Part 24 (1/2)

The life of the valley hummed peacefully on, lulled by summer's warmth, unaware that three armies were marching toward it.

Trapped in the tunnels of old Castle Kotir, far beneath Redwall Abbey's south ramparts, five creatures sat dozing fitfully in the gloom. Giving off an occasional flicker, their lantern warned that its light would soon be out.

Abbess Tansy gazed ruefully at the small golden tongue of flame as it gently swayed. ”I should never have encouraged you to come on this silly venture, friends. I'm sorry.”

Craklyn snorted, wagging a paw at her old companion. 11 You encouraged us, you? Hah! Let me tell you, Tansy Pansy, we're all down here because we wanted to come. We encouraged ourselves!”

Tansy clasped the old squirrel Recorder's paw affectionately. ”Dearie me, 'tis some long seasons since anybeast called me Tansy Pansy. D'you remember when Arven was a Dibbun, he was always saying that name? Now what was it he used to chant at me?”

Craklyn thought for a moment, then chuckled. ” 'Tansy Pansy toogle doo.' Hahaha, he was a proper little wretch.”

Foremole wrinkled his nose severely at the pair. ”Beggin' ee pardun, but do you'm be soilent, oi can yurr summat.”

268.

269.

There was a moment's silence. Young Friar b.u.t.ty looked around. ”Aye, I c'n hear somethin' too. Sounds like water drippin'.”

Shad pressed his ear to the tunnel wall. ”That's water, all right, on the other side o' this 'ere wall. I can 'ear it drip-drippin' away. Sounds like 'tis fallin' a far way down. Wot d'ye think, Abbess, marm, shall I 'ave a go at breakin' through the wall?”

Foremole Diggum waved a digging paw hastily. ”Ho no, zurr, you'm'll be a bringen ee tunnel topplin' on us 'eads agin fur sure!”

Shad scrambled upright and retrieved the lantern. ”P'raps yore right, mate. You all stay 'ere an' I'll scout about further down this tunnel t'see wot I can see.”

While Shad was gone, the remaining four creatures sat in complete darkness without the lantern. To keep their spirits up, Tansy sang a simple little ditty.

' 'If I were a leaf upon a tree, Then I would live right happily, I'd grow up flat and green and big, Unless of course I was a twig, A twig with a leaf upon its end, And then the leaf would be my friend, I'd grow to such a wondrous length, And from my branch I'd take my strength. If I were a branch upon a tree, With leaf and twig for company, I'd grow so round and fair and trim, Sprouting from a great stout limb, But if I were a limb all thick and wide, Branch, twig, and leaf I'd hold with pride, And they would all depend on me, And the mighty trunk of my big tree. Then if I were a tree with bark for husk, I'd stand up firm from dawn 'til dusk, And limb, branch, twig, and leaf would be, All through the season part of me!”

She had barely finished singing when Shad's voice boomed up the pa.s.sage and they saw the welcome glow of the lantern.

270 ”Ahoy there, mates! Come an' see this-I've found a way down!”

Stumbling through the half-light behind the fading lantern, they followed Shad down the corridor. He halted in front of a heavy wooden door, swinging it open with a jarring creak to reveal its other side, covered in fungus.

”Welcome to the ole castle cellars, me hearties, though I don't see wot good they'll do us. We should be goin' up, not down'ards!”

Dropping his bag of treasure, Friar b.u.t.ty pushed past the otter. ”Look, torches!”

From rusted iron rings in the wall he pulled four hefty wooden bundles, their ends coated thick with pine resin. Tansy took one and lit it from the last dying lantern flame. ”Of course, it makes sense to leave torches at the entrance to cellars. By the seasons, they do burn brightly!”

Brilliant yellow light radiated around, revealing then- position. Far larger than Great Hall, the cellars stretched above and below them. Water dripped from long stalact.i.tes hanging from a high-hewn rock ceiling, falling down from a great height to splash far below where they stood. The five questors were on a narrow step jutting from the wall. Other steps wound their way downward, hugging the wallsides until they ended in the depths below.

Shad lit another torch from the one Tansy carried. ”Only one way t'go, mates: down. C'mon, foller me.”

Placing their backs to the wall, they descended carefully, step by step, each holding the other's paws. The stone stairs seemed never-ending, and by the time (hey had covered three-quarters of the distance, wet moss and slime made the going treacherous.

Shad stopped and rested by crouching against the damp walls. ”Phwaw! This place is enough t'give a crab the creeps. You got any rope left, Diggum?' *

The Foremole unwound a coil from ”round his waist. ”Yurr, oi gotter liddle len'th.”

Shad took it and knotted it 'round his middle, then pa.s.sed it back. ”Best rope ourselves together fer safety-Yaaaaar! Gerraway, yer filthy sc.u.m!”

271 A large, gross toad with sightless eyes was trying to gnaw the end of the otter's tail. With a swift flick of his rudderlike appendage, Shad tossed the amphibian in the air and batted it off the step. The toad whirled in an arc, then hit the liquid below. It vanished with a squelching plop, leaving a small dimple on the surface.

Tansy held her torch out over the stair edge. ”That isn't water down there, 'tis more of a swamp!”

Other toads were crawling upstairs toward them, the dreadful creatures apparently attracted by Shad's cry and Tansy's voice.

Craklyn hid behind Foremole, shuddering. ”Ugh! Horrible monsters, keep 'em away from me!”

b.u.t.ty had been carrying his treasure slung on the end of the silver-headed spear he had found in the rubble. Untying the bundle, he pa.s.sed the spear along to Shad.

The otter Gatekeeper began clearing the toads off into the ooze below. Some spread their webs to prevent themselves from sinking instantly, and these were set upon and torn to shreds by creatures not half their size, who appeared in packs. At the same time they were being devoured, the toads began eating their tormentors.

The five friends watched, revolted but fascinated by the sight.

”Yurr, they'm all a h'eatin' each uther!”

”Aye, those small 'uns look like some kind o' mudfish, they're blind as the toads!”

”So they all live down here in this slimy darkness, feeding off one another. What an awful existence!”

”Yukk! What are we doin' in this terrible place? Let's get out!”

Foremole Diggum tugged against die rope as they began moving. ”Hurr no, us'n's mus' goiter stay. Lookee!”

They followed the direction his paw was pointing, across the underground mora.s.s to a dark hole in the wall at the cellar's far side.

Tansy held the torch high. ”What is it, Diggum?”

The mole's reply was prompt and confident. ”That thurr's a tunnel dugged boi moles, oi'd stake moi snowt on et, oi surrtinly would, 'tis a mole tunnel, 'twill lead oopward!”

272 Shad shook his head doubtfully. ”Are you sh.o.r.e 'tis a mole tunnel, mate? 'S a long way off.”

Diggum Foremole would not be shaken from his belief. ' *Oi said 'twurr, din't oi, oi'm ee Foremoler, oo'd know better!”

Friar b.u.t.ty stared unhappily across the expanse of cannibal-infested bog.

”If that's the way out, then how do we get to it?”

A small meeting was being convened in the kitchen at Redwall Abbey, It was for elders, though the Dibbuns had invited themselves along too, because there were always plenty of tasty bits to nibble at in the kitchens.

Viola Bankvole presided. ”Mother Abbess always appoints me in her place when she isn't here, so if you don't mind I'll take charge. Gubbio, get your head out of that oven, please!”

Mother Buscol shooed the little mole from the oven, nipping back to the table just in time to stop Russano the badgerbabe grabbing a bowl of soup. ”Indeed to goodness, Viola,” she said, pa.s.sing a paw across her fl.u.s.tered brow, ”what is it you're wantin' now? Can't you see we've got our paws full as H is?”

Viola shook her head primly at die old squirrel. ”Abbess, Craklyn, Foremole, Shad, and young b.u.t.ty are still missing. Sloey! Put that ladle down this instant! Now, have you all searched properly?”