Wuddshipp. Harr, that be a foin name."
Gonff watched the forepeak respond to the tiller.
"Wuddshipp it is then, Din. Though personally I'd have named her Columbine."
Trubbs and company chimed in.
"I say, that's a bit strong, Gonff, old sailor."
"Has Columbine really got a wooden bottom?"
"And two ears that stick out like sails?"
They narrowly ducked the pail of seawater that Gonff hurled.
Banksnout roared out in a gruff shrew bass from atop the rigging, "Ahoy! River
in sight up north to landward!"
Martin climbed the bowsprit. He stood on the bleached fish skull figurehead,
looking eagerly.
Sure enough, there was the river, boiling across the shores in the distance.
He turned to the crowd of eager faces watching him.
"Take her head up and round the shore, Gonff. We're going home!"
Shrews, mice, hedgehogs, squirrels, hares and a single mole roared out in one
voice that rang across the waves,
"Mossflowerrrrrrr!!!"
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43
Argulor was awake.
Shifting on his high spruce perch, he glared down greedily through his old
watery eyes at the red-cloaked figure crossing the parade ground of Kotir.
"At last, pine marten!"
Tsarmina pushed hard against the gates. "See, they're rocking on their
hinges," she pointed out to Bane. "Those wood-landers have been meddling with
them, I'm sure of it."
Bane gave the gates a kick. "Do you think so? They seem solid enough to me.
Huh, even fire arrows didn't make much impression on these gates."
Tsarmina unbolted the locks. Opening the gates cautiously, she peered around
them at the woodlands. It was safe.
"All clear out here, but I don't like it. I'm sure theyVe done something to
these hinges from outside. Just think, if these gates blew down during the
autumn, we'd be at their mercy."
"Huh, I don't know what you're fussing about," Bane said, swirling his new
cloak impatiently. "The gates look all right to me."
Tsarmina gnawed her lip. "Are you really sure, though?"
The fox sighed in exasperation. "Oh, I suppose I'll have to go and take a look
to keep you happy."
He strode briskly outside.
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Tsarmina dodged inside, slamming the gates and bolting them.
Bane was puzzled momentarily. "Hoi, what's the matter with you, Tsarmina?"
There was no reply. Tsarmina was racing across the parade ground to watch from
her high window.
Suddenly Bane sensed he had been tricked, but it was too late.
Argulor had already launched himself from his perch. He homed in on the
red-cloaked figure like a bolt from the blue.
On the other side of Kotir, Bane's mercenaries worked away on the scullery
door, blissfully unaware of what was taking place outside.
Bane did not see the eagle swoop; he was trying to find pawholds as he
clambered up the oaken gates.
Argulor struck him hard from behind, burying powerful talons and vicious
hooked beak in the prey that had eluded him for so long. The fox was
transfixed, frozen with cruel agony; but as the eagle started to carry him
off, Bane's fighting instincts took over. Freeing his curved sword, he struck
upward at the feathered enemy.
The sword hit Argulor, once, twice!
Doggedly the great eagle sank talons and beak deeper into his prey. Beating
the air with his massive wingspread as he did, both hunter and quarry rose
skyward.
Tsarmina at her window danced up and down in fiendish glee. Attracted by the
screams, the occupants of Kotir looked up. Bane slashed wildly with his sword;
Argulor stabbed madly with his beak. All the while the combatants rose higher,
and soon they were above the treetops.
Chibb fluttered in circles some distance away. He watched the amazing sight as
eagle and fox rose into the sky.
Far above Mossflower, Argulor won the battle. Bane gave a final shudder and
went limp, the curved sword falling from his lifeless paws. The ancient eagle
felt cheated; this was no pine marten, it was a fox. Argulor's heart sank in
his breast. It did not rise again. The rheumy eyes shut in the same instant as
the great wings folded in death, and only the talons remained fixed deep into
the dead fox.
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Tsarmina watched as both creatures plunged earthward. Two enemies defeated in
a single brilliant stroke.
Ratflank dashed for the gate. Brogg shouted after him, "Where d'you think
you're off to?"
"Ha, to get that cloak, of course. That's a good bit of velvet. It can be
repaired, y'know."
"Get back here, frogbrain. See what happened to the fox-he wore the cloak.
D'you want the same thing happening to you?"
"Frogbrain yourself, dimwit. Can't you see the eagle's dead? Any creature can
wear that cloak now."
"Hoi! Don't you call me dimwit, droopy whiskers."
"I'll call you what I like, dimwit. Nitears! Fatnose!"
Tsarmina smiled inwardly, a third victory today. Now that she heard Ratflank
shouting she could identify the insolent voice that had often insulted her
from the protection of the ranks or the bottom of a curved stairwell.
Later that day, she instructed Brogg.
"Take Ratflank, and find the bodies of the eagle and the fox."
"Yes, Milady. Shall I bring them back here?"
"No, Brogg. Bury them."
"As you say, Milady."
"Oh, and Brogg ..."
"Yes, Milady?"
"How do you feel about that insolent Ratflank these days?"
"Oh, him. He's a cheekybeast, Milady. Called me lots of nasty names."
"Yes. Me too. How would you like to bury him with the fox and the eagle?"
"Huh huhuhuh," Brogg chortled. "Can I, Milady?"
"Yes, but not a word to any creature about it."
"Can I have the red cloak too, Milady?"
"Yes, if you want it."
"And Bane's curved sword, Milady?" Brogg pressed her.
"If you can find it."
"Where d'you think it fell, Milady?"
Tsarmina turned her eyes upward as if seeking patience. "Brogg, I wouldn't
know where the sword fell, or the eagle,
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or the fox. Just get out of my sight and don't bother me with details." >
"But what about—Yes, Milady."
Urthclaw was first to reach the underground foundations of Kotir. Tunneling
steadily, he made his way along the under-ground wall until he met up with
Billum. Together they continued until they linked up with Soilflyer, who was
waiting for them.
"Burr, 'day to 'ee moles," he greeted them. "Foremole an' Owd Dinny be along
wi' tools soon, us'ns can brekk throo *ee rock then."
Lady Amber had sunk the floodgates at the other end of the tunnels, they were
to be lifted by rope hoists attached to rock counterweights over high
branches. Skipper and his crew had dug fresh tunnels from the river, sloping
down to meet the floodgates which separated them from the main tunnels. All
the workings had been shorn up with stone and timber. Foremole supervised the
removal of rocks from the foundations of Kotir. The moles pried away the soft,
damp stones with bars and chisels until they felt the cold fetid air on their
snouts. "Burr, oo, durty owd place needen a gurt barth, hur burr."
Shortly before nightfall, the moles climbed out of the tunnel workings, back
in Mossflower, where the woodlanders and Corim leaders had assembled. Bella
rolled three large rocks over the holes from which the moles had emerged.
Others moved in to pack the bungrocks firmly in with wood and soil.
Now everything was ready.
Between the lower depths of Kotir and the distant river in Mossflower Woods,
all that stood was three timber sluicegates.