Part 43 (1/2)

Rollo tried, but the pebble kept hitting the top of the wall and bouncing back. Half preoccupied with watching the antics of the little one, Cornflower turned away from her vigil. Constance joined them, and as the mice played with the baby bankvole, she looked out across the south reaches, casually at first.

Then Constance froze as if she had been turned to stone. She remained rigid, staring southwards and slightly west.

Cornflower looked up as she retrieved Rollo's stone. ”Constance, what is it?”

”Dust!”

”Dust? Where from?”

”Seems to be from beyond that bend in the path, behind the trees. I can't tell yet. Wait a moment. . . .Yes, if s dust all right, and if s coming this way!”

The three mice scrambled to the top of a battlement.

Cornflower jumped up and down, and Constance had to catch her ap.r.o.n strings to keep her from falling.

”Ifs dust! Somebeast is coming up the path, I know ft!” Cornflower shouted.

John Churchmouse quickly donned his gla.s.ses. ”There must be a great many to send up a dust cloud like that so early on an autumn morning. They'll be round the bend soon. Listen, can you hear voices?”

Constance leaned forward, straining her ears. Faintly she could catch the strains of voices chanting the familiar warriors' cries of Redwall and Mossflower.

Round the bend of the path they came, the paws of the horde raising a cloud of brown dust.

Cornflower could see the leaders as they began to march in double time at the sight of Redwall Abbey.

”Ifs Matthias and Mattimeo, they've returned!” she shouted.

John Churchmouse and his wife yelled aloud, ”Look, mere's our Tess and Tim. . . . Hooray!”

Constance leaned out across the battlements. ”There's Basil, and Jess and Sam. See, they've got young Cynthia with them!”

”I can see two badgers!”

”There's an owl. Look, an owl!”

”Hedgehogs, shrews, woodlanders! By the fur and daw, there's a great army of woodlanders coming this way!”

'Turn out the Abbey, tell the Father Abbot. Sound the bells!”

Matthias marched shoulder to shoulder with his friends, while the horde packed in behind them gazed up in awe at the red sandstone Abbey which reared above the trees ahead.

Mattimeo began laughing. Tim, Tess and Cynthia pounded him on the back as they shouted and cheered wildly: ”Good old Redwall, tell Ambrose to get the barrels open!”

434.

435.

”Who's that on the walls? If s your mum. Look, there's ours too. Mum, Mum! Uyou think they can hear us?”

The Methuselah and the Matthias bells began pealing and clanging out across the clear morning air.

Bong! Clang! Boom! Bong! Clang! Boom!

Basil halted the army. ”Right markers, get fell in. Come on, you sloppy lot, we're coming home like a proper army, not a ragam.u.f.fin crowd. Ranks of six, chins in, chests out, shoulders back. Step lively there, you at the back, catch up. Come on, come on, laddie buck, you're not on a daisy-chain ramble now, /know. Quick march!”

”Never gives up, does he?” Jess muttered to Sam from the side of her mouth. ”You watch, he'll be the first to break ranks and charge if anybeast throws a pie over that wall.”

The hot morning sunlight shafted down on the brown dust rising between the green and gold leaves of Mossflower as the main doors of the old red sandstone Abbey burst open.

The Abbot walked out at the head of the Abbey dwellers. They lined the path facing Matthias at the head of his army.

There was complete silence as they stood looking at each other.

The warrior mouse unslung his great sword. Stepping forward, he laid it flat in the dust at the paws of Mordalfus.

”Father Abbot, we have come home.”

There was a mighty cheer which shook the timbers of the main gate frame, then the ranks broke as every creature dashed forward to greet old friends and meet new ones.

So it was the young ones returned to Redwall.

It took the whole of that day in the Abbof s study for the full story to unfold from both sides.

436.

Matthias, Jess, Basil and Orlando, with Mattimeo, Tim, Tess, Sam, Cynthia and Auma, crowded in alongside Cornflower, Constance and Ambrose Spike.

Food was brought in to them as the young ones related all that had happened from the night of the feast to Malkariss's cells. Matthias, Orlando, Jess and Basil related the hunt for the young ones from the same night up to the death of Slagar.

It was late afternoon before they were done. The Abbot had listened intently to the harrowing narrative. He shook his head sadly.

”In the midst of all our joyous reunion we must never forget fallen friends, particularly Queen Warbeak and Log-a-Log. I will hold services for all our fallen friends at the first sunrise of spring, and they will remain dear to our memories for all the seasons to come.”

In the sad silence that followed, Matthias decided to lighten the mood of the proceedings a little. He slapped his paw down on the table.

”Well then, Mordalfus you old twig, I suppose you've been sitting here twiddling your paws while we've been away. Tell me, how did you manage to keep busy?”

The Abbot chuckled. ”Oh, we managed, I suppose. However, I'll let Cornflower tell you about that.”

Cornflower took her paw from around Mattimeo's shoulder for the first time that day. She stood up and grinned mischievously.

”Hmmm, it was as dull as ditchwater without our warriors and young ones about. Then one fine day we had a visit from some birds. Let me tell you about it. . . .”

They listened spellbound, fuming with indignity at the thought of baby Rollo being held hostage, cheering for Sister May and her drugged strawberries, laughing aloud at the warrior ghost mouse and the terror it caused among the rooks, and finally applauding Constance and Stryk Redkite at the final struggle.

Mattimeo picked up his father's sword and offered it to Cornflower.

437.

”Here, Mum, you should be the Champion of Red-wall!”