The rooks of General Ironbeak were perched in the dormitory. They listened in awed silence as Grubclaw and Ragwing related their encounter with the Abbey ghost, especially as the two rooks were not above adding bits to make it a good story now that Ironbeak and Mangiz were not there.

"Hakka! It was dark out there last night. I could feel in my feathers that something was going to happen," Ragdaw began.

"Kraak! Me too. It was darker and gloomier than the bottom of a northland well. So Ragwing and I stood sentry with beaks and daws at the ready for any funny business, didn't we, bird?" Grubdaw added.

"Aye, we did that. Then suddenly Grubdaw says to me, 'Ragwing, can you see that shadow down there?'"

"How could you see a shadow if it was pitch-black?" a rook interrupted.

"Well, er, er. It was the moonlight coming in through the windows. Yes, thafs right it was the moonlight, anyhow-"

The rook b.u.t.ted in again. "Kaah! What a load of old eggsh.e.l.ls. It was dark as a northland well, but with moonlight shining through the windows."

Grubclaw ruffled his feathers airily. "Kragga! Who is telling this, you or us? We know what we saw. But we can keep it to ourselves if you start making fun of us."

TTie other rooks silenced the interrupter.

"We saw a shadow in the moonlight," Ragwing continued. "Well, at first we thought it was a shadow, but when we looked closer it was an earthcrawler."

Grubclaw nodded solemnly. "A ghost mouse, all in armour. It seemed to appear from nowhere. Crook! It was carrying a long sword and it had no face. It moved like a feather in the breeze. I think it was floating, don't you, Ragwing?"

"Yes, it definitely floated. And another thing, it carried the long sword as if it weighed nothing. It must have had great spirit strength. The cold lights burned from its eyes like fire in ice-"

"I thought you said it had no face. How could it have burning eyes?"

"Yaggah! Will you shut your beak and listen? It was, it was, er, the white moonlight shining on it, yes, it made the face that this ghost didn't have look like two burning eyes. Haak! We saw it, I swear on my egg and nest. Isn't that right, mate?"

"True, true. It seemed to know we were watching it, because it turned to face us. We perched there, ready to attack if the ghost mouse tried anything."

"And did it? Try anything, I mean?"

"Krakkah! Did it! Well, it pointed with this great sharp sword and said; T)eath to all who stay in the redhouse!'"

"Aye, that's the very words it said. But the voice! Kaah! It was like thunder over mountains, I wonder you lot didn't hear it."

"We were sleeping. So, what did you do?"

"Haak! I'll tell you what we did, we shook our daws at it and said; 'You come any closer, ghost, and you'U have us to deal with. Stop there while we go and bring General Ironbeak our Chief,'" Grubwing embroidered.

"Aye, we backed off, ready to give a good fight if it came floating up to the galleries. Ironbeak and Mangiz came out, Mangiz was shaking like a fledgling whose mother has left it," Ragwing added.

"What did Ironbeak do?"

"Kaah, him! He flew about a bit and could not find the ghost, so he said he didn't believe us and flew off to get some sleep."

"So where did the ghost mouse go to?"

"Yakkah! I don't know. To the place where other ghost mice go, I suppose."

"You mean, there might be others?"

"Kagg! I'm not saying anything, but I wouldn't be surprised at all. The big door was open wide, Ironbeak couldn't deny that."

The conversation carried on, getting more horrific with each imagined detail until some of Ironbeak's fighters decided that conquering the redstone house was not such a good idea.

"Did you see Mangiz today? He was badly knocked about."

"Yagg! Do you think the ghosts had something to do with it?"

Ambrose Spike threw a careless pawful of hotroot into the simmering watershrimp soup.

John Churchmouse glared at the hedgehog over the top of-his steamed-up gla.s.ses. "Ambrose, the recipe says half a spoon of hotroot. Why didn't you measure it?"

The old hedgehog bustled John to one side. "Don't tell me how to make shrimp and hotroot soup. I learned my recipe from otters. A pawful, thaf s what you need. Lef s see if mat roseleaf and cowslip custard is ready."

"Don't you dare touch my custard, you rough-pawed cellar keeper. If 11 be ruined if you open that oven too soon. Come away."

Ambrose could not get past John to open the oven. He snorted and began furiously kneading nuts into a batch of honeysuckle scones. John rugged his whiskers in despair.

"Honeysuckle scones have a delicate flavour all of their own. Sister Agnes's recipe calls for beechnuts, but you've put acorns and hazelnuts in. Where did those beechnuts I sh.e.l.led go to?"

Ambrose wrinkled his snout and kneaded faster. "Oh, those. I ate 'em. There was only a few. I'm very partial to a beechnut now and again."

John clapped a paw to his brow. "You didn't wash your paws. The whole batch will taste of hotroot!"

Ambrose grinned wickedly. "So what? Ginger 'em up a bit. Give them more blackberry wine to drink and they 'won't notice the difference. Come on, quill-pusher, get those onions peeled."

John flung down his oven cloth. "Peel them yourself, barrel-minder!"

Late that night a breeze sprang up. Clouds scudded across the moon, sending shifting patterns over the Abbey floor beneath Ironbeak and Mangiz. The Methuselah and Matthias bells rang briefly, stopping abruptly to leave an eerie silence in their wake.

"How can the bells toll when we have the earth-crawlers trapped in that room below?" Mangiz murmured to Ironbeak.

"Kagga! Hold your beak," Ironbeak silenced him. "I don't know how they rang the bells and I don't care. It might be a diversion to stop us watching here. Keep your eyes on the floor below, over by the big door."

They waited and watched.

So did the rooks from the dormitory, who had sneaked out on to the far corner of the galleries. Curiosity had overcome their General's command to stay in the dormitory. They had to see for themselves.

The main Abbey door creaked on its hinges, slowly opening.

The raven and the crow held their breath as they watched it. A few dried leaves drifted in on the sighing breeze, pale moon patterns swayed on the worn stone floor, and the darkness in shadowy corners seemed to grow deeper.

The tomblike silence was broken by a voice like rolling thunder: "Death waits in this place for those who stay!"

Mangiz felt the feathers on his back rise as if a cold paw had touched them.

The ghostly phantom appeared. It came in slowly by 347.

the doorway, halted, looked up at Ironbeak and pointed with the sword.

"See, General, there it is, the armoured mouse!" Mangiz exclaimed.

Ironbeak buffeted the crow savagely. "Shuttup, idiot. I'm going to deal with this once and for all!"

The raven went into a short run. He hurled himself over the galleries and sped towards the floor of Great Hall.

The apparition took one pace backward and vanished completely!

There was a cry of horror from the rooks. General Ironbeak skidded to a halt. Landing clumsily in his haste, he bowled over in a bundle of feathers. Swiftly regaining his balance, he dashed outside. It was mere seconds since the ghost had disappeared, but the grounds in front of the Abbey were completely deserted.

Ironbeak whirled about, baffled. He tore at the gra.s.s with his talons before rushing back inside. Hither and thither he darted about on the floorstones. Finally he halted, his powerful frame heaving with exertion. Looking upward, he sought something to vent his rage upon. The rooks in the corner of the gallery! They cackled as they dashed to get back to the dormitory, but Ironbeak was swiftly among them, lashing out left and right, tearing with his claws, slamming with strong wings and hitting out with his vicious beak.

"Yaggah, krakkah! Why did you not fly down and catch the thing? You were closer than I was. Get back to your perches, you swamp flies. Go on, out of my sight, you soft-beaked craven! You will forget what you saw here. It was only a trick of the moonlight. If I hear one bird speak of it I will break his wings!"

The rooks fled the scene, with Ironbeak chasing them. Mangiz slipped away quietly from the other end of the galleries, not wanting to face his General's rage. Great Hall lay quiet and still once more.

Behind the half-open door, Constance and Foremole folded the black doth which they had used to make Cornflower vanish. The three Redwallers slid silently from the Great Hall, out into the tunnel and back to Cavern Hole, where supper was set out ready for them.

The Abbot took the sword from Cornflower as she unbuckled the armour. "Well, how did it go?" he asked anxiously.

"Perfect, Father Abbot. I appeared, the birds were terrified, the raven flew at me. It was perfect."

"Ironbeak flew at you? How did you escape?"

"Easily. Constance and Foremole tossed the black doth over me, I dodged round the door and we all hid behind it. Ironbeak searched outside and inside, but he didn't look behind the door."

Foremole wrinkled his nose. "Yurr, these scones tastes loik 'otroot. Burr, gimme watter. There be enuff 'otroot in yon soops to set afire to you'm!"

Ambrose gave him a look of injured dignity. "Try some of the roseleaf and cowslip custard."

The Abbot prodded it gingerly. "Oh, is that what it is? I thought it was a collapsed bird's nest."

Ambrose sniffed and went off to the wine cellar with his snout in the air. "Well, I enjoyed it. You lot don't deserve a good cook!"

Night had fallen over the copse. Matthias and Orlando sat upon the step, putting an edge to axe and sword against the stone. Shrews filled their sting pouches, Basil ate his fill, and Cheek and jess fashioned javelins, hardening their points over the campfire. Daggers, swords and knives were tested, bows made from strong green boughs, arrows tipped and hardened in the fire. It was but a few hours to dawn when all the preparations were completed. They lay down to take a brief rest.

Before they slept Matthias, Jess, Orlando and Jabez stood above the stone step. They held paws foursquare and swore a solemn oath.

"At dawn we will go down those steps. We will not come back up without our young ones, nor will we come up if the fox still lives."

Orlando turned to the five shivering weasel captives and pointed his axe at them.

"Get yourselves ready, because you'll be going down first."

350.

44.

The fighting rooks of General Ironbeak were badly frightened. At first it had been exciting to perch and talk of the ghost, when none of them really believed there was one. But now they had seen it with their own eyes, a terrifying phantom that uttered dire warnings. Ironbeak himself could not harm it; the tiling had vanished completely in a trice.

All through the night the sentry posts had been deserted while the rooks huddled together in the darkened dormitory, whispering of the awesome event. Grubclaw and Ragwing had been right, so had the wise Mangjz; the great redstone house was a bad place to be. The advent of a golden sunlit morning did little to change their minds.

That task was left to General Ironbeak, and he set about it with gusto. Sunrays flooded through the broken dormitory window, turning the raven leader's black wings an iridescent green, flecked with tinges of blue. He paced up and down with an aggressive rolling gait as he confronted his command.

"Yaggah! You cuckoo-brained bunch, can you not see it is all a trick the earthcrawlers are playing on us?"

The rooks shifted uneasily, inspecting their feathers or staring down at their daws. Some of them looked to 35!.

Mangjz, but the crow had distanced himself from the whole thing by perching upon a cupboard with his eyes dosed.

Ironbeak carried on ranting. "Kaah! I flew down to attack this so-called ghost, and did it strike me dead, did it attack me, did it even stay to defend its Abbey? No, it hid away by some silly little trick. It fooled you all, but it did not fool Ironbeak, nor did it scare him. I am the greatest fighter in all the northlands. An earthcrawler mouse with bits of metal does not scare me. I will face it right now, or in the middle of a dark night. Mangiz, is what I say true?"

The seer crow opened one eye. He knew better than to argue with the raven leader.

"The mighty Ironbeak fears no living thing. He speaks true."

Baby Rollo was taking cooking lessons. Brother Dan and Gaffer were teaching him to make breakfast pancakes of chestnut flour and greensap milk, studded with dried damson pieces preserved in honey sugar. The infant bankvole was far more concerned with the tossing of the pancakes than the mixing of them. Brother Dan was up to his paws in the sticky mixture, and blobs of it dung to his ears and nosetip. Gaffer discovered he had a sweet tooth for preserved damson pieces. The mole sorted through the supply for the choicest bits and promptly ate them.

Winifred the Otter caught all three of them like guilty young ones as she entered the kitchen. ~~ 'What's the hold-up out here? There's a lot of hungry creatures waiting for breakfast out in the - Well, swish my tail! What in the good name of bulrushes is going on? Rollo, stop sticking those pancakes to the ceiling, this instant!"

Rollo was in the act of throwing a pancake from the pan at the ceiling. He stopped, and the pancake flopped neatly over his head, covering him to the neck. Another pancake slowly detached itself from the ceiling and began to fall. Winifred grabbed a plate and ran to catch it.

"Brother Dan, stop playing round with that batter like a hedgehog in mud and help me."

Winifred caught the falling pancake as Brother Dan took a plate in his sticky paws and went after another potential dropper. Gaffer began trying to remove the pancake from baby Rollo's head. The infant had eaten a hole in it to give himself some breathing s.p.a.ce. Sensibly, Gaffer began eating from between Rollo's ears.

"Hurr, bain't gonna pull this'n offa you'm, Rollyo. Best scoff away both'n uz 'til it be gone. Hurr hurr!"

Cornflower appeared in the kitchen doorway. She tried to look very forbidding, while at the same time doing her best to stifle the laughter that was bubbling through at the comical scene.

"Shame on all four of you, hahaha, er, hmph! What on earth are you doing, heeheehee, ahem! Gaffer, will you stop trying to eat that infant's head and remove the pancake with some flou-flou-hahahahaoheehee! Flour!"

As she spoke, a pancake dropped from the ceiling squarely onto her nose and hung there like a tabledoth.

The five of them sat down upon the kitchen floor, laughing uproariously, holding their aching sides as tears rolled unchecked down their cheeks.

"Waaaahahahahohohoheeheehee! If s a good job we hadn't ordered porridge for breakfast."

"Hoohoohurrhurrhurr! Nor soo - soo - hurr, hurr, soup, missus!"

The happy laughter rang spontaneously out. It was a great relief to have a pause of merriment after so much siege and sorrow.

Far out upon the western plain, a great dark red bird crashed to earth among the dandelions and kingcups and lay among the yellow flowers like a red sandstone rock. The great bird's sides heaved and her neck pulsed as she greedily sucked in air. Her eyes dilated and 352.

353.

contracted, fearsome orbs of tawny umber, flecked with turquoise and centered with gleaming black, as she scanned the blue sky above for predators.