Part 25 (1/2)

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 s.h.i.+vering 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 das.h.i.+ng 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: ”Ambus.h.!.+ 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 das.h.i.+ng 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!”