Lady Amber laid her tail flat on the lower branches of a sycamore.
The woodlanders held their breath.
Skipper nodded to Foremole.
Foremole nodded to Bella.
Bella nodded to Amber.
The squirrel's tail rose like a starter's flag. There was a creaking of rope
pulleys as squirrels launched the rocks from
305
the high trees, riding down to earth on them, holding to the ropes. The
counterweights traveled fast, humming across the heavily beeswaxed branches.
The wooden floodgates made a squelching sound as they were pulled free of the
earth, then water began rippling through into the tunnels.
The flooding of Kotir had begun!
44
306
Driving Wuddshipp inland against the flow of the River Moss was a difficult
task.
All paws manned the oarbanks, and Martin sat alongside Timballisto.
"Phew! I never realized rowing was such heavy work," Martin groaned.
< "Pull, my friend, pull. It's twice as bad when you have to do it on
half-rations with a sea rat's whip cracking about your ;cars and you chained
to the oar.''
The vessel had been built for coast raiding. Though it was a large craft, it
had a flat bottom for taking shallow draught; fhus it was able to travel
upriver without a deep keel sticking in the shallows.
Inland they traveled, sometimes aided by a breeze when the sails were hoisted.
Other times saw two teams dragging her forward on headropes from the
riverbanks.
It took a day and a half of hard work to get across the flat beach and into
the dunes, where the river was tighter-channelled and flowed faster against
them. Log-a-Log solved the problem by using the long galley oars from the
deck. Two crew to each oar, they punted and pushed Wuddshipp through Ae dunes,
keeping her head upriver with great difficulty. Gradually the dunes gave way
to hilly scrubland and the sand began to disappear.
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It was a weary crew that sat upon the bank that night, watching the ship
riding at anchor.
Gonff hurled a clod of earth at the fast-flowing water. "We'll never make it
this way, mateys. Why not abandon ship and march the rest of the way?"
Harebell and company smiled sweetly.
"Oh, you are a silly, Mr. Gonff. We must take the ship."
"The river flows back to the sea, you see."
"And we may need that to make a quick getaway if we are pushed."
Martin winked at Gonff. "The ladies certainly know their strategy. By the way,
has anyone seen Log-a-Log Big Club?"
As if in answer, the shrew strode up out the gathering gloom. "Aye aye. I've
been scouting ahead. Found the old village, too. Come on, you lucky lot.
There'll be a hot meal and a warm bed with a rpof overhead tonight. Bank
snout, you wouldn't recognize your little ones now—they're taller than me. Oh,
Martin, I forgot to tell you, we've gained another hundred able-furred
recruits."
Delight awaited them at the shrew village as families were reunited amidst
cheering and shouting.
"Daddy, Daddy, it's me, Emily, your baby shrewlet."
"Hoho, look at you! You're bigger than your mum."
"Sharptail, you said you were going for acorns. That was four seasons ago!
Where have you been?"
"Sorry, m'dear. Sea rats y'know. What's this, grandshrew babies?"
"Aye, you're a grandpa shrew now."
"By the fur! Here, give me a hold of that little fat feller."
* 'Gluggabuggaluggoo!''
"Haha. See, he knows me already."
The hares joined Martin and the others around a fire. Two plump shrews served
them with hot fruit pie, dandelion salad and bowls of fresh milk. Gonff sang
around a mouthful of hot pie,
O the Wuddshipp is a goodship, And we'll sail her anywhere, Rowed by mice,
crewed by shrews, And often steered by hare. 308
So hoist the anchor, loose the sails, Give me a wind that never fails, And
we'll sail the goodship Wuddshipp From here to old Brockhall.
He had to sing it twice again whilst the shrews danced a s hornpipe with the
hares.
As the fires burned low, they settled back with full stomachs and renewed hope
for the morn.
Martin and Timballisto slept side by side beneath the stars, each wrapped in a
colorfully woven shrew blanket.
Dinny dug a flatfish hole for the hares.
• "Oh, thank you kindly, Mr. Mole."
"Such charming manners and swift digging." :; "Ooh, and that beautiful
velvety fur and strong claws." ;- Dinny wrinkled his face and tugged his
snout, slightly em-, barrassed. "Burr, bless 'ee, baint nought but an owd
'ole, : missies."
The moon rose like a white china plate over the peaceful scene on the banks of
the River Moss.
-. Tsarmina faced the troops gathered in the large mess hall. She had
specially arranged the gathering by sending Bane's former mercenaries in
first; her own soldiers, led by Brogg >: in his red velvet cloak, ringed the
mercenaries by jostling them to the center of the floor. Brogg held up Bane's
curved ? sword for silence as the wildcat Queen addressed the assembly.
"Bane is dead. Those who served under him have nowhere left to go now. Move
from here, and you do it without sup-,;(, plies or weapons. Besides, those
woodlanders out there would take care of you in short order. Any creature want
to say something?" There was silence.
"Right," she continued commandingly. "From now on
; you take your orders from me. Brogg will see that you get
; rations and a billet each. Later I'll see about appointing more
officers and getting you some proper uniforms. Take over,
Brogg."
The weasel Captain stepped up, twirling his new sword. "All together now. Hail
Tsarmina, Queen of Mossflower!"
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The response was less than enthusiastic.
Tsarmina made them repeat it until she was satisfied. "That's better. You can
learn my list of titles later."
They stood in awkward silence, not knowing what to do next. In the hush that
followed, Tfcarmina's ears rose visibly. Something was beginning to disturb
her.
"Dismiss, all of you. Brogg, you stay with me."
When the hall was emptied she turned to Brogg with haunted eyes.
"Listen, can you hear it?" she asked fearfully.
"I can't hear a thing, Milady."
"Listen! It's water, flowing, dripping, spilling somewhere. Ugh!"
Brogg gave careful ear. Suddenly he brightened up. "Haha. Yes, I can hear it
now, Milady. You're right. There is water about somewhere. Damp d'you think?"
The sound of water produced so distressing an effect upon Tsarmina that she
forgot to chide Brogg. She cowered in a corner, paws covering her ears to shut
out the dreaded noise. Flowing water, seeping water, creeping water, dark,
icy, swirling water!
"Brogg, quick, get as many troops together as you can," she ordered
desperately. "Find out where that water is coming from and stop it. Stop it!"
Brogg saw the terror on his Queen's face and fled the room.
The whole of the garrison searched high and low. But not too low; nobody,
including Brogg, was overkeen to venture beneath the cells. Down there it was
dark and cold; down there was the lake where Gloomer used to be kept.
And goodness knows what else!
That night, as T^armina sat huddled in her chamber, dripping water echoed in
her imagination, never letting up. When the fear of water was upon her, the
daughter of Verdauga was no longer Queen of Mossflower, Lady of the Thousand
Eyes or Ruler of Kotir.
She was reduced to a crazed, terrified kitten, trembling at the sound of
dripping water in the darkness, longing for