword, breathing heavily. Ignoring the cuts and bites he had taken, the warrior mouse extended his paw to the shrew leader.

"Well thrown, Log-a-Log!"

The shrews gave a loud cheer for their leader.

Matthias looked around. The slain littered the edge of the clearing like leaves in autumn.

''Where is my friend Queen Warbeak?" he asked.

His heart sank within him. A small group of Sparra warriors who had survived the battle were grouped about their fallen Queen. Matthias, jess and Basil knelt by her side, tears streaming openly down their faces for the Sparra Queen lying there. Warbeak's eyes were dimmed in death, the breeze moved her feathers gently.

A sparrow pa.s.sed Matthias a small scroll. "We come alia way from Redwall," he told the warrior mouse. "Abbot say give you this. Queen see you in trouble with ratworms. She say help um friend Matthias."

Jess lifted Warbeak lightly, and carried her up into a sycamore tree. Laying her on a broad bough, she covered the Sparra Queen with leaves in the time-honored Sparra fashion.

270.

Matthias sat at the foot of the sycamore, his head in both paws, grieving for Warbeak.

Basil came over and patted Matthias. "There, there, old lad. I know if s a pity she had to die so far from Redwall, but she saved us by her courage."

Matthias plucked at a blade of gra.s.s. "Yes, the Queen loved Redwall. That was the bravest thing I've ever seen any creature do, Basil. She threw herself and her warriors at those rats, knowing she and her sparras stood no chance. They flew in against arrows and attacked with only beak and claw."

Orlando wiped his axe blade on the gra.s.s. "I never knew your sparrow friend, Matthias, but she saved all our lives by her brave action. I've seen creatures ten times her size without a quarter of her boldness. What a warrior!"

jess Squirrel looked up to the leafy shroud on the tree bough. "Good old Warbeak, eh? Totally mad, of course. She'd rather die than miss a good fight. I'll bet wherever she is now that she's chuckling at us standing round blubbering like a load of Abbey babes who have to go to bed early, instead of getting on with our search for the fox,"

Matthias rose dry-eyed. He stuck his swordpoint into the ground.

"Aye, Jess, you're right. We've got some burying to do here, then we will leave this place. I never want to set eyes on it again. We must carry on south."

Later that day they halted in a quiet place, an ash grove, far from the clearing where the battle had taken place. Matthias took stock of the situation. The surviving sparrows would fly back to Redwall, taking with them the news that the warrior mouse and his friends were alive and well, still on the trail of the young captives. Log-a-Log and the remainder of the now depleted Guostm voted firmly to stay with the friends and see the mission through. They settled down to study the map and writings that had been sent from RedwaU.

271.

Matthias scanned the parchments carefully. "By the fur, I wish we had met up with Warbeak before we did. Listen to this: Those who wish to challenge fate, To a jumbled shout walk straight. Sunset fires in dexteree, Find where Loamhedge used to be. At the high place near the skies, Look for other watchful eyes. Sleep not 'neath the darkpine trees, ' Be on guard, take not your ease, Voyage when the daylight dims. Danger in the water swims. Make no noise with spear or sword, Lest you wake the longtail horde. Shades of creatures who have died, Bones of warriors who once tried. Shrink not from the barren land, Look below from where you stand, This is where a stone may fall and make no sound at all. Those who cross and live to tell, See the badger and the bell, Face the lord who points the way After noon on summer's day. Death will open up its grave. Who goes there . . . ? None but the brave/ "Look at this map, we've come through all these places. There are the cliffs, here is the pine forest, here the water with the bows of the rats on the far sh.o.r.e. This place here, hummocks and trees, this is where we are now. What do you think, Basil?"

"You're right, of course, old warrior. Hmm, sound advice too. It warns of the dangers in the woods, even gives the little fishes a mention. Ha, 'voyage when the daylight dints'; maybe we would have stood a chance of giving those rats the slip if we'd crossed by night. Well, well, a jolly old bit of prophecy here. Creatures certainly did die, and we've left the bones of warriors back there. But whaf s all this about shrinking from barren lands, eh? The only thing I ever shrunk from was lack of food, wot?"

Orlando checked the map. "Jess, do you think you could climb a high tree and look over to the south?''

To an expert climber like Jess this was but the work of a moment. She was up a hornbeam in the twinkling of an eye.

"We're nearly out of the woodlands," she called down from the topmost branches. "I can see some sort of plain beyond. It looks very bare and dusty."

Matthias nodded approval. "Well, at least we're on the right track, but we've no way of telling how far south we've travelled. I suppose we'll have to try and cross the barren land and look for some place where we can look below to where a stone may fall and make no sound at all. Does that make any sense to you, Orlando?"

The badger shook his head. "If s all a mystery to me, but if it will help us to get our young ones back, I'm game to try. I know nothing of badgers' heads and bells and lords who point the way and death and graves, though."

Matthias stood. "Nor do I, friend, but I intend to find out. Log-a-Log, will your Guosim be ready to inarch at daybreak?"

"Ready as ever. Warrior. We'll soon see what other little surprises this strange southland has in store for us."

35.

The Abbey bells tolled their eventide watch over Redwall as the sun sank below the western plain.

Constance had taken no chances with the three magpies. They huddled miserably in a corner of Cavern Hole, each with its pinion feathers bound, legs hobbled and beak shut tightly with twine. Constance and the Abbot sat together in the opposite corner, listening earnestly to Ambrose Spike's report.

"There ain't been a move out of anybird, we watched the eaves all afternoon/ Brother Trugg, Foremole and meself. Not a feather or a beak stirred."

The Abbot scratched his chin. "Strange, I was sure that Ironbeak would try to lay some sort of trap, either him or that sly crow. Odd, very odd."

"Odd or not," Constance shrugged, "the sun's going down. We'd best get these three outside and exchange them for three decent creatures. Winifred, will you and Foremole see that archers and javelins 611 the main doorways behind us? Keep them facing Ironbeak and his company in case of trouble."

Foremole saluted dutifully. "Doant ee wurry, marm, us'Il give'm billyo if n they moves a claw."

General Ironbeak's hostages had been carefully flown 274.

down a short time after sunset. The two mousemothers kept their eyes shut tight as they were borne through the air by six rooks. Baby Rollo, however, enjoyed the flight immensely, whooping and giggling as he tugged at the three birds that were carrying him. They landed safely in front of the Abbey pond, then surprisingly the carrier birds flew off, leaving the hostages guarded only by Ironbeak and Mangiz. To forestall any thoughts of escape, the two birds kept their fearsome beaks dose to Rollo's head, knowing that neither Cornflower nor Mrs. Churchmouse would attempt anything whilst the infant was threatened. Slowly they walked across to the main Abbey door.

Constance and Ambrose awaited them, standing to one side of the three magpies. The open Abbey doors were crowded with determined Redwallers armed to the teeth.

Ironbeak halted short of the door.

"Why are all your creatures armed and menacing us like this. I understood this was to be a friendly exchange?" His voice was harsh and commanding.

Foremole waved a large spear at the raven. "Harr, doant make oi larff, you'm the vurmints wot been a-doin' all the tricksterin' an' attacken. Thus yurr's wot us calls porteckshun 'gainst crafty ol' burdbags."

Mangiz pointed with his wing. "Why are these birds bound like this? We have not tethered your creatures."

Ambrose winked at the crow. "Prob'ly 'cos mice don't have beaks and wings, puddenhead."

"I will not stand here to be insulted by you, hedgepig," Mangiz fumed.

"Then stand somewhere else and I'll insult you there, featherbag!!"

"Ambrose, do not provoke them," Constance interrupted. "We are here to make a peaceful exchange of hostages, one for one. Cornflower, are you all right?"

"Yes, thank you, Constance. As well as can be expected under the circ.u.mstances."

275.

Constance bowed stiffly to Ironbeak. "Thank you, raven. As you can see, the magpies are unharmed, apart from being restrained, otherwise they have been well treated."

Ironbeak cast his bright eyes on the doorway. "You must think me a fool! I make no exchanges while we are faced with weapons. Tell your creatures to put down their arms."

"Aha! I thought so," Ambrose whispered to Constance. "This is where the raven shows 'is feathers. The moment we drop our weapons, 'e'll spring 'is trap, whatever it is."

Constance watched Ironbeak as she murmured back, "I know what you mean, Ambrose, but what can we do? He has kept his word, even coming unarmed to meet us. We cannot face him with an army geared up to the teeth."

"Hmm, I suppose you're right. Leave it to me."

He turned to the Redwall contingent. "Lay those weapons down and listen to me. If the raven or his pal try one false move, then grab the armoury up fast and make the pair of 'em into pincushions."

Ironbeak had heard what went on and nodded. "Do as you will. We have come here only to trade hostages, no tricks."

Constance banged her paw down upon the path. "Then lef s get to it and stop fussing about or we'll be here to see dawn break."