Brian Jacques - Martin the Warrior [Redwall 6]

Starwort grinned and held up a thonged sling. "Mainly uses these for sport an' fishin', but we've all got one. Miss Rose, good to see yer pretty face again. Still keepin' this Warrior of yours in check, I 'ope.

Pallum an' Grumm, well, shake me rudder yer lookin' plump an'

fitter'n ever!"

A flotilla of shrew canoes came racing round the bend and hit the bank with a loud damp thud. Starwort winked at Boldred. "Ho, look out, 'ere comes trouble on the tide!"

Boldred blinked at the teeming arguing masses of shrews, yelling and waving their swords angrily. "What are they doing here?"

Starwort flexed his powerful paws. "I thought we might need extra

'elp, so I told 'em they weren't allowed to follow us an' I forbid them to take part in any fight. You know the shrews, mate never do as they're told." The otter waved at his deck crew. "Cast off for'ard, cast off aft, cast off midships. Away we go! You shrews, stop 'ere, you ain't comin', see!"

Rose and Pallum chuckled at Starwort's ruse as a veritable armada of craft pulled out into the stream, with Waterlily in the vanguard.

Martin stood in the bows of the otter boat as if willing it to travel faster. Worry etched itself across his brow. Boldred perched on the for'ard rail. "Rest, Martin. Nothing you can do will make the river flow swifter."

Grim jawed, the young mouse pawed his sword hilt as he paced back and forth, heedless of the glorious sunset on the water. "I'll never forgive myself if we're too late. Travelling to Noonvale was a mistake, I should have stayed on the coast and sought Brome out, Felldoh too.

Things might have been different."

Boldred folded her wings, shifting from claw to claw.

"Aye, you could have all been slain, then what help would you be?

This way you are returning to Marshank with an army at your back.

Many more are coming to aid your cause. I have made sure of that."

Martin watched the stream slip by, gurgling and eddying. "Forgive me, friend. I must seem very ungrateful after all you have done to help."

"It is natural to worry when friends are in danger, Martin. Don't think about what you could have done, concentrate on what you plan to do; it is more useful." Boldred spread her wings, preparing for flight. "I must leave you for a while now. There are more things that I have to do. I'll see you at Marshank, Warrior mouse. Good seasons and fair winds go with us both."

Martin watched his feathered friend winging off downstream into the evening treetops, silhouetted against a sky of lilac and gold.

"Move yer stern a touch, matey, and let me get at the drum!"

Starwort's wife Marigold opened a locker and rolled out a big flat drum. She placed it on a coil of rope and began whacking it slowly with her rudderlike tail. The deep boom cut through the twilight stillness as Rose came to join Martin in the bows. They both looked on perplexed, until Marigold explained, "Just drummin' up a little more

'elp. My Starwort always says that willin' paws are welcome ones."

A rolling drum answered Marigold's summons. Rose pointed upstream. "Look!"

Waiting to join them was a sprawling flat raft with a rickety shed built at its centre. Lines of otters and burly hedgehogs stood by their long poles, waiting to join the fleet.

Starwort sprang to the bowsprit, waving at the newcomers. "Yoho, Gulba, me ole mucker, come to join in the fun?"

The biggest of the hedgehogs was a female. Colored tassels hung from her headspikes and she brandished a formidable warclub studded with chunks of crystal.

"Yoho, Starwort. Yore gittin' fat an' sleek these days. Wot's Marigold bin feedin' ye on?"

Starwort grinned mischievously as he ducked a swipe from his wife.

"Hard words an' hotroot when she's not bullyin' the babies!"

Gulba's husband Trung was small and fat. He emerged from the shack eating a watershrimp pastie and twirling a thong with two stones clacking on its split end. "Who are we fightin' an' when do we get at 'em, Marigold?"

Martin came alert as he listened to the information.

"The vermin in the big place by Eastern Sea. With a followin' breeze an' no stream blockages, we should get there by noon on the morrow.

Are you game?"

The raft pushed off as they passed, bumping several shrew longboats and following the Waterlily 's wakeswirl.

Gulba leaned on her warclub and scowled. "We're with you. 'Tis only a matter o' time afore that scummy stoat takes over the whole coast an' starts foragin' inland for slaves. I say we put a stop to him smartlike!"

Throughout the night Martin's piecemeal slumbers were broken as the drums sounded and more woodland tribes joined the swelling ranks. Rose slept through it all. Waking at dawn light, she was amazed and delighted to see the stream packed with boats and craft of all shapes, each one low in the water with creatures ready to fight at their side. Along the banks she could see others, squirrels and mice, keeping pace with the vessels at a swift lope. Starwort dashed past her and leaped up on the rail. Steadying himself on a rope, he put a paw to his brow, scanning the mist wreathed waters ahead.

"Steady on, backwater buckoes, the outlet's in sight!"

Martin left off opening a food pack. "What's the outlet?"

Suddenly the Waterlily picked up speed as if she were being sucked along on the current, and a rushing noise became audible.

Starwort winked at Martin and Rose. "Best 'old tight, the outlet's where we join the main Broadstream again. Nothin' t' worry about, it's only rapids."

The whole craft gave a lurch, and it began to buck and leap.

Timbers groaned crazily as Marigold shouted forward. "Starwort, get yer hide aft an' do somethin' useful. I can't manage this tiller single pawed!"

There was no time for more talk. Rose hung grimly on to Martin.

Winding a rigging rope about his paws, the young mouse took a deep breath as the otter boat tilted into the rapids. A huge rainbow appeared through the mist of boiling spray as water engulfed everybeast aboard, and the craft stood almost on its end as it flew helter skelter down the sickening drop. Ragged rocks rushed by.

Grumm opened his mouth to yell, but it was filled with water. He clung to Pallum, ignoring his friend's spikes. The world seemed to turn upside down for several perilous moments, the drum rat tatting as rapid water beat at it.

Starwort and Marigold laughed with wild exuberance as they fought the swivelling tiller. Together they roared above the melee, "Down weeeeeee goooooooo!"

With a loud flat splash, the Waterlily landed in the Broadstream.

Starwort was immediately up on the stern, bawling orders. "Ship out, ship out, mates! Pull 'er clear, make fast that raft an' get 'er in midstream!"

The otter crew worked furiously as other craft dropped in behind them. Two shrew longboats collided in midair and overturned. Gulba and her husband Trung, the two hedgehogs who steered the ramshackle craft, together with their otter friends managed to make a perfect flat landing in an immense cascade of water. The hut at the center of the big raft half disintegrated under the impact, but Gulba paid it no heed. She was yelling sternly at the shrews.

"Hoi, shrewheads, don't ye know the meanin' of the order to backwater. Yore mad as scorched frogs, you lot!"

As if to prove her point, two shrew boats flew overhead, packed with shouting and arguing creatures. They sailed right over the raft.

Gulba ducked as they flew by in midair.

Splash! Crash!

Both boats hit the water, miraculously staying upright. A shrew stood up, waving his sword at the hedgehog. "Tend to yer own raft, spikedog. We know what we're doin'!"

As boats were righted and soaking creatures hauled from the water, the fleet gradually got itself back on to an even keel.