Saxtus picked up some large clout nails. "Baby Grubb, drop that hammer. This instant!"

"Gurr, go boil yurr 'ead, bossy ol' Sax'us!"

"Owowowooch! Come here, you little ruffian!"

Grubb hid behind Sister Sage, who was pushing Hon Rosie's wheelchair. Saxtus hopped about, clenching his paw.

Sister Sage remonstrated with Grubb. "That was a very naughty thing to do, Dibbun."

"Arr, but maister Sax'us tol' oi t' drop 'ee 'ammer."

"Maybe he did. Still, it was no excuse for dropping it on his footpaw."

"Hurr, may'aps it weren't, tho' 'ee do darnce noicely, doant 'ee?"

Hon Rosie held her ribs and winced as she chuckled. "Whoohahahooh! You're an absolute savage, young Grubb!"

Grubb climbed onto the chair and sat upon Rosie's lap. "Yurr, Sax'us daresn't get oi naow, miz Rose."

Simeon felt the smooth grain of the newly planked oak. He pressed his nose against it and breathed in deeply. "That will make a stout door. Pity it loses its fragrance with the seasons and the weather, Bernard."

The Abbot led him away to the shade of the threshold 356.

wallsteps. "I feel that everything is going to be all right now, Simeon."

"Good, your senses are improving, my friend. I too can sense something."

"Oh, something I've missed? It's not that mole Burgo and his wild garlic again, is it?"

"Haha, no. I sense that we should do something about continuing construction on our bell tower. I've been meaning to tell you, I had a wonderful dream last night."

"Sshh!" the Abbot interrupted. "Don't mention Dandin or the others. Here comes Mellus. She looks in a happy mood this morning-let's try and keep her that way. Good morning, Mellus. Another beautiful day."

The badger nodded. "It was, until I spotted those two wretches over there. Bagg and Runn-look at them, covered from nose to tail with green gatehouse paint. I'll scrub the hides off the pair o' them!"

She took off at a trot, chasing the two green perils of Red wall.

"Sometimes I think she's only happy when she's got dirty Dibbuns to hurl into bathtubs!" Simeon whispered in the Abbot's ear.

357.

39.

Late the previous night six searats had been posted on guard duty by Captain Riptung-Felltooth and the rats who had swum out in vain pursuit of the Waveblade. Felltooth was not the most popular searat at Bladegirt, a fact that his mates kept reminding him of.

"Please sir, Cap'n sir, can I swim out an' bring that naughty ship back? Yer great turnipbrain, there was no chance o' catchin' Waveblade an' you knowed it."

Felltooth defended his unsuccessful action indignantly. "Ah, sharrap! I was tryin' t' get that craft back fer the likes of you 'n' me, matey. Don't yer realize, we're marooned on Terramort now!"

"Aye, well nex' time let some other dopes do the swimmin' an' you keep yer trap shut, cabingob. Ideas an' decisions is fer Cap'ns-that's why they're Cap'ns, see!"

The crack of the rock was audible in the darkness as it struck the speaker. He dropped without a sound. Felltooth leaned over him.

'"Ere, are you all right matey? Yaaaagh!"

An arrow had gone right through Felltooth's ear. He straightened up and ran for the fort, screaming aloud, "Attack! Attaaaaaack!"

Still half-asleep, the searat horde were rousted out 358.

by Hookfin, Riptung and Grimtooth. They hurried into the courtyard surrounding Bladegirt, s.n.a.t.c.hing weapons as they went.

"Stir yer stumps, y'dozy layabouts. We're under attack!"

"Come on, out there, every ratjack of ye. Move!" "Pick up those weapons. Never mind yer fancy clothes-yer goin' to a fight not a dance!"

00.

High in the rocks Dandin and Mariel drew back their bows, glancing along the line of Trag warriors as they drew bowstrings tight in unison. Durry Quill nodded. "Now!"

The arrows zipped off like a flight of angry wasps, straight down into the teeming courtyard, where even despite the night they could not miss among the large numbers of milling rats. As the archers dropped down to fit more shafts to their bows, a line of warriors behind them stood up whirling slings. Again Durry nodded. "Now!"

The rocks hurtled down, chunking into the searats below.

From a lower floor window Gabool the Wild grabbed hold of a pa.s.sing searat, hauling him in bodily over the sill.

"What in the name of h.e.l.lfangs is a-goin' on out there?"

"Majesty, we're bein' attacked!"

"I can see that, idiot! Who is it doin' the attackin'?"

"Sire, I don't know, but we're bein' cut down by arrows an' rocks from both sides, left an' right!"

Gabool hauled the unfortunate off with him toward the banqueting hall. "It's the badger-I know it is. You stay outside the door an' sing out t' me as soon as y'see the badger. Hear?"

The terrified searat nodded dumbly, though no sooner had Gabool gone into the banqueting hall and 359.

w slammed the door than the young searat sneaked off back to the courtyard, where a hard-slung rock put an end to all his fears.

On the far hill Joseph was marshaling his troops to snipe from two different directions of the hillside, causing great confusion among the searats. They would turn to fire their bows in one direction, only to be hit from behind as they did.

Riptung ran up and down the courtyard in the dark, laying about with the flat of his sword as he yelled out, "Up there in the hills to yer left, dolts. Can't yer tell by the way those arrows W stones are comin' in? 'Ere, gimme that bow, you!" He s.n.a.t.c.hed the bow and arrow from a bewildered rat. Pulling the shaft taut on the bow, he held it as a row of archers ducked down. Riptung let the arrow fly as the slingbeasts stood up, and was rewarded with a faint cry from high on the hillside.

"See, that's the way to get 'em! Now get down behind the wall and use yer tiny brains. Up an' down! Quick like, same's they're doin' to us. There ain't that many of 'em, judgin' by their volleys."

Gradually the three Captains got the searats into some semblance of fighting crews, using all their cunning in reply to the surprise invasion.

Dandin caught a stray searat who had moved out of the wall cover. He glanced anxiously at Mariel. "Where's Tarquin got to?"

As if in reply a cry rang out from below. "Eulal-iaaaaa!"

Whump . . . b.u.mp . . . Thud The battering ram had begun its work on the front gates. Tarquin had his forces screaming and yelling as they charged with the ram.

"Trag! Trag! Trag! Eulaliaaaa! Trag! Trag! Trag!"

The ma.s.sive treetrunk, still matted with earth and 360.

gra.s.s, pounded its blunt head against the quivering timbers of the gates.

Grimtooth dashed around to Riptung. "They're smashin' the gates in, matey! Take your force from this side an' stand 'em off. I'll get Hookfin to do the same!"

Soon the searats were ma.s.sed halfway between the fort building and the gates. They fired arrows upward in a curving arc. The shafts fell on the ram crew, slaying several with their first volley. Tarquin ordered his archers to return fire. "Give 'em blood an' vinegar, chaps. Fire!"

Gabool could see only the sea and the rocks below from the big banqueting hall window, but he darted around the slit windows on the other walls, the noise of battle ringing in his ears as he peered out at the dark shapes scurrying below. Dashing to the slit window on the far side, he stared out at the back hillside in horror. The badger had emerged from somewhere high upon the hill and stood there like some giant out of the worst nightmare, framed against the night sky, battlesword stuck in the ground beside him, clad in warhelm and breastplate.

Gabool stood framed in the big window, screaming threats and challenging the enemy who had haunted his waking dreams so long. But Rawnblade was only concerned with the task of the moment. Setting his paws against the vast boulder, he sucked air into his lungs, feeling his mighty chest swell against the metal breastplate. He pitted his weight and strength against the monolithic ball of rock; it budged slightly, then settled back. This time the badger threw his back against it, digging his blunt claws and wide footpads hard into the earth. He crouched and grunted with exertion as sweat trickled across his striped head, forcing his bulk into the boulder. This time it moved out of its depression in the stony soil. Feeling the ma.s.s move, Rawnblade attacked it with primeval ferocity.

361.

Roaring and bellowing, he hurled all his weight into the side of the formidable stone, sinew and muscle bunched as flesh hit rock. The boulder began to trundle away like some dread juggernaut, slowly at first, then gathering speed on the sloping hillside. Lord Rawnblade seized his battlesword. Throwing back his head he howled the war cry of Salamandastron to the night sky.

"Eulaliaaaaaa!"

The boulder crashed through the hill gorse, spinning and bouncing, a mighty stone ball of destruction, with the badger Lord charging in its wake. With a thunderous rumble it smashed through the wall, sending an explosion of sharded masonry high in the air. Either side of it sections of wall fell like wheat before a scythe. Several rats guarding the back wall stood paralyzed with fright as Rawnblade came bounding through the dustcloud in the shattered breach, followed by Joseph the Bellmaker and a chanting ma.s.s of Trag warriors.

"Trag! Trag! Trag! Redwaaaaalll!"

The rats at the main gates stopped shooting arrows. They turned to see what was happening at the back wall.

Riptung dashed through them. "Come on, they've burst through the walls back there!"

Reluctantly the searat archers turned to face the latest peril, Hookfin and Grimtooth shoving and pushing them toward the foe.

"Push 'em back, or we're done for, mates!"

"There ain't that many of 'em, we've got 'em outnumbered, buckos. Charge!"

Spurred on by desperation, the rats clashed with their attackers. Steel clashed against steel as both sides met like two waves crashing together. The bigger, more powerful searats in their barbaric finery did not intimidate the young Trag fighters, who threw themselves upon their hated oppressors with insane ferocity, hacking and cleaving as the melee swayed back and forth; 362.

but the rats were experienced skirmishers, each searat and his mate taking one Trag warrior between them, slashing and stabbing from back to front. Soon it became evident that Joseph's force would be routed, without reinforcements.

Rawnblade was fighting his own fight. The Blood-wrath had come upon him, his one aim was to get inside Bladegirt to find Gabool. Oblivious of Trag difficulties, he fought his way toward the fort, seeing nothing through the fiery red mist that engulfed his eyes but the building which contained his sworn enemy. Searats flew before the blade of Verminfate like b.u.t.terflies caught in a gale.

Outside the main gates they heard the noise as the back wall was broken by the boulder. Within moments the searat arrows stopped raining over upon them. Mariel, Tarquin, Dandin and Durry lifted their heads and listened. The pounding of receding paws and the shouts that followed told them the battle was being joined inside.

Durry did a little dance of impatience. "Use the ram as a ladder. Quick, quick!"

Mariel weighed up and cracked and splintered gates. "No, there's twice as many of us now. Let's see what we can do against these gates. Right, Tarquin!"

"All paws now, every Tragjack of you, grab the ram. One, two, hup!" the hare roared out in his best parade ground voice.

Rank upon rank of willing paws gripped the battering ram, lifting it high above their heads with a rush of strength and energy. Tarquin shouted out commands from the front.

"Righto, chaps. Back up. Back, back, back-a bit more! Come on, you lot on the end, stop bunchin' together and back up. We need a good long run to gain momentum, wot! That's it, laddie buck. Back, back . . . Ah, that's more like it. Halt!"

363.

Mariel stood with Dandin and Durry at the front of the ram, gazing down the long run toward the gates. Tarquin joined them, throwing his shoulder under the log and lifting it high.

"Listen up now, chaps. When I give the word, altogether, fast as y'can. Ready . . . Chaaaaaarge!"

Dust pounded and flew from under the thundering paws. Eyes wide and mouths agape, screaming and yelling bloodcurdling cries, the army of rammers with the log swaying madly above their heads tore onward to the gates in one single mad rush.

Whakkarraboom!!!

There was no sound of splintering timber, just a tremendous whump Door, timbers, locks, bars and bolts, even the two impressive stone gateposts, were knocked flat as if hit by a thunderbolt. Carried on in the momentum of the heroic charge, the rammers clattered across the fallen gates and over the courtyard, the battering ram still held high.

Swept on in the rush, with the blood singing through his eardrums like a high-pitched siren, Durry Quill yelled aloud, "Eeyahoooo!"

The battering ram hit the rear of the searat hordes, scattering them like ninepins. Over the clamor of battle Joseph laughed in relief. The reinforcements had arrived in a spectacular manner.

Riptung knew the tide had turned. He strove madly to group a fighting force about him, but the searats ignored his cries, each fighting with the strength of despair. The searat Captain whirled his curved sword with long-born expertise, taking out a vole and a field-mouse, only to find himself confronted by Dandin. The blade of Martin the Warrior flashed in the young mouse's paws as he closed in to attack. Riptung parried, frantically backing to get creatures between himself and the cold-eyed swordsmouse. The searat tried every move and trick he knew, but his a.s.sailant kept coming 364.

on, battering the curved corsair sword aside ferociously until he had Riptung backed up to the wall. Above the clash of battle Riptung swung his sword high for a downward slash, screeching in Dandin's face, "You'll never take me alive!"

Dandin slew him with a strong upward swing. "I don't want you alive, rat!"

Hookfin saw that the battle was lost. He sneaked away before the total rout of all the searats, skirting the edges of the fray until he found the section of the back wall that the boulder had smashed through. Without a backward glance he slipped out onto the hillside, with a sigh of relief that died upon his lips. Sitting in front of him on a rock was the impa.s.sive vole Tan Loc. Hookfin froze. Drawing his long sword, Tan Loc whetted it against the rock, speaking in a flat voice without even looking at Hookfin. "I've been waiting for you."

Back at the battle, Joseph found himself fighting for his life. A searat was choking him from behind as Grim-tooth swung his cutla.s.s in front. The bellmaker parried each thrust as he fought to shake off the rat, who clung behind him like a leech. Grimtooth slashed furiously, knowing the death of a leader might turn the tide of battle back in favor of the searats. He smiled grimly as the gray-haired mouse began to weaken, and closed in for the kill.

"Redwaaalll!"

Mariel leaped off the back of a falling rat, swinging her Gullwhacker. Grimtooth turned. Catching the full force of the blow between his eyes, he dropped like a log. Durry Quill took the strangler from behind with a rock from the wall debris.

Tarquin fought his way through to them, a broken lance clutched in his paws.

"One more good sally an' they're finished, chaps, I say, wot!" He turned this way and that, bobbing up 365.

and down. "Where's me old boss got to? Anybeast seen Lord Rawnblade?"

Mariel struck off into the melee. "No. Come on, let's find him!"

They were joined by Dandin as they dodged around skirmishing groups.

The steps up to Fort Bladegirt were littered with dead searats. Durry picked his way between them, pointing with his dagger at the big oak door, which had been hacked almost to splinters and hung crazily on one hinge.

"Ha! Betcher Rawnblade did this wi' that great tree-chopper o' his."