Fritti had been with the tunnel slaves for two work shifts and his impatience was rising: he knew that his time was running out. All he could think of was the danger that his friends were in. Firsthome and the fate of the Folk had faded from his memory as useless abstractions. After he left Fumblefoot, Tail-chaser sat humpbacked in the corner of the cave until the guards came to dme them forth.
The dirtv. back-bending digging time oozed by as slowly as running sap. Although his paws were cracked and bleeding, Fritti dug as though consumed-striving to obliterate the dragging Hours by main force.
When the smirking Claw at the mouth of the tunnel growled down the order to quit digging, Tailchaser and the other wean prisoners began to mount upward. Carefully falling behind, he stopped as the last cat before him turned up over the tunnel rim, then quickly ducked down the short passage and threw himself to the earth at the end of the hole they had been excavating. He wiggled as far beneath the piles of loose soil as he could and lay quietly.
The sounds of the milling prisoners drifted down from above. For a moment, a burning golden eye looked down into the tunnel, but dirt and darkness hid Tailchaser from all but the closest inspection, and soon he heard the press gang crunching away. He remained silent at the burrow's end while his heart beat many times, then finally crept cautiously toward the surface.
The small cavern from which the tunnel network led was empty. The dim earth-light revealed no movement but his own. Nonchalantly but rapidly he groomed the worst of the dust from his face, legs 1 tail then moved silently out into the larger shaft which his fellow prisoners and their guards had aireadv vanished.
In the mirk where Pouncequick lay dreaming of the white cat, Roofshadow herself was also finally discouraged. The strain of anticipation-waiting for the return of the revengeful Clawguard-and the enforced helplessness of her situation had worn her down until she could no longer muster strength or worry to resist. Chin on paws, she had lain for a long time staring at the peaceful, helpless forms of Pouncequick and Eatbugs, and hopelessness had drifted over her like a warm mist. When the guard thrust his malignant head into the chamber he saw all three of the cats lying in deathlike stillness. With a yellow-fanged grin of approval, he withdrew.
Eatbugs' eyes blinked open. For a moment, while his body still lay slack and motionless, they filled with an intense, cool fire. Then the light flickered in their depths, and seemed to die. The lids sagged back into place, and all was still as stone once more.
Skinwretch was waiting for Fritti when he arrived at the spur tunnel. The Toothguard was doing a little dance of anticipation, his furless tail kinking and wriggling like a drowning nightcrawler. Tailchaser, who had spent what seemed like Eyes and Eyes working his way carefully across the mound to this spot, approached as quietly as he could, only to be greeted by Skinwretch's shrill, excited hiss.
"Tunnelwalker! Have you come? I have newsss, newsss!"
"Silence!" Fritti himself hissed. "What news?"
"I have found your prisoner!" said the Toothguard gleefully. "Ssskinwretch hasss done it!"
Tailchaser felt the pressing of time. "Where? Where is she?"
Skinwretch grinned, the mouthful of teeth below the scarred snout gleaming crazily. "Not far from here, oh yesss, very clossse. Oh, clever Sskinwretch hass ssserved the Lord of All!"
Trying to keep his patience, Fritti waited with dry mouth as Skinwretch described where Roofshadow was being held. When the eyeless Toothguard had finished Tailchaser began to back away, planning furiously, then suddenly stopped.
I'd better keep up appearances, he thought. This creature is a terrible enemy, but he makes a good ally.
"You have done well," he told the Toothguard. "The Master will be pleased. Remember, not a word to anyone!"
"Of coursse not. Not clever Ssskinwretch!"
As he watched the creature's mad caperings, Fritti suddenly noticed something he had missed in his excitement. "Where's Scratchnail?" he demanded. "You were to keep him with you."
A sudden look of fear crossed Skinwretch's ruined features. "Oh, Tunnelwalker, that one. He isss full of ossss. He would not stay by me, and I could not make him-he iss very powerful, you know. He ran off into the tunnelsss, crying and ssaying ssstrange thingsss. He wasss punished becaussse of the pris-soner, and he iss sssick with the osss."
Nothing to be done, thought Fritti. "Never mind," he told Skinwretch, who brightened immediately. "Go on, now, and if I need you I will find you."
Tailchaser darted out of the spur tunnel and across the main shaft, stopping in an alcove on the far side, shielded by darkness from observing eyes. When he looked back he saw Skinwretch, maimed face in a crooked smile, still leaping and jigging in the shadows.
Hiding in pools of deeper shade, stealing quietly past squadrons of bristling, congregating mound-dwellers, Fritti moved like a spirit-cat through the awakening underworld. The mound-beasts were everywhere-moving, whispering, flexing sharp red claws.
Fritti reached the junction of three tunnels that Skinwretch had described. Looking cautiously around, and seeing no one paving attention, he ducked down the passage that the Toothguard had instructed him to take. Tail erect, whiskers tingling and every bit of fur puffed upright, he crept downward.
A shaft entrance in the tunnel wall ahead. That was the one! He felt an urge to leap, but controlled himself. Carefully, carefully…
He reached the hole and peered cautiously down. In the dim light at the bottom of the shaft he could see… Pouncequick! His heart leaped. The young killing and Roofshadow were being kept in the same cave! His luck was holding.
Leaning farther forward, he could now see two more shapes. Roofshadow! And was the old one Eatbugs? But why weren't any of them moving? Could they be… but no. He could see Pouncequick's sides rising and falling.
Something crashed down on him like a toppling tree. With a yowl of pain he tumbled to the side of the cavern entrance. Standing over him with a massive paw cocked for another blow was a large black shape. The half-familiar face of the Clawguard leered down at him.
"What are you up to, then?" the brute growled.
"N-nothing!" squeaked Fritti. "M-m-my name is T-Tunnelwalker, and I've lost my way." He tried to make himself small against the earth. The Claw leaned closer.
"Is that right?" he snarled, and his hot breath made Tailchaser blink. The beast's eyes narrowed. "Just a moment. You look familiar. What's that mark on your head?"
His head? Forehead? Skydancer's Tears! Fritti cursed himself. He must have wiped the masking dust from his face when he had emerged from the slave tunnel.
Fritti made a sudden squirming movement toward escape, but the heavy paw descended on his neck, scarlet claws softly pricking his throat.
"By the Great One!" said the Claw. "If it isn't our little escaped sun-rat! Isn't that fine!"
In a rush of despair, Fritti recognized his captor. It was Bitefast, Scratchnail's former companion, who now bared his teeth at the trapped Tailchaser in a terrible smile. "Well now," chuckled the Claw, "it's awfully good that I should be the one to find you. Because of you, they ruined the chief. All because of you!" The paw pushed cruelly down on Fritti's throat. He coughed helplessly.
"Well, I'm the chieftain now." Bitefast smirked. "And I'm going to make sure you get what you deserve." The black beast squatted, and pushed his deep-set eves up next to the face of his wheezing captive. The Claw's voice descended to a vindictive whisper.
"I'm giving over you straight to the Fat One!"
CHAPTER 28
Wheresoever thou art our agony will find Thee Enthroned on the darkest altar of our heartbreak Perfect. Beast, brute, bastard. O dog my God!