Brian Jacques - Redwall #09 - Salamandastron

267

268

Brian Jacques

So/amandos Iron

269

The Abbey door opened and Foremole trundled out with his crew, bearing with them the sad little bundle that had been their friend Burrley. Foremole wiped his eyes on a spotted kerchief and tugged his snout respectfully to the two hedgehogs.

"Burr, 'tis a sad mom oi bid 'ee, guddbeasts. Us'ns will 'ave ol' Burrley putten to rest at late noontoid. Will 'ee tell everbeast within 'ee Abbey?"

Tudd patted the bundle and nodded brokenly. "Thankee, Foremole. I'll let 'em all know. They'll want t' be at Burrley's last restin'. He were greatly loved by all."

In the Infirmary and the upper gallery the beds were packed end to end. Abbess Vale and Furgle the Hermit hovered anxiously about Brother Hollyberry's bed, mopping his brow and rubbing his paws. Hollyberry lay still, his old face thin and ashen. Vale pawed her girdle cord distractedly.

"Oh, Furgle, can't you do anything to snap him out of it?"

"I wish I could, Abbess." The woodvole Hermit shrugged helplessly. "Hollyberry is in a deep faint. I know naught of such things. If he goes any deeper we'll surely lose him."

Bremmun levered himself weakly up off his pillows. "Ooooh, I'm aching all over! Don't even think of losing Brother Hollyberryonly he knows how to mix the medicine that's keeping us all alive. If he goes then who will be able to make it?"

Thrugann had been bathing little Droony's brow. She hurried over and hushed Bremmun. "Keep yore voice down, squirrel. These sick creatures got enough t' worry about without you startin' off a panic!"

Abbess Vale grasped the otter's paw beseechingly. "You'd know how to make the medicine, Thrugann. You collected the herbs for Bremmun. Surely he told you how to blend them together?"

"Oh, Abbess, marm, I only wish he had." Thrugann shook her head sadly. "I can find herbs an' pick 'em, but make 'em into medicine, never!"

Droony the infant mole woke up and began crying. "Whurr

be moi ol' nuncle Burrley? Burrhurrhurrhurr."

Thrugann hurried to comfort the little fellow, drying his tears and reassuring him. "There there. Hushabye, mole. Nuncle Burrley's gone away, but you'll see him agin some sunny season."

Abbess Vale swayed slightly, clasped a paw to her face and fell with a bump to the gallery floor. Faith Spinney had just arrived with a jug of soup and some bowls. She set the tray down and hurried across to help her old friend. The Abbess lay senseless.

"Oh, mercy sakes, somebeast 'elp 'er, please!" Faith looked around wildly.

Thrugann swept the frail form up in her strong paws. "Lan' sakes, I knowed this'd 'appen. She's been runnin' about 'ere takin' care of everybeast except 'erself. Furgle, it looks like one o' those faints to me. What d'you think?"

The Hermit needed only one glance to confirm his worst fears. "Lackaday! This is the worst thing that could happen right now."

Thrugann looked around gnawing her lip worriedly. "There's not an empty bed in the whole place for 'er."

"Oh yes there is." Faith Spinney dropped her voice to a whisper. "Burrley's bed is still empty in the dormitory. We'd best take pore Vale down there."

The dormitory was silent. Hastily Thrugann !aid Abbess Vale on the bed and dashed around checking on the patients. They had all gone into a deep faint, with the exception of Blossom the mousemaid, who was feebly shaking her comatose sister, Turzel, and weeping softly.

"Wake up, Turzel. Please, please wake up."

There was a pawstep on the stairs. Thrugann and Faith turned to see Furgle standing in the doorway.

"Er, er, the medicine has just run out and er, er.... " The Hermit stood fidgeting with an empty medicine bowl in the doorway until Faith Spinney snatched it impatiently from him.

"Goodness me, Mister Furgle, stop stammerin' about. Is there somethin' you've got to tell us?"

270

Brian Jacques

Salamandastron

271

He sighed and sat down on the floor. "There'll be another empty bed in the upper gallery. We've just lost Bremmun!" Thrugann shook her head. "But that ain't possible. I was only talkin' to Bremmun a moment ago. Oh, tell me 'e ain't dead, Furgle!" The Hermit shook his head. "I wish I could, marm. I was wiping his brow when he looked me in the eye and said he was tired, then he just turned on his back and closed his eyes and died."

Faith Spinney sat down on the floor, her face pale and shocked. "Oh dearie me, that means there's only we three an' my Tudd down in the cellars who ain't down with Dryditch Fever. We're all that's left standin' on our paws in Redwall Abbey!"

Thrugann mopped sweat from her brow and sat down on the bed where Abbess Vale lay.

Faith Spinney was at her side in an instant. "Thrugann, are you all right, my dear?' *

The otter staggered up and crossed to the window. "Aye, all I need is a breath of fresh air. Help me with this window catch. Mister Furgle, I feel weak as an otter kitten."

' 'Redwaaaaaaallllll!''

"Great acorns, what was that?" Faith Spinney sat bolt upright on the dormitory floor.

Thrugann flopped down beside her. "Now I know I've got that pesky Dryditch FeverI'm seein' things. I just saw Baby Dumble go flyin' past that window!"

Furgle jumped up and down, pounding the windowsill. "I can see him too! He's sitting in a haversack and the biggest bird on earth is carrying the thing in its claws!"

Faith Spinney and Thrugann went skeltering down the stairs toward the main door, yelling aloud.

"Murder! Help! A big bird's got Baby Dumble!"

"I don't care 'ow big the bird is, I'll wring its neck if it 'urts one 'air of that infant's liddle 'ead!"

Tudd Spinney hurried up from the cellars and hobskipped on his cane after them. "Ain't things bad enough without an attack of big birds!"

The Wild King MacPhearsome beat the air with his gigantic wings as he set the haversack carefully down on the lawn of Redwall Abbey.

"Oh, ye didnae tell me ye lived in sich a braw nest, Dumble!"

The infant stumbled from the haversack wreathed in lector Flowers. "It notta nest, birdie, it's a Habbey called Red-waaaaaalllll!"

In the island cave Mara listened with amazement to the tale that Loambudd told.

"My son Urthound was the strongest and wisest badger in all the Southwest Lands, and his wife Urthrun was famed for her beauty and gentleness. They ruled and protected the Southwest and were loved by all. Urthound's father Urthclaw had been dead many seasons. I was alone and there was trouble in the land, so Urthound took me in his home to live with him. It was autumn and Urthrun had given birth to two beautiful badger babes, male twinswe named them Urthwyte and Urthstripe. The trouble was called Ferahgo the Assassin and his gang of Corpsemakers. He was young and evil, a blue-eyed weasel who murdered for pleasure, with an army of vermin to back him up.

"That winter, the babes were scarce one season old, the snow was deep and the weather hard. If I had known that Ferahgo was in the area of my son's home I would never have gone out into the woodland that day to gather snowdrops. But I think that my son had arranged some sort of meeting with Ferahgo. It was Urthound who asked me to go and gather the snowdrops for his wife, though I know now that he only did it to get me out of his home lest I should attack FerahgoI was a mighty fighting badger when I was younger. Be that as it may, off I went into the winter woodlands to gather snowdrops.

"When I returned it was to find an awful scene of Ferah-go's treachery. The beautiful home was wrecked, my son Urthound lay dead, murdered by the blue-eyed one, and his wife Urthrun, too, was terribly slain. Of the two little ones there

272

Brian Jacques

Salamandastron

273

was only the white one Urthwyte. As for Urthstripe, I never knew what became of him. Did Ferahgo carry him off? Or did he wander away into the woodlands to perish in the winter? I never knew until this day when you came here, Mara. Fate sent you here to let me know that my grandson still lives. I might have known it, he was a tough little thing, more like his grandfather, fierce and warlike. He must have survived