'k my friends. This is the route to Salamandastron, Once weVe
* solved it, you are on your way!"
117
Gingiverc hacked away at the cell wall. As soon as the guards had gone, he set
about trying to communicate with the prisoners on either side of him. From the
damp mortar between the stones of his cell he had prised loose a spike that
had a ring attached to it for securing unruly prisoners. Armed with the spike,
the wildcat selected a damp patch on one adjoining cell wall, and worked
furiously at the mortar around a stone which was not quite so big as the
others forming the barrier. Soon he had it loose. Digging and jiggling, he
pulled and pushed alternately until the rock slid out, aided by a shove from
the prisoner on the other side. A small wet snout poked through.
"Hello, Ferdy. It's me, Coggs."
Gingivere smiled, glad to hear the sound of a friendly voice. He patted the
snout encouragingly.
"Sorry, old fellow, it's not Coggs. I'm Gingivere—a friend. Coggs is in the
cell on the other side of me. You stay quiet and I'll see if I can Bet through
to him."
"Thank you, Mr. Gingivere. Are you a wildcat?"
"Yes I am, but no need to worry. I won't harm you. Hush now, little one, let
me get on with my work.' *
Ferdy stayed silent, peering through the hole at Gingivere, who was hacking
stolidly at the opposite wall. It took a long time. Gingivere's paws were sore
from grappling with the stone, chipping the mortar, and pulling this way and
that until
118
the rock finally gave and shifted. With Gingivere pulling from one side and
Coggs pushing from the other, the wallstone plopped out onto the floor.
"Hello, Mr. Gingivere. I'm Coggs. Is Ferdy there?"
The wildcat shook the paw which protruded from the hole. "Yes, Coggs. If you
look you'll see him through the hole from his cell."
The two little hedgehogs looked through at each other.
"Hi, Coggs."
"Hi, Ferdy."
"The guards will be coming shortly with bread and water for me," Gingivere
interrupted. "I'll share it with you. Go back into your cells now and stay
quiet. When Chibb arrives tomorrow I'll let him know you two are here."
Gingivere replaced the stone without much difficulty. He saw awaiting the
guards with his daily ration of bread and water, realizing for the first time
in a long and unhappy period that he was able to smile again.
A questing-o the friends did go,
Companions brave and bold,
O'er forest, field and flowing stream,
Cross mountains high and old.
These brave young creatures journeying
Along the road together,
While birds did sing throughout the spring,
Into the summer weather.
"Gonff, will you stop prancing about and caterwauling while we're trying to
solve this chart? Dinny, chuck some-tiling at that fat little nuisance, will
you, please?"
Martin scratched his head as he and Bella turned back to die scroll. Young
Dinny obliged by hurling an armchair cushion that knocked the mousethief flat
upon his bottom.
"Thurr, thad'll keep *ee soilent apiece, zurr Gonffen. You'm a roight liddle
noisebag, stan' on moi tunnel, you'm arr."
Gonff lay on the floor, resting his head upon the cushion; he hummed snatches
of further new verses he was planning. Martin and Bella pored over the writing
on the scroll, gleaning the information and writing it upon a chart with a
quill
119
pen. The wording was in ancient badger script that only Bella could translate.
Young Dinny called out from Bella's armchair, where he was ensconced, "Wot we
gotten so furr, Marthen?"
Martin read aloud:
Given to Lady Sable Brock by Olav Skyfurrow the wild-goose, after she found
him injured in Mossflower and tended his hurts. The beacon that my skein find
its way to the sea by is called the strange mountain of fire lizard.
Here Martin had marked a star with the word thus: *Salamandastron.
We of the free sky do wing our way there. But if you be an earth walker, it
will be a long hard journey. Here is the way I will tell you to go. I begin as
I fly over Blackbalclass="underline"
Twixt earth and sky where birds can fly,
I look below to see
A place of wood with plumage green
That breezes move like sea.
Behind me as the dawn breaks clear,
Woodpigeons come awake,
See brown dust roll, twixt green and gold,
Unwinding like a snake.
So fly and sing, the wildgoose is King.
O'er golden acres far below,
Our wings beat strong and true,
Where deep and wet, see flowing yet,
Another snake of blue.
Across the earth is changing shape,
With form and color deep,
Afar the teeth of land rise up,
To bite the wool of sheep.
So fly and sing, the wildgoose is King.
Beyond this, much is lost in mist,
But here and there I see
The treachery of muddy gray,
Tis no place for the free.
O feathered brethren of the air,
120
>
Fly straight and do not fall,
Onward cross the wet gold flat,
Where seabirds wheel and call.
So fly and sing, the wildgoose is King.
The skies are growing darker, see
Our beacon shining bright.
Go high across the single fang
That burns into the night.
We leave you now as we wing on,
Our journey then must be
Where sky and water meet in line,
And suns drown in the sea.
So fly and sing, the wildgoose is King.
Gonff came across and stared at the scroll. "Well, old wotsisname Skyftirrow
was nearly as good a bard as me. Bet he wasn't half as clever a thief, though,
matey."
Martin shook his head. "It's certainly a strange route to . follow, given in
goose song, written in ancient badger, and translated into common woodland. Do
you think weVe missed anything, Bella?"
The badger looked indignant. ' 'Certainly not. It's all there, word for word.
I'll have you now that female badgers are great scholars, though I must say it
all looks very cryptic to me."
Young Dinny clambered out of the armchair and squinted : at Martin's neat
writing.
"Urr, triptick, wot be that? Stan' on moi tunnel, it be wurse'n maken 'oles in
waiter, ho urr."
Gonff stifled a giggle. "You certainly have a way with words, Din. Ah well,
let's get our thinking caps on and imagine we're all Sky furrows."
Martin clicked his paws together. "Right! That's exactly what we have to do.
Imagine the ground from up above as if f we were birds."
& Tsarmina stood watching the dawn break over Mossflower |£ from her chamber
window. Mist rose in wisps from the tree-£.tops as the sun climbed higher in a
pale blue cloudless sky.
gThe wildcat Queen was highly pleased with her latest plan;
f the woodlanders must have realized the two baby hedgehogs
121
were missing, and they would send out search parties. Tsar-mina detailed Cludd
and another weasel named Scratch, acting as his deputy, to patrol the woods,
along with a picked group of twenty or so. They would travel light, unhampered
by the usual Kotir armor. They could act as a guerilla force, lying in wait to
capture any woodlanders they came across and sabotaging resistance wherever
they encountered it.
She watched them slip out of the perimeter gate, armed with their own choice
of weapons and equipped with rations. The wildcat Queen curled her lip in
satisfaction. There was no need to try interrogating her two prisoners further
at the moment; let them stay in their cells until they were starving. It was