"Did you hear him, Pounce? What do you think of all this, hmmm? Got your whiskers up, does it?" Fritti waited vainly for a response, then tried again. "What a storv this will make when we get back to Meeting Wall, won't it? D'you think the Folk will believe us?" After a moment, Pouncequick raised his head and looked at Fritti plaintively.
"Where's my friend Roofshadow?" he asked. His voice was so quiet that Tailchaser had to cock his ears forward to make out the words.
"We'll find her, Pounce, I promise. I swear on my tail name-we'll get away from here and find her!"
The kitten looked at him for a moment with a puzzled expression, then lowered his gaze to the ground once more.
Skydancer's Ears and Tears! Fritti cursed himself. When am I going to stop making promises I have not the slightest chance of keeping? Still, he thought. I had to say something to Pounce. He has the look of someone who's going to lie down and float to the Fields Beyond any moment. At least I got a word or two out of him.
Now Tailchaser noticed that the sound of the tunnel had changed. Below the near-silent padding of their paws, he thought he could discern a thin wash of voices-cat voices, but very distant.
Bitefast, the nearest Guard, turned and hissed: "We'll be home, soon. Your home, too-for a short while, anyway."
Finally the underground path widened again and turned downward. The pulsing had become constant and almost familiar, and the voices Fritti had noticed earlier sounded louder and louder. Then, when it seemed as if any moment they must come upon the source, Scratchnail stopped the procession.
"Now," he said, fixing Fritti and his comrades with a hard stare, "we are about to enter Vastnir by one of the Lesser Gates. If you make any movement to escape I will tear you to ribbons, and be pleased to do it. And just in case you decide to try your luck" -here he narrowed his gaze on Eatbugs, who turned his eyes away uncomfortably-"even if you're fast and tricky enough to get by me-which I doubt- you'll come to wish you'd died at my claws, I promise you. The Clawguard are not the worst who home in the Vastnir Mound."
Scratchnail turned to his fellows. "And you two. Remember, no one is to interfere-especially not the Toothguard. The prisoners stay with us until I say otherwise, understood? It had better be."
They all followed Scratchnail downward, and shortly rounded a bend in the tunnel to find themselves in a wide entranceway before the gate. Silhouetted at the end of the tunnel by a fitful blue-green light stood two massive Clawguard, silent and terrible, bigger even than Fritti's captors. On either side of the entrance they guarded, on small piles of raised earth, were skulls. One was of an enormous Growler, the eyesockets dark as sorrow. The other was the skull of a large horned beast. All four of these sentries looked down pitilessly on Tailchaser and his companions as they were led through.
As he passed beneath the arched tunnel mouth into the depths of Vastnir, Fritti felt a strange sensation. As he had in his catmint nightmare, he began to experience a burning feeling on his forehead. Whatever it might be, though, neither his friends nor the Clawguard took any notice of him.
Beyond the threshold was a vision that would stay with Tailchaser as long as he lived.
Before them sprawled a vast cavern, the roof as high above as the treetops of Rootwood. It was lit by the luminescent earth they had seen in the tunnel, and also by the faint blue glow of stones that protruded down through the ceiling rock. The phantom light rendered all in the cavern into spirits and vaulting shadows.
Below, on the cavern floor, countless cats moved back and forth like termites in rotten wood. Most of them appeared to be normal Folk, although their faces were so full of despair and pain that they seemed almost a different race. Among them moved the Clawguard, lumpish and huge, directing the streaming, insectlike hordes as they crept to and fro.
It's like some horrible dream ofFirsthome, Fritti thought.
The stench of fear and blood and unburied me'mre rose up on the hot air currents and filled his nostrils, choking him. With a snarl, Scratchnail herded them down to the cave floor, across the jutting rocks and warm, moist soil. They maneuvered among the lines of cats, brushing past Folk who did not even look up, but only plodded on toward whatever grim destination the ubiquitous Clawguard were leading them to.
As they passed one group Fritti saw a smallish cat, eyes and ribs bulging, who appeared to be sick. He coughed and staggered, then collapsed to the stones. Before Fritti could move to help him, a Clawguard shouldered his way past and bent over the sick one. Then the brute picked him up by the neck and shook him violently. Tailchaser could hear the sound of bones snapping; the Claw flung the broken body to the side with an impatient head-flip, and the line of cats moved on. Tailchaser stared after them, then over at the crumpled body lying unnoticed and unmourned in the dirt. His hatred flared, then settled into a low flame, banked deep inside himself. He, also, turned away.
As Scratchnail's procession reached the far side of the great cavern and was approaching the gaping maw of another tunnel, a thin, piercing voice called out: "Ssscratchnail!" The sound seemed to come from one of the innumerable caves in the rock wall before them. The chief halted the group as a dim shape appeared in the darkness of a cave mouth.
"What do you want of me?" Scratchnail snapped angrily. His voice held an odd intonation.
"Hissblood wants to sssee you, Sscratchnail," the thin voice said, sibilant and mocking. As the shape in the grotto spoke, Fritti could see the gleam of its teeth, but no reflected shine of its eyes.
"That's a laugh!" the chief snarled. "Why should I care anyway?"
In the dark grotto the teeth were bared again. "Hissblood wantss to know who your prissonerss are. There wasss to be no more taking of captivesss. That was the understanding, no?"
"My business is between the Fat One and myself, and there's no room for you crawlers to go sticking your hairless snouts into it. If Hissblood wants to have any dealings with me I'll be in the lower Catacombs later on." Scratchnail pivoted and walked away.
"He will meet you there," said the thin voice, and the sound of deathly merriment came from the shadowed cave.
Entering the huge tunnel in the cave wall, Long-tooth hissed at Scratchnaiclass="underline" "What do the Toothguard want with these, anyway?"
The chief turned on him with a growl. "You keep your muzzle shut!"
Longtooth asked no more questions, and they went some distance down the tunnel in silence. Scratchnail finally halted the group at a widening of the way. The chief pushed Eatbugs and Pouncequick roughly to one side, then turned to Bitefast.
"You and this dribbling me'mre," he barked, indicating Longtooth, "take these two down to the Middle Catacombs. They're not to go anywhere else until I say so. Me, no one else!" Bitefast nodded. "Good. I'm going to take the clever one here for a special audience. I think you-know-who will be interested in him. Now move!" With this he propelled Tailchaser up the tunnel, and the other Clawguard herded Fritti's companions off toward a side tunnel.
Tailchaser turned as he was pushed forward and called back over his shoulder: "I'll be back for you, Pounce, don't worry! Take care of him, Eatbugs!"
Scratchnail dealt him a stinging paw-blow to the side of the head that brought moisture to his eyes.
"Fool!" rasped the beast.
The winding way led farther down into the earth. The tunnel they traveled was strewn with rocks and bits of bone, and wet things that made Fritti wince when he stepped on them. He had to scrape against the dirt walls to avoid contact with the terrifying Claw chief.
Now the shaft pitched down steeply. The faint glow of the walls was interrupted by splashes of blue-and-purple light that seemed to be reflected from farther down the tunnel. Stepping along the sloping pathway, Tailchaser also noticed a change in the air-it was becoming much colder. Within twenty steps the chill had sharpened, and the ground underneath his pads seemed hard, perhaps frozen. With Scratchnail beside him, he ducked to pass beneath the low roof. When he raised his head again he found that they had passed into a great chamber- the Seat of Vastnir. They had come to the Cavern of the Pit… the heart of the mound.