The Outcast of Redwall Part 26

331.

Sabretache decided it was better not to argue further.

When the hares had gone, Sunflash stopped a moment. The clacking noise could still be heard echoing amid the water-sounds of the cavern. He climbed onto the first ledge, and the sound seemed to grow closer. Moving along the natural rock step, he stopped by a large slab.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Sunflash pressed his muzzle to a narrow crack between the slab and the ledge. ' 'Is there somebeast there?' * he shouted.

The noise stopped and a voice called back, "Burr aye, thurr be two of us'n's trapped en yurr!"

The badger gave the rock a few solid thumps with his paw. He felt a very slight movement. "I'll try and get you out of there. Stand back!"

Climbing onto the ledge above, Sunflash found he could reach the top of the slab with both footpaws. Bracing his back, he pressed his full weight upon the slab and began pus.h.i.+ng outward. The slab keeled forward, then jammed. "I've pushed the top away a bit," he called down. "Climb up the slab; you should be able to squeeze out over the top. Here, get hold of this."

Holding his mace upside down, he thrust it in the s.p.a.ce, with the handle cord dangling down. Bryony's voice reached him. "I've got it-can you give me a tug out, please?"

Sunflash hauled her swiftly out. Togget took a bit longer because of his plumpness, but he finally popped out like a round furry stopper.

As introductions were being made, there was a screech, and something splashed into the river. Sunflash waded in and came out carrying a bat with an arrow piercing its wing.

Bryony came forward to help him. "Oh, the poor creature. Lay him down here, sir!" she cried.

Fortunately the shaft had done no great damage, merely piercing the filmy wing membrane. Bryony snapped the shaft and drew the end carefully out, speaking gently. ' "There, that didn't hurt, did it. You'll soon be as good as new when it heals."

The bat bared its small fangs in what appeared to be a smile, thanking the mousemaid in a soft sibilant whisper. "My thanks, thanks. I am Lord Duskskin, ruler of Bat Mountpit, Mountpit. Up above is my territory, territory. Wicked creatures are there; they are armed, armed. My bats can do nothing against them, nothing against them."

Duskskin gave them a brief description of his encounter with Swartt and the hordebeasts, with his curious, echoing speech. Sunflash interrupted him. "The vermin are my enemies. I am sworn to slay them. Can you show us the way up to where they are, Lord Duskskin?"

The ruler of Bat Mountpit blinked his tiny pinpoint eyes. "You are a mightybeast, carry me, carry me, I will show you."

High above in the far upper reaches of the mountain a dozen or more bat corpses littered the rock ledges. Swartt and his beasts had stopped to rest briefly, ducking their heads as angry bats homed in on them. A rat let fly an arrow and it bounced off the stones, dropping out of sight into the dizzying chasm below.

Veil watched the rat notch another shaft to his bow. "Do you always let them waste arrows like that upon creatures that can't harm you?" he sneered.

Swartt aimed a glancing blow at a pa.s.sing bat. "Keep yer mouth shut, brat, 'cos if a bat don't fly down it then my blade will!"

Veil looked up at the slender shaft of sunlight coming from somewhere above them. "Well, you sit 'ere thinkin* up clever insults an' lettin' these wall-eyed idiots waste their arrows. I'm climbin' up ahead to see where that light's comin' from."

332.

Swartt snarled, half drawing his sword as Veil pushed past him. The young ferret grabbed a hefty chunk of rock and tossed it threateningly from paw to paw. "Draw that blade an' I'll let daylight into yer skull!"

Swartt did not attempt to pull his sword out; he sneered upward as Veil began climbing. "Hah! Big talk fer a pup still wet be'ind the ears. Once I'm done wid the badger I'll fix you, that's a promise!"

Veil smiled easily down from a crag he had just surmounted. "Talk's cheap, deadpaw-we'll see who fixes who in the end!" Without a backward glance, he continued his ascent.

The rat was about to fire another arrow, when Swartt laid him flat with a blow from his chain-mailed sixclaw. "Stop wastin' those shafts, maggotbrain, you couldn't hit the sea if you was standin' on the edge of the sh.o.r.e!"

Youthful agility soon brought Veil up to the source of the light. It was coming from a knothole of a small timber door set into the rock. Pulling aside the bar that held it closed, he kicked the door open and crawled out. Blinking in the sunliglit, Veil found himself looking down from the mountaintop. He walked around a fiat plateau.

Far below the hares could be seen, toiling upward through the steep, bush-and-shale-coated mountainside. It was but the work of a moment for Veil to tumble loose chunks and slabs of the shale down at them. He watched, sn.i.g.g.e.ring like a malicious Dibbun as the missiles started up small avalanches of loose scree and rock. Hares dived for cover and hung on to the deeper-rooted bushes, helpless because of the distance and unable to return arrow, sling stone, or javelin at their tormentor. Veil chuckled to himself; this was real power. He loosened more slabs and watched them hurtle and bounce off down the slopes in clouds of reddish dust. The young ferret 333 wished fervently that it might have been Redwallers and not hares that he held at his mercy.

Meanwhile, Sun flash climbed stealthily up through the rocky galleries, holding the Bat Lord Duskskin on one shoulder and listening to his whispering repet.i.tive directions. Bry-ony and Togget were no trouble; the big badger lifted them up onto the rocks ahead, one in each paw, as if they weighed nothing at all.

Togget was staggered by the might of their goldstriped friend. "Yurr, ee be's a gurt strong un, oi feels loik a liddle pebble bein' chucked abowt, hurr, ee'm gentle tho'!"

Duskskin cautioned the mole to be silent. "Quiet now, quiet. Foebeasts are not far above us, far above us."

Unfortunately Swartt had already heard them as the echoes of their voices bounced up from the lower galleries. Since Veil had opened the door at the mountaintop, there was a fair-sized shaft of light beaming down. Swartt looked up, judging the distance he had left to climb, an idea forming in his mind. He chose the rat he had chastised and three others-two stoats and another rat, all armed with bows.

Keeping his voice to a bare minimum, the Warlord whispered, "You four stop here awhile and take care o' any bats or smallbeasts that're followin' be'ind. I'll be up on the mountaintop with the others. Come an' join us there when the coast's clear down 'ere. That's a nice soft job for ye, eh!"

Silently Swartt led the other vermin off toward the high exit.

Sunflash had just placed Togget on a rocky outcrop above his head when an arrow came hissing down like a snake and struck the mole in his shoulder. Swiftly the badger lifted the mole down and placed him alongside Bryony, saying, "He's been wounded. Take care of him and don't make a sound!" Then, laying aside his mace, Sunflash selected two good-sized throwing rocks and popped his head out into full view. The 334.

Outcast of RedwaJl 335.

rat saw him and fumbled to get shaft onto bowstring as Sun-flash flung a rock, hard and accurately.

Thud!

It struck the rat, knocking him off his perch. Silently he fell, b.u.mping off ledges until he was swallowed up into the dark void of Bat Mountpit. Far below there was a splash.

A stoat showed himself, not far from where the rat had been. "Wot's 'appened to Buskit? Anybeast seeeeeeeee?" The second rock knocked him flying into s.p.a.ce.

The remaining stoat and rat glimpsed the great striped head as the badger stooped to pick up more rocks, and panic gripped them.

"Let's get outta 'ere, mate, it's the badger!"

Stumbling against each other, they scrabbled upward toward the hole. Bats flew out, attacking them as they climbed.

Sunflash turned to Bryony and the Bat Lord. "Stop here and tend to Togget. I've got to catch those two before they raise the alarm. Don't try to come out onto the mountain until I give you the all clear!"

Leaving his mace, Sunflash sped off after the two vermin, heaving his huge frame upward, paw over paw. His legendary swiftness had not deserted him; swinging from rock to ledge, jumping, and pulling himself upward, the Badger Lord pursued the pair. The rat was scrambling up a smooth stone incline when the relentless paw of Sunflash grabbed his tail and swung him off. He fell, screeching.

Outside, the shades of twilight were beginning to fall. Swartt strode around the plateau, watching as his remaining hordebeasts sent rocks, arrows, spears, and slabs of shale hurtling down the mountainsides to batter the gallant but beleaguered hares, who were still striving to climb up and reach the foebeast. Veil stumped to the edge, staggering under the weight of a jagged slab. He hurled it gleefully down and dusted off his paws.

"Wot's the matter, scared o' gettin' y'self dirty?" he said insultingly to Swartt. "Huh, some Warlord you are. I've seen more action from a squashed frog!"

"I dunno about squashed frogs," Swartt gritted back angrily, "but you'll be a squashed ferret if y'talk like that to me, spindleshanks!"

: The Warlord left his vermin to their own devices. Crouching next to the opening, he listened intently. He heard the screech ' of the rat and then the agonized yelling of the remaining stoat as Sunflash caught up with him. Swartt chanced a quick peek V into the opening and saw Sunflash, head bowed as he pulled ' himself upward. It was too good a chance to miss!

Swartt grabbed a big rugged slab of shale with both paws and raised it above his head, rus.h.i.+ng to the far side of the <. opening="" so="" he="" would="" be="" behind="" sunflash="" when="" he="">

He was only just in time-the Badger Lord came up so fast that he was halfway out of the hole before Swartt came to a standstill. The Warlord brought the rock cras.h.i.+ng down on the back of the badger's skull, hitting him so hard that it broke the slab into two pieces. Sunflash fell senseless, half in and half out of the hole. Swartt yelled to his hordebeasts, "Grab him, get some rope! Pull him out of there and bind him tight!

I've got the badger!"

337.

Down on the rocky outcrop, Togget gritted his teeth bravely. "Hoo urr, oi diddent know arrers 'urted so much."

Bryony inspected the barbed point of the shaft she had removed from her molefriend's shoulder. "Hmm, at least it's not poisoned. You're a lucky mole. Lie still and let Lord Duskskin's bats see to the wound."

Togget watched as several bats gathered round him. They stopped the bleeding with skeins of spiderweb, binding the arrow hole with mountain moss and a paste made from some strange type of cave fungus.

The mole swigged deep from a pitcher of lilac-colored liquid. "Umm, this do taste noice, ee flyen mouses be gudd-beasts!"

The bats' hissing laughter sounded like escaping steam. "Flying mouses! Hihihihiss! Did you hear that, Lord Dusk-skin? The funnybeast calls us flying mouses, flying mouses!"

Lord Duskskin glanced up anxiously. "It grows dark, dark. The mighty one has not called you, mousemaid. What is happening, happening?"

Bryony curtsied politely to the Bat Lord. "Sire, will you and your creatures take care of Togget until I return? I must go and see what is happening."

The only protection Bryony had was the small knife that had been in their haversack. Gripping it firmly in her teeth, she began climbing slowly toward the exit hole.

A fire glowed in the center of the plateau on the mountain-top. Sentries posted around the edge watched for any movement of the hares during the night. Not far from the fire lay Sunflash the Mace, still unconscious. The badger was bound between two broken spear shafts driven into the surface cracks, footpaws out straight and his forepaws stretched behind his head, the ropes cutting cruelly into them.

Swartt sat by the fire, hardening an ash javelin point in its flames. Veil crouched at the other side of the blaze, watching the Warlord. "So, after many long seasons you've finally caught your enemy," he said.

Swartt rubbed the smoking javelin end against a rock until it was like the tip of a great, dark brown needle, and snarled, "Aye, many, many long seasons, longer than you've lived, brat!"

Veil enjoyed baiting Swartt. "Just shows 'ow clumsy you are; that badger'd 'ave been slain all those long seasons ago if 'e was my enemy."

The Warlord smiled, refusing to rise to the bait. "Addle-brain, 'ow many enemies *ave you ever 'ad, eh?"

Veil stared hard across the fire at Swartt. "Oh, don't you worry, I've got a great enemy-the coward I've never called father, the slimy sc.u.m who ran off an' left me on a battlefield when I was scarce able to walk. Now that's an enemy whose grave I'll dance on an' laugh at!"

338.

Swartt pointed the javelin at the inert form of the badger. "Try it an' you'll die like this one will tomorrow, long an' slow, bit by bit, until he screams for me t'finish it!"

Bryony raised her head slowly and carefully, noting every detail of the terrible scene on the plateau, from the sentries and the two ferrets at the fire to the still-bound badger between two spear shafts. She knew she had to save Sunflash at any cost. Inching silently from the hole, she flattened herself against the rocks and began squirming forward, the knife blade gripped tight in her teeth. The mousemaid kept herself behind Swartt's back, s.h.i.+elding her body from the fire glow and Veil. All the sentries were looking down the mountain, one or two slumbering fitfully.

Something clacked faintly against Bryony's paw; it was a beaker, half full of whatever some hordebeast had been drinking. She paused; neither ferret had heard her over the crackle of the fire. Picking up the beaker, she circled, keeping to Sun-flash's right side and out of the ferrets' vision. Inching stealthily forward the mousemaid reached Sunflash. Dark crusted blood stained the goldstriped muzzle; the Badger Lord lay quite still, his mouth slightly open. Holding the beaker up, almost too afraid to breathe, Bryony let the liquid trickle into Sunflash's mouth. Nothing happened for a moment, then the badger coughed and grunted. His head came up slightly, knocking the beaker askew so that the remaining liquid splashed in his face.

Bryony felt the shaft of the javelin strike her hard across her back. She was knocked flat.

"Hahah! Gotcher, mouse! What're y'doin' 'ere?"

Swartt seized her roughly and dragged the mousemaid upright. Sunflash was coughing and gagging on the liquid trapped in his throat as Veil came racing around the fire.

"Yer sc.u.mmy liddle sneak, you was tryin' to set 'im loose!" Swartt roared.

339.

Veil struck Swartt hard in the face, tearing the captive from his grasp. "Bryony, get out of 'ere. Run!"

Swartt flung himself on Veil, and, while the ferrets fought, Bryony ran to where the knife had fallen from her mouth. Grabbing it, she began hacking at the ropes binding the Badger Lord's paws, screaming, "Get up! Sunflas.h.!.+ Get up!"

Swartt threw his son down and raised his javelin for a throw he could not miss. "The badger's mine!" he yelled.

Bryony turned and saw him throw the javelin. Something blurred across the front of her, shouting, "Leave 'er alone! Uuuuuhh!"

Then Veil lay across her footpaws, the javelin protruding horribly where it had exited at his back. Bryony opened her mouth, but no scream would issue forth.

As Swartt ran forward, clawing at his sword, there was an earsplitting roar.

"Eeulaliaaaaaa!"

Both spear shafts snapped like twigs as Sunflash shot up from the rocks like a thunderbolt, eyes crimson, teeth bared, the ropes bursting as his huge chest swelled and he flung his paws apart. The sentries turned and, standing like frozen statues, they watched the awful conflict between Warlord and Badger Lord.

Swartt's curved blade flickered in the firelight as he struck, gas.h.i.+ng his enemy's side. Then he raised the sword and swung it a second time, aiming at Sunflash's head. Two great paws caught the blade in midair; the berserk badger tightened his grip on the blade, regardless of the blood that flowed as he did, the warrior spirit of his ancestors rising. The ferret stood open-mouthed as the badger snapped the sword blade, the sharp metallic clang echoing around the mountaintop. Still grasping both halves of the sword, Sunflash came forward with a bound, whirling both paws. He struck Swartt a blow that sounded like a plank hitting a rotten fruit. The force of the 340.

blow was so great that Swartt's footpaws left the ground, and he fell poleaxed. n.o.beast could come near Sunflash the Mace; filled with the bloodwrath, he seized the ferret in a grip of steel. Heaving Swartt high over his head, Sunflash stood at the plateau edge, bellowing as he flung his enemy out into the night.

* 'Eeulaliaaaaaaaaaa!''

The terrified sentries who had clambered over the plateau edge slid down the shale and scree on their tails. They were met by the vengeful hares of the Long Patrol, who had been racing upward since the first sounds of combat from above.

Helped by several bats, Togget emerged onto the plateau and hurried to Bryony's side. The mousemaid was sitting with Veil's head resting in her lap. The young ferret's eyes were clouding over, his breath was hoa.r.s.e and shallow; almost from the gates of Dark Forest he heard Bryony's voice echoing, "Oh, Veil, my Veil! You saved me.... Why?"

"Go ... back to your Abbey ... shouldn't *ave followed me... Go 'way ... let me sleep!"

Bryony rocked him gently as she had done when he was a babe. The young ferret closed his eyes.

Thus ended the lives of father and son: Swartt Sixclaw die Warlord, and Veil Sixclaw the Outcast.

45.

Three days they camped on the river's edge at the foot of Bat Mountpit, the full hospitality of Duskskin and his bats at their disposal. Wounds were dressed and weary limbs rested; they were brought fresh fruit, white mushrooms that had never seen the light of day, caveshrimp, and many other strange delicacies from the depths of the curious realm within the mountains.

Sunflash kept making Bryony and Togget repeat anything they knew of his mother, Bella of Brocktree, the great silver badger. He marveled that she was still living, and kept repeating her name over and over. "Bella, Bella, I must see her, I will go to Redwall with you."

For the first time in three days, the mousemaid smiled. "What with my injured back, your cracked skull, and Togget's wounded shoulder, we should just about make up one whole creature to go walking through Redwall's gates."

341.

342.

Sunflash gave orders to his Long Patrol. "Sabretache, you and Colonel Sandgall will command all at Salamandastron until my return. On your way back, search and find my hawk Skarlath, take him to the mountain and bury him high on a sunny slope overlooking the sea. Rockleg and Reetrunn, you will accompany me and our friends to Redwall Abbey."

Lord Duskskin called them from the edge of the cave entrance. "You will leave tonight, tonight. My scouts will go with you and guide you, guide you. I have sent out requests to my friends, friends. The Pollspike raft awaits you two days hence, two days hence. Go in peace, in peace!"