The Outcast of Redwall Part 3

"No, it'd be churlish t'bring wine as a gift and then drink it."

"Did Wurgg?"

"No, Lord Bowfleg said that the wine was too good for a clod like him; only Bowfleg drank that wine," Swartt lied.

Scraw was nodding and smiling grimly as he thrust the flagon toward the ferret. "I think this wine is poisoned. Prove that it's not-take a sip."

Swartt grabbed the flagon and drank it empty. "Anything else y'want me t'do, rat?" he sneered.

Anger was rising in Greenclaw. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the flagon from Swartt and hurled it away, growling, "You're too smart for your own good, ferret. Why did you come here in the first place, tell me?"

Swartt spoke loud, so that the hordebeasts crowded outside the tent could hear him. "I had no need to come here, I was doing well with my own band. Then one night I had a dream. Lord Bowfleg appeared to me and implored me to come to his side with all speed-he said that he needed my help."

Greenclaw curled his lip derisively. "A likely story. Bring in the fox!"

Nightshade was prodded in at spearpoint by several soldiers, who did not want to get too close to her. Greenclaw asked Swartt, ' 'Have you ever met this vixen before?''

"Never in the light o' day, though I often see her in dreams."

"This is all nonsense!" snapped Greenclaw as he paced the dais steps angrily.

The vixen shook her staff warningly at him. ' 'Do not mock what you cannot understand. None has seen me in this camp before, yet I knew of Lord Bowfleg's death long before I came : here. I am the messenger of Death and Fate. I see visions in ':? the stars, the wind, and the eyes of many!"

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Greenclaw had heard enough. Drawing his sword, he came at the vixen. "Did your visions tell that you'd end up dead today?"

Scraw stepped in the way, knocking the sword aside. "Put up your weapon, stoat. The fox is a seer. It is bad luck to slay one with gifts like hers."

"A seer, huh!" sneered Greenclaw as he sheathed his sword with bad grace. "Well, tell us what you see, vixen!"

Nightshade shook her staff until the sh.e.l.ls and bones attached to it clattered ominously. She shut her eyes and wailed: "Seasons of glory will come to the horde, n.o.beast will lack plunder while Sixclaw is Lord!"

Greenclaw was furious. He turned on Swartt, but the ferret was ready, and before the stoat Captain could unsheathe his sword, Swartt grabbed the carved spear from Aggal and slew Greenclaw.

Nightshade was still chanting and wailing: "Allbeasts who challenge the Sixclaw will die, Dark Forest gates will reflect in their eye!"

Swiftly she moved among the Captains, staring wildly into their eyes. To a beast they believed the seer's words, and all looked the other way, avoiding Nightshade's mad stare.

Then Swartt Sixclaw strode dramatically forward and, holding the vixen's face between both paws, he stared steadily into her eyes, saying, "You shall be my eyes and see all for me; n.o.beast will be able to hide secret thoughts against me!"

Thus it was that the ferret Swartt Sixclaw became Warlord of the great horde, with only a few gifts: two belts, a spear, a good flagon of wine, and one other thing-a silver drinking cup whose rim and inside had been smeared with deadly poison!

With that and a clever vixen he had won the day.

The entire horde gathered around a small hillock to hear their new Warlord announce his plans. Swartt had repainted the green and purple stripes upon his face and coated his fangs with fresh red dye. Drawing his curved sword from the wide snakeskin belt, he whirled in a circle, and a magnificent bright blue velvet cloak, which he had plundered from Bowfleg's belongings, swirled around his muscular body. He pointed the sword at the main tent, which still contained the bodies of Bowfleg and Wurgg, and cried aloud, "Burn!"

From high on the cliffs a score of weasel archers fired flaming arrows down into the brushwood-laden tent. In moments the whole thing was ablaze. The firelight danced in Swartt's eyes as he held up his six-clawed paw for all to see.

"This is what you follow from now on: sixclaw! No more lying about in these hills and scrublands, no more idling under a fatbeast who was too lazy to move! Take down your tents and pack them for travel: today we move west and south to the lands of plenty. Food, plunder, captives! All of these you will have if you follow me into the sunwarmed lands. Aye, me, Swartt Sixclaw the Warlord!"

The earth trembled as the ma.s.sive horde stamped their foot-paws and hammered down their spearb.u.t.ts. A mighty roar rose up like thunder as it echoed from the cliffs.

4 'Sixclaaaaaaaw!''

Tents were flattened and rolled, drums beat ominously, and banners with the new Sixclaw symbol unfurled on the autumn breeze.

;.'-; The ferret bared his reddened teeth at the vixen by his side. y:**Now let's see if Sunflash the Mace can pick this lot off one by one. Hahahahahaaaaa!"

The year turned, and bright spring became bounteous summer. Sunflash the Mace straightened up from his labors, arching his mighty back. The two little molemaids, Nilly and Podd, imitated his movements impishly.

"That's enough potatoes for one day, good work!" he said, winking at them.

"Hurr, an' thurr be lots o' taters left furr another toime." "Ho aye, leave'm in ee ground t'get 'ooj an' gurtly tasty- ful."

The big badger looked around at the neat rows he had created last autumn, clearing bush and moving rock until a sizeable food garden bloomed in the forest amid the hills and woodland. Bordered by several fruit trees, plum, apple, and pear, already growing there, plus a couple of horse chestnuts farther back, the crops cut straight furrows. Leek, onion, potato, turnip, peas, and cabbage all thrived, with mushrooms to be found every few days in the dark shelter of a rocky slab to

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one side of the chestnuts. There would be berries later, red currant, blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry. Sunflash had worked hard alongside his friends, and they had taught him about growing things. He liked cultivating the land, finding he had a natural flair as a farmer.

Sweeping the tiny molemaids up with both paws, Sunflash deposited them on top of the basket of vegetables they had gathered. With a single swing he lifted the basket onto one shoulder and strode off toward the dwelling cave of the Lingl and Dubbo clan. Sunflash'$ deep voice blended harmoniously with the two moles' as all three sang the riddle song: "Arm not alas sand, 'way south in the west, So star land a mat, there's where I love best, Sand not as alarm, lone seabirds do wing, And alas most ran, list' to me whilst I sing."

Skarlath was sunning himself in the rocks above the cave, watching Dearie Lingl, Aunt Ummer, and Bruff's wife, Lully, preparing lunch on the gra.s.s. Old Uncle Blunn came coughing out of the cave in a cloud of dust, followed by the four small hoglets with Tirry and Bruff. They sat on the gra.s.s, dusting their coats down.

Tiny sneezed and blinked, saying, "Bright ole day out 'ere, ain't it!"

Sunflash marched up, nodding to one and all. Carefully he lifted the basket down, with the two molemaids sitting atop. "Some nice b.u.t.ton mushrooms in here for you, Dearie," he said. "How's the store chamber coming along, Bruff?"

The mole pawed dust from his eyes as he answered, "Near dunn, zurr, we'm jus' abowt finished. Lined et wi' those rock slabs you'm found larst wintur, lukfcs 'andsome, bo urr!"

Lully used her ap.r.o.n to protect her paws as she gingerly removed a large flat pie from the rock oven Sunflash had 46.

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made. "Us'n's got lots o' things dunn since ee been yurr, zurr. Lookit, apple'n'blackb'rry pie, yore fav'rite!"

Sunflash sniffed the aroma, his gold-striped face alight with pleasure.

"Come away, 'oglets, you'll burn yore snouts agin1 that 'ot thing." Dearie shooed the four hoglets off as they crowded round to smell the pie. "Wait'11 it cools an' I'll give ye a big slice each."

Old Uncle Blunn took the hoglets and the two molemaids off to the stream, which was only a short walk away. Flagons of dandelion-and-burdock cordial, brewed by Blunn, were submerged in the streamwater to keep cool.

"Wash ee dusty pawsVsnouts in yon stream, ee mucky liddle vurmints, aye an' ee too, Blunn Dubbo!" Aunt Ummer called after them, Dearie bustled about, preparing salad from the fresh vegetables while Skarlath waddled off behind Lully, who was going to test a cheese she had been turning since early last winter. The good molewife smiled fondly at the kestrel, whom she considered to be her special friend. "On moi loif, zurr, oi never see'd an 'awkburd oo luvved cheeses more'n ee. c.u.mm naow, us'll try et furr taste, hurr."

Skarlath eagerly a.s.sisted her to roll the cheese out of the cave's dark recesses, where it had been maturing. He had helped make the oval-shaped cheese, right from the greensap milk stage, pounding tirelessly at the fat, white gra.s.s stems and special tubers, which only true woodlanders knew of. They had gathered nuts together in late autumn, hazel, almond, and chestnuts, to stud their cheese with. Between them, the kestrel and the molewife peeled off the thin layer of damp crack-willow bark that protected the cheese. It had no rind and was a delicate pale yellow color. A fragrance of almond drifted faintly about them.

Skarlath hopped from talon to talon, his fierce eyes s.h.i.+ning. "Kraaaah! Is it ready, marm, shall we taste it?"

The good molewife shook as she chuckled, "Aye, you'm surpintly shall taste et, zurr, hurr hurr hurr!"

Taking a thin, greased twine from her ap.r.o.n pocket, Lully wound the ends round her digging claws and looped the twine over the cheese just below its top, then, placing both footpaws flat against the base of the cheese, she leaned backward, pulling evenly on the twine. The molewife was well experienced in all aspects of cheesemaking. Skarlath watched fascinated as the strong twine traveled smoothly through the cheese, neatly cutting a large oval piece from the top of their creation. Standing on its edge, the slice resembled an oddly shaped harvest moon, with the white of the nuts and thin slivers of their brown skins highlighted against the b.u.t.tercup hue of the cheese. Breaking two small pieces off, Lully gave one to her friend. They nibbled daintily, commenting.

"Bo IUT, ee be noice'n moist wi' gudd flavor, aye!" "Mmm, wonderful nutty taste, good and firm!" "Ho aye, none too solid, none too soft, us'n's dunn well!" Paw shook talon as the cheese makers congratulated each other.

On the sward outside the dwelling cave, the older creatures lay about, watching the young ones play. It had been a satisfying lunch: summer salad served with Lully and Skarlath's * new cheese, and fresh oatfarls baked by Auntie Ummer, fol-/ lowed by the magnificent apple and blackberry pie that Lully ; and Dearie had cooked, all washed down with beakers of old }. Uncle Blunn's dandelion-and-burdock cordial, brought spe-t cially cooled from the stream. Sunflash stretched luxuriously V and set his back against the sun-warmed rocks as he watched If the babes trying to lift his mace between them.

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Tirry smiled at their efforts as he sprawled beside the big badger. " 'Twill be many a long season afore they lift that thing, friend."

Sunflash shook his ma.s.sive head. "Tiny, let us hope that they never have to. Learning the trade of a warrior and living in times of danger can rob a young creature of all its happy seasons and make it grow up fast and hard, as I did. Peace is a precious thing."

' 'You brought peace here for our families,'' said the hedgehog as he patted Sunflash's paw. "You look peaceful an' well content, Sunflash. Mayhap you like our life."

The badger had a distant look in his dark eyes. "Oh, I do like the life here. I am happier in this place than I have ever been, and I wish dearly that I could live out all my seasons with you and your families on this very spot."

Tiny Lingl spread his paws at the happy scene surrounding them. "Then why not? You are greatly loved here-make this your home.*1 It was a tempting proposition. Sunflash thought of the crops and the garden he had created, and the dwelling cave, which was larger now and more comfortable due to his help. Fondly he watched the little ones, laughing and rolling about in the bright noon sun. The older ones too, Aunt Ummer, Uncle Blunn and the rest, were all firm friends, trusting creatures, taking their ease together. His loyal companion, Skarlath, a hawk, was happy to learn the simple life. It was idyllic. He knew it could not last.

Weighing his words carefully, he explained to Tirry. "Listen to what I must say, friend. If I stayed here it would mean great trouble, possibly death for those around me. I have told you of Swartt Sixclaw, the evil ferret. Make no mistake, if I make this place my home, then he will turn up here one day with his band. But even if he did not, my warrior spirit would 49.

grow restless and I would need to go and seek him o"t. We are sworn lifelong enemies, he and I.

"However, beside all that there are my dreams. Always I see the mountain of fire looming through my slumbers, and strange voices of other badgers, Warrior Lords whose names I do not know, call me. Why I must go to the mountain, where it is, what name it goes by, I do not know. But I am certain that my fate and destiny are bound to the mountain. Each night I dream, and the urge to travel there goes surging through me. One morning you will wake to find me gone. I am as sure of it as the turning of seasons, Tirry."

Hiding his sorrow and disappointment the hedgehog murmured, * 'I knew all this afore you told me, I felt it every time I looked at your face. You have worked hard here, but only to put things from your mind. But enough o' this, mate, we're gettin' so gloomy we'll 'ave it rainin' afore nightfall! You're still a youngbeast with a great life ahead of ye, Sunflash. But promise me this-you won't go without sayin' good-bye."

"I promise you, Tirry Lingl, I won't leave without a goodbye!"

All through that afternoon they took their well-earned leisure, often joining the young ones at play. Skarlath took off to go on one of his high-flying, wide-ranging patrols, leaving word that he would be back by supper. Sunflash took himself off to the stream, where he sat cooling his footpaws in the warm shallows, trying to fathom out the riddle song.

"Arm not alas sand, 'way south in the west, So star land a mat, there's where I lo-"

Bruff Dubbo's voice interrupted his musings. "Ho, zurr, you'm see'd ought o' those two liddle 'ogs Gurmil an' Tirg?"

Sunflash stamped his footpaws dry in the gra.s.s. "Haven't seen them since lunchtime. Why?"

50 Bruff scratched his head with a heavy digging claw. "Seems ioik they'm got theyselves losted, hurr!"

Back at the cave, Dearie was questioning the other babes, without much success. Gurmil and Tirg were the two little malehogs. Their sisters, Bitty and Giller, had been playing with the small molemaids, Nilly and Podd, and none of the four was making much sense, as is usual with babes.

Dearie was worried but patient. "Now think careful, liddle 'uns, where'd they two scamps go to?"

Bitty pointed at the sky. "Flied 'way, up there!" "No, no, they never, that was Mr. Skarlath, the 'awkburd. Lack a day, I do wish 'e were 'ere now. Nilly, do you know where GurmiFn'Tirg might be?"

"Hurt, a playen in ee water, oi think." "No, that was Sunflash, 'e was at the stream. Oh, where 'ave those two liddle villains run off to?"

She stared up at Sunflash beseechingly. The big badger radiated calm and confidence as he patted Dearie's headspikes gently. "Never fear, marm, I'll find 'em. Tiny, you circle to the east. Bruff, take a wide loop west. I'll go due south, and we'll meet up where the big clearing is, the one with the pond, you know it."

Lully threw her ap.r.o.n up over her face to hide her upset. "Burr, they'm rascals, oi do wish't zurr 'awkburd was 'ere!"

Bruff twitched his nose comfortingly at her. "Doan't ee fret, moi damsen, us'll foind em. You'm stay by yurr wi' Dearie an' watch t'uther liddle uns."

Sunflash did not travel directly south. The late afternoon sun played through the leaves, casting mottled shade patterns on his broad back as he weaved through the woodlands on either side of the faint south path, searching wherever he thought the two little hoglets might have strayed. Birdsong trilled in the stillness of the noontide heat, b.u.t.terflies fluttered their quiet 51.

way from shrub to bush, and bees droned lazily amid clumps of bramble, honeysuckle, and dogrose. But the tranquillity of nature was lost upon the badger as he strode anxiously about, his great mace swinging from one paw, searching for signs of the hedgehog babes.

At last he found something. It was only small-a fragment of apple-and-blackberry-pie crust-but it proved that they had pa.s.sed this way. They were roaming south. Farther on, Sun-flash chased away a bold blackbird that was pecking at a small morsel of cheese. He quickened his stride. Gurmil and Tirg had to be somewhere hereabouts.

Suddenly a welter of cries and shouts broke upon his ears. Sunflash went thundering and cras.h.i.+ng through the woodland and came bounding out into the clearing where he had arranged to meet with Bruff and Tirry. His quick eyes took in the dangerous situation at a single glance. There were the two little hoglets, frightened speechless, clinging on to each other, standing shoulder deep in the pond at the far side of the clearing. Bruff and Tirry, in company with an old squirrel, were circling and shouting. And a short distance from the water's edge, between them, barring their way to the babes, two fully grown adders coiled and reared menacingly. The snakes had not yet seen Sunflash, who slowed his pace immediately and signaled to his friends not to look directly at him and betray his presence to the reptiles.

Tirry Lingl was terrified, but willing to sacrifice his life for the hoglets. He picked up anything close to paw-twigs, soil, gra.s.s-and flung it at the big scaly adders, his voice shrill with panic. "Leave my liddle 'uns alone, serpents! Don't you go near 'em! Gurmil, Tirg, stay in the water, stop there!"

The old squirrel joined in the shouting. He obviously knew the snakes and hated them. "Gah, you cold'earted slimers, leave the babes alone!"

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One adder faced the three creatures, menacing them as the other snake began sliding slowly toward the little ones in the water. Cold evil glittered in the snake's eyes, and its forked tongue quivered as it hissed, "Leave here fa.s.sssst, while you ssstill have livessssss!"

Suddenly, Sunflash made his move. Dropping the mace, he ran into the lake from one side, pounding in a straight line across the shallows toward the hoglets. The adder who had been sliding toward the water speeded up; it was fast, but not as speedy as Sunflash the Mace when his warrior blood was roused. The badger reached the babes ahead of the snake, s.n.a.t.c.hed them both out of the water with a single movement, and carried on hurtling straight across the shallows. The adder was after Sunflash, zipping through the roiling waters in his wake, as duckweed and rushes broken off by the badger's storming speed flopped welly on the pond's surface. The other snake turned away from the three creatures on the bank, its coils bunching and stretching as it raced to intercept the badger.

Sunflash leapt from the water and, bursting onto dry land, he rolled the babes, who had tucked themselves up into the refuge of their soft p.r.i.c.kles. They skimmed over the bank like twin orbs, coming to rest way out of danger. Sunflash turned as the adder launched itself from the water and buried its sharp fangs in his side. Its companion wrapped itself round one of the badger's footpaws. Roaring aloud, Sunflash grabbed the snake that was biting him around its neck and plunged back into the water with the other adder still wrapped round his footpaw. Tirry grabbed the hoglets, hugging them to him as Bruff and the old squirrel raced about in the shallows. Unable to help the badger, they splashed and shouted.

Sunflash did not come to a halt until he was in deep, the water lapping near his shoulders. Feeling the snake unwinding itself from his footpaw, he stamped down hard several times

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until he trapped its head flat beneath his big blunt claws on the bed of the pond and held it there. The other snake had struck him twice, once in the side and once on his back, and now it slid off him into the water. But Sunflash caught it by the tail and began whirling it round above his head. Round and round it went, the creatures on sh.o.r.e hearing the whirr it made as it cut the air in blurring circles. Sunflash roared.

"Eeulaliaaaaa!"

He flung the adder far and high, and it sped through the air straight out like an arrow from a bow. Tirry looked up and saw it strike an elm tree limb. The snake's body wrapped round it several times, then it was still, resting draped across the high bough like a soggy piece of rope.

Sunflash ground down hard with his footpaw for a long time, until the wriggling coils beneath the water went limp and still forever. Then, slowly, painfully, he began wading back to land, his side and back one throbbing, agonized ma.s.s. The big badger tottered in the shallows as Tirry, Bruff, and the squirrel dashed in and helped him out.

Bruff wrung his paws agitatedly as Sunflash collapsed on the bank. "Yurr, ee been bited by ee surrpints, oi knows et!"

The old squirrel grabbed Sunflash's face between both paws and shouted as the badger's eyelids began flickering shut. "Where did yon serpents bite thee?" he cried.

Sunflash was sinking into a black pit; he heard the words coming from far away. Making an effort, he answered, "Bitten ... twice ... side .. . back .. ."

Then darkness overtook Sunflash the Mace completely.