“Just other rats?” said Keith.
“Well, one or two stories do say that they can do it to people,” said Malicia.
“How?” said Keith. “Has it ever happened, really?”
“It couldn't, could it?” said Malicia.
Yes.
“Yes what?” said Malicia.
“I didn't say anything. You just said ‘yes’,” said Keith.
Silly little minds. Sooner or later there is always a way in. The cat is much better at resisting! You will OBEY me. Let the rats GO.
“I think we should let the rats go,” said Malicia. “It's just too cruel, having them packed into those cages like that.”
“I was just thinking that,” said Keith.
And forget about me. I am just a story.
“Personally, I think rat kings really are just a story,” said Malicia, walking over to the trapdoor and raising it. “That rat-catcher was a stupid little man. He was just babbling.”
“I wonder if we should let the rats out,” Keith mused. “They looked pretty hungry.”
“They can't be worse than the rat-catchers, can they?” said Malicia. “Anyway, the piper will be here soon. He'd lead them all into the river, or something—”
“Into the river…” muttered Keith.
“That's what he does, yes. Everyone knows that.”
“But rats can—” Keith began.
Obey me! Don't THINK! Follow the story!
“Rats can what?”
“Rats can… rats can…” Keith stammered. “I can't remember. Something about rats and rivers. Probably not important.”
Thick, deep darkness. And, somewhere in it, a little voice.
“I dropped Mr. Bunnsy,” said Peaches.
“Good,” said Dangerous Beans. “It was just a lie. Lies drag us down.”
“You said it was important!”
“It was a lie!”
… endless, dripping darkness…
“And… I've lost the Rules, too.”
“So?” Dangerous Beans' voice was bitter. “No-one bothered with them.”
“That's not true! People tried to. Mostly. And they were sorry when they didn't!”
“They were just another story, too. A silly story about rats who thought they weren't rats,” said Dangerous Beans.
“Why're you talking like this? This isn't like you!”
“You saw them run. They ran and squeaked and forgot how to talk. Underneath, we're just… rats.”
… foul, stinking darkness…
“Yes, we are,” said Peaches. “But what are we on top? That's what you used to say. Come on—please? Let's go back. You're not well.”
“It was all so clear to me…” Dangerous Beans mumbled.
“Lie down. You're tired. I've got a few matches left. You know you always feel better when you see a light…”
Worried in her heart, and feeling lost and a long way from home, Peaches found a wall that was rough enough and dragged a match from her crude bag. The red head flared and cracked. She raised the match as high as she could.
There were eyes everywhere.
What's the worst part? she thought, her body rigid with fear. That I can see the eyes? Or that I'm going to know they're still there when the match goes out? “And I've only got two more matches…” she mumbled to herself.
The eyes withdrew into the shadows, noiselessly. How can rats be so still and so silent? she thought.
“There's something wrong,” said Dangerous Beans.
“Yes.”
“There's something here,” he said. “I smelled it on that keekee they found in the trap. It's a kind of terror. I can smell it on you.”
“Yes,” said Peaches.
“Can you see what we should do?” said Dangerous Beans.
“Yes.” The eyes in front were gone, but Peaches could still see them on either side.
“What can we do?” said Dangerous Beans.
Peaches swallowed. “We could wish we had more matches,” she said.
And, in the darkness behind their eyes, a voice said: And so, in your despair, you come, at last, to me…
Light has a smell.
In the dank, damp cellars the sharp sulphur stink of the match flew like a yellow bird, rising on drafts, plunging through cracks. It was a clean and bitter smell and it cut through the dull underground reek like a knife.
It filled the nostrils of Sardines, who turned his head. “Matches, boss!” he said.
“Head that way!” Darktan commanded.
“It's through the room of cages, boss,” Sardines warned.
“So?”
“Remember what happened last time, boss?”
Darktan looked around at his squad. It wasn't everything he could have wished for. Rats were still trailing back from their hiding-places, and some rats—good, sensible rats—had run into traps and poisons in the panic. But he'd picked the best he could. There were a few of the experienced older ones, like Inbrine and Sardines, but most of them were young. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, he thought. It was the older rats who'd panicked most. They hadn't been so used to thinking.
“O-K,” he said. “Now, we don't know what we're going to—” he began, and caught sight of Sardines. The rat was shaking his head slightly.
Oh, yes. Leaders weren't allowed not to know.
He stared at the young, worried faces, took a deep breath and started again. “There's something new down here,” he said, and suddenly he knew what to say. “Something that no-one's ever seen before. Something tough. Something strong.” The squad was almost cowering, except for Nourishing, who was staring at Darktan with shining eyes.
“Something fearful. Something new. Something sudden,” said Darktan, leaning forward. “And it's you. All of you. Rats with brains. Rats who can think. Rats who don't turn and run. Rats who aren't afraid of dark or fire or noises or traps or poisons. Nothing can stop rats like you, right?”
Now the words bubbled up. “You heard about the Dark Wood in the Book? Well, we're in the Dark Wood now. There's something else down there. Something terrible. It hides behind your fear. It thinks it can stop you and it's wrong. We're going to find it and drag it out and we're gonna make it wish we'd never been born! And if we die… well,” and he saw them, as one rat, stare at the livid wound across his chest, “death ain't so bad. Shall I tell you about the Bone Rat? He waits for those who break and run, who hide, who falter. But if you stare into his eyes he'll give you a nod and pass right on.”
Now he could smell their excitement. In the world behind their eyes they were the bravest rats that there ever were. Now he had to lock that thought there.
Without thinking, he touched the wound. It was healing badly, still leaking blood, and there was going to be a huge scar there for ever. He brought his hand up, with his own blood, and the idea came to him right out of his bones.
He walked along the row, touching each rat just above the eyes, leaving a red mark. “And afterwards,” he said quietly, “people will say, ‘They went there, and they did it, and they came back out of the Dark Wood, and this is how they know their own’.”
He looked across their heads to Sardines, who raised his hat. That broke the spell. The rats started to breathe again. But something of the magic was still there, lodged in the gleam of an eye and the twitch of a tail.
“Ready to die for the Clan, Sardines?” Darktan shouted.
“No, boss! Ready to kill!”
“Good,” said Darktan. “Let's go. We love the Dark Wood! It belongs to us!”
The smell of light drifted along the tunnels and reached the face of Maurice, who sniffed it up. Peaches! She was mad about light. It was more or less all Dangerous Beans could see. She always carried a few matches. Mad! Creatures that lived in darkness, carrying matches! Well, obviously not mad when you thought about it, but even so…
The rats behind were pushing him in that direction. I'm being played with, he thought. Batted from paw to paw so Spider can hear me squeak.