Marlfox

"Ahoy, me beauty," Gawjo called from the cabin window, "which course do we steer? Has the fish showed you yet?"

Without turning Song held up her right paw. "Take the west fork an' sail due south, Grandpa!"

Gawjo chuckled as he emerged from the cabin to attend his steering paddle at the stern. "Yore a born Swifteye, gel. West'n'south it is!"

Night had fallen when the lake came into view. The river was running steep and fast, with outcrops of rock poking dangerously from its surface. Gawjo gave the order to his crew. "All paws on deck. Pole 'er over these rapids an' keep yore eyes peeled for those rocks. Lively now!"

Song and her companions found themselves standing alongside the burly hedgehogs, pushing and punting with the long raft poles. Burble was slightly tardy lifting his pole and was thrust up into the air, the raft rushing by him. Dippler saw him rise and shouted a warning. "Watervole overboard! Er, I mean up in the air!"

Torrab and one of her burly sisters were aft. They snatched Burble and the pole, heaving them back onto the deck before he was left clinging to a pole in midriver as the raft went on without him. Song and her friends were laughing about it when the big craft began to buck and plunge. A hedgehog shot by, looping them all to the raft with a stout rope. Spray struck their faces, and Dann yelled above the din, "Look out, here we go, mates!"

Song would have been frightened had it not been for the confidence she felt in the skill shown by her grandpa and Torrab's crew. Instead, a wave of exhilaration swept over her as the raft virtually flew down the rapids. Turning and heaving, sometimes head down, other times bow up, night-dark water crested with star-swept spray rushed by in a blur. Megraw balanced firmly on the for'ard rail, calling directions. "Rocks comin' up aheid, swing tae yer left. Left! Left! Noo, awa' right a wee bitty. Hauld 'er steady, laddies, steady!"

Without warning a waterfall came up, and they shot straight over the top, right out into space. The breath was whipped from their mouths as they stood frozen, still holding on to the raft poles, water roaring at their back.

Wwwhhhhrrrrraaaaaakkkkkkkkssssshhhhh! The raft landed flat with an earsplitting splash. Gawjo wiped water from his eyes and shrugged carelessly. "Well, this's the lake. We've arrived."

Even in the darkness they could feel the immensity of a vast body of water, calm and smooth as a millpond in the warm summer night. Everybeast aboard collapsed into a sitting position, dog-weary and gasping.

Gawjo was first to recover, and he paced the deck sternly. "Come on, me babies, up on yore paws, we're stickin' out like a bandaged ear if'n any foebeast shows up. Let's get 'er ashore an' into some cover. Jump to it, crew!"

They chose a spot farther east on the lakeshore, where trees grew thick, willows on the fringes dipping their branches into the water. Waist deep in the lake, they levered the raft onshore with the punting poles. Burble stumbled and spat out a mouthful of muddy liquid. "A proper ould slave driver that grandpa of yores is, Song. Yiss yiss, a right ould whipcracker!" ¹

Gawjo's hooded eyes appeared over the stern, staring straight at the grumbling watervole. "Wot was that you were burblin' about, Burble?"

"Er, ah, 'twas nothin', sir, yiss yiss, nothin'. We're all doin' a fine grand job down here, enjoyin' ourselves, yiss!"

Dawn was streaking the lake with beige and pink amid low-lying cloudbanks. The stillness was eerie; there were no sounds of singing birds over the far-reaching inland sea. From stem to stern the raft was covered with boughs and fronds, tufts of vegetation and shrubs. Song thrust a final willow bough into the cabin chimneytop and climbed wearily down to the deck. She threw her grandpa a limp salute. "All covered, sir. Permission to sleep?"

A smile hovered around Gawjo's slanted eyes as he nodded at the exhausted crew. They had worked hard and well. "Hmmm. Well, all right, permission granted. Y'can all sleep standin' on yore heads with one eye open."

Dippler bit his lip with feigned emotion. "O sir, yore too kind to us ungrateful wretches!"

Gawjo tweaked the shrew's ear. "Aye, maybe I am, so I'll stay awake an' cut the throat of any crew member found snorin'. HowTl that do ye?"

Dann sniggered. "Better cut yore Song's throat right now!"

"Ooh, you listen, Dannflor Reguba, you're the snorer, not me!"

"Oh yiss yiss, Dann's a grand ould snorer, but I think the champion's got t'be me good mate Dipp, yiss yiss!"

"Hah! Stripe me blue, look who's talkin'. Anybeast out on that lake'd think it was a foghorn if you kicked off snorin'!"

"Who, me? Ooh, y'fibber, watervoles don't snore, 'tis a fact!"

Gawjo shook with laughter as he watched the indignant young creatures. The old squirrel cut short the dispute with a wave of his paw. "Hah! Snore, you think you can snore? Now Torrab an' these hogs, they can snore! I'll be surprised if there's a leaf left on any tree within the area by the time they're done snorin'. Huh, you ain't heard snorers until you've slept in the same cabin as my family. I should know, 'tis me who's had to suffer these many long seasons!"

Torrab gave Gawjo an affectionate pat, nearly knocking him flat. "Thou sayest the nicest things, ancient one!"

Song giggled. "Give him another pat, Auntie Torrab!"

Whether through excitement or overtiredness, the occupants of the cabin had difficulty in getting to sleep. Dippler propped himself up on a cushion. "C'mon, Song, give us a little tune. Mayhap that'll help us to doze off. Yore grandpa ain't heard you singin'."

Song recalled a ditty of her Grandma Ellayo's that reminded her of the joy she felt at watching Megraw fly.

"I sit alone and wish that I

Could be a bird up in the sky,

I'd join the breezes that do blow,

Whichever way they chanced to go,

Far o'er the waves, across the sea,

I'd drift along quite happily,

Or maybe out on field and fen,

I'd circle round some forest glen.

I envy bee and butterfly,

Maybe the birds could tell me why

I wipe a teardrop from my eye,

I sit alone, for I can't fly."

In actual fact it was Gawjo who was wiping a teardrop from his eye, his mind wandering back over the seasons. "Ellayo my wife used to sing that, almost as pretty as you do, Song. Of course, she was much younger in those days."

Song stroked the old gray head of her grandpa. "She's still young at heart, you'll see."

Gawjo stretched out, closing his eyes. "Maybe I will, if we live through what lies ahead, young 'un."

Outside it began to rain, softly at first, increasing as a breeze sprang up over the vast reaches of the hidden lake.

One of Silth's ceremonial cloaks, held on the spear-points of two soldiers, provided cover for Mokkan against the driving rain. The Marlfox was in high spirits, far too cheerful to allow a wet morning to ruin his joy. Striding across a high-walled roof at Castle Marl, he peered over at the ground far below. "Set it up here!"

With the aid of twelve slaves, Wilce and Ullig staggered forward, bent beneath the weight of Queen Silth's palanquin. Grunting and groaning, they strained upward until it rested precariously atop the wall. Wilce and Ullig stood bareheaded in the rain among the slaves, awaiting King Mokkan's pleasure. He flicked a paw dismissively at them. "You two, shove it over!"

It needed only a slight push, and then there was several seconds' silence, broken by a rending crash. The Marlfox giggled like a youngster as he stared over the walltop at the smashed palanquin on the ground.