stir your stumps, the Chief is back. Let's show these bunny rabbits how to
move a craft up our own River Moss."
"I beg your pardon, old Log-a-Thing."
"Steady on with the name-calling there, O Mighty Leader."
"Indeed, we're hares, not bunny rabbits, d'you mind."
T. B. sat on the deck sharpening pikes. "Odd lot those hares," he remarked,
"Seasoned warriors though," Martin said, as he counted swords and daggers.
"Boar the Fighter taught them personally. Don't let their silly talk fool you.
I wouldn't have them as an enemy at any price, and I was proud to fight
alongside them against the sea rats."
314
I Gonff sniffed the air. His whiskers twitched in the predawn
|<Jarkness that shrouded the riverbanks.
| "Trees, Din. We must be in Mossflower. Dawn will soon
§*•**
I: The young mole was painting a crude sign to cover the
,,pame Bloodwake. It bore the legend Wuddshipp. He shook "Ibis head
admiringly, wiping paint from his paws.
"Hurr, Gonffen, we'm 'ome again, oi'm a-feelen it." The gruff voice of a shrew
in the crosstrees confirmed Din-'s words. "Sun arising eastward, trees growing
close, we're n the forest."
> *'Keep her head straight," shouted Log-a-Log, standing lout for'ard. "Furl
those sails in before they snag on the 'branches. Lively there!" f Martin
joined him at the prow.
| "At this rate we should make Camp Willow around mid-f(Jay. I never noticed
us navigating the ford that crosses the
Log-a-Log patted the rail. "I chanced it in the dark. Good ^tailoring, see.
Old Wuddshipp skimmed the shallows with ii^er flat bottom. Nice and deep here
though, easy going on ffceoars."
4 The sun rose above the woodland mists, revealing another Ifcot summer day.
Patterns of water light played along the
Bulkheads, leaf and branch shadow mottled the decks. The Iftiars pulled strong
against the deep slow current as the big
thip nosed its course, further into the depths of Mossflower.
315
45
Brogg watched Tsarmina as she lay flat upon the parade ground with her ear to
the floor.
One of Bane's former mercenaries, a rat named Chinwart, tugged at Brogg's
cloak and asked, "What's she up to, Cap'n?"
"Can't you see, she's listening for water."
"Water?"
"Aye, water, wormbrain. What d'you suppose she'd be listening for, strawberry
cordial?"
Tsarmina sprang up, hurried across the parade ground and lay near the wall of
the building. Listening intently, she waved a paw.
"Brogg, over here!"
"Yes, Milady."
"Get down, press your ear to the wall—not up there, down here by the ground."
"Oh, right. Here, Milady?"
' "That's it. Tell me what you can hear.''
"Er, nothing, Milady."
"Are you sure, Brogg?"
"I'm certain, Milady."
"Well, I can hear water running."
"But I can't, Milady."
"Hmm, perhaps it's my imagination."
"Strange thing the imagination. Milady."
316
'Are you sure you searched below the cells last night?"
'Positive, Milady."
'Brogg, if I thought you were lying to me ... You did irch there, didn't you?"
The weasel Captain noted the look of fear that flitted across tormina's
features. He took full advantage of it. "Your Majesty, I personally went alone
to the place be-
-ath the cells where it's all damp and green with slime and w ngus. I searched
around that underground lake where the fCjloomer lived. The place was full of
strange echoes and dripping sounds. Maybe that's what you've heard. The place
is ^•-vays full of odd echoes and dripping noises down there in blackness.
Shall we go down there together and recheck Milady?" Tsarmina could not stop
her whole body shaking; she sat
- the ground, unconsciously wiping her paws across her xt. "No, no, Brogg,"
she said nervously. "I won't be go-down there. I'll be up in my chamber if you
need me for nything."
%. She nurried indoors, brushing roughly past Chinwart, who
ffead been lingering nearby, eavesdropping on the conversa-
Ilion.
f He winked knowingly at Brogg. "I was with you last night.
pfe never went anywhere near that place under the cells. What
|* pack of old fibs you fed her there, mate."
C Brogg grabbed the rat savagely by his ear and pulled him
:fek>se, twisting hard.
"Listen to me, bonebrain. You keep your skinny mouth uit. I'm giving the
orders now, not Bane." ^ "Owowowow, leggo, you're pulling me lug off!"
Chinwart ^whined pitifully.
$ Brogg twisted the ear more cruelly. £ 'Til rip your tongue out too if I hear
another word from prou," he said menacingly. "Let her go and search the deep
4ark places if she wants to. I'm not going down there, not :for all the cider
in Kotir. Unless, of course, you're volun-Jeering to go down there alone?"
:• Brogg released the rat, who stood nursing his ear tenderly. •/'All right,
all right! I haven't seen nothing, heard nothing, |>nd I won't say nothing.
It's none of my business."
317
Brogg contemptuously wiped the claws that had been nipping Chinwart's ear on
the rat's tunic.
"Good. Now get about your business, pigsears."
When the rat had scurried off, Brogg stood sunning himself. He held the larder
keys, had a new red velvet cloak and a-dangerous-looking curved sword. To all
apparent purposes, he was the only Captain at present serving in Kotir.
Life was beginning to feel fairly good.
A packed lunch was served at the river's edge.
Bella tossed an apple core into the water, they watched it bob to one side
then stick in the shallows.
Skipper plucked it out and flung it far. "All I can say is that somehow the
River Moss is at a low ebb. Those holes were underwater when we dug them, and
now they are high and dry."
Ben Stickle lay flat out on the bank, gazing up at the cloudless sky. "Must be
the mild spring we had. Look at it now, hardly a week into the season and it's
like midsummer. Huh, it'll be late autumn before we see a drop of rain at this
rate." "So, what is to be done?" Abbess Germaine asked, putting her milk
beaker aside.
Lady Amber stroked the space where her ear had been, "What d'you think, Skip?
Would it be possible to dam the river now that the level's fallen a bit?"
The otter picked up a pawful of banksand. It ran freely through his claws.
"Marm, even as things are now, it'd be like trying to stop the sunrise at
dawn. We don't stand a chance of even trying to block off a river the size of
old Moss."
"Er ahem!" Chibb perched on a young chestnut shoot. They continued talking,
ignoring the robin. "Maybe if we dig the channels a bit deeper." "Tunnels, you
mean."
"Channels, tunnels—it's all the same, isn't it?" "Ahemhem harrumph!" Chibb
called again. "It is if you're a squirrel, but to a mole or an otter a channel
and a tunnel are two completely different things."
"Humph, ahem, harrumph!" Chibb was becoming impatient.
318
Hurr, that be correck. 'Oles is 'oles an* tuners is fur-
"Harrumph, ahemhemhernhem!"
"What d'you mean, furrows, a channel isn't a furr— "
"Ahem!"
"Chibb, what's the matter with you? Some nut stuck in r throat, is it?"
*Er ahem, no. But I thought you'd like to know there's a |jhip coming up the
river."
"A ship!"
1 "What, you mean a boat?"
| "Harrumph, I beg your pardon, but I'd have said a boat if ;;1 meant a boat.
It is a ship, full size, all black, white skull Idling on the front, rolled up