Brian Jacques - Redwall #09 - Salamandastron

"Get them! Don't let them escape!"

"Finish the badger off!"

Six hares supported the staggering badger Lord. Oxeye and the others backed off swiftly, firing arrows into the rocks to discourage pursuit. Hurrying across the sands toward the mountain, they ducked returning salvos of arrows and sling-stones.

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Klitch and Ferahgo laid about them with sword and knife blades.

"Gel after them, you lily-livered cowards!"

"Come on, you worthless trash. Charge!"

Oxeye saw them coming and broke his command into threefive shooting arrows, with five behind waiting and another five behind them. As one party fired they fell to the rear, letting the next five loose off their arrows; they fired and went to the rear, leaving the next five to shoot. Urthstripe's paws dragged twin furrows in the sand as they half carried, half pulled him along.

Big Oxeye was moving slowly backwards with his archers, coolly in command of the situation. "Righto, chaps. Fire! Next five, ready, aim, pick y' targets now. Fire! Well done, the Long Patrol. Next five, steady in the ranks there, draw strings ... and fire!"

The deadly shafts hissed through the air as the ambushers advanced reluctantly. Ferahgo sent another contingent out from the rocks to reinforce the half-hearted ambushers.

"Their arrows are nearly used uplook. Get after them!"

Bart Thistledown muttered to Oxeye as the mountain loomed large, "Bad show this. We'll never get Urthstripe up through that windowspace he climbed out of. What'11 we do, Ox?"

The big hare glanced over his shoulder, sizing up the situation. "You'd better dash back, Baity old lad. Tell Penny and the others to unblock one of the big groundlevel openings. Off y' go now!"

Ferahgo had followed his ambushers, loping a short distance behind them and yelling a mixture of threats and encouragement. Klitch stayed behind. Standing on one of the high rocks, he surveyed the scene before him. Excitement rose within the young weasel as he called the ferret Dragtail to him.

"Dragtail, come here! See that? They've unblocked a big space near the entrance to the mountain. Go as fast as you can and muster the rest of the horde. We'll never get a better chance than this to conquer Salamandastron. Hurry!"

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Salamandastron

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Oxeye, Bart Thistledown and some others were having difficulties with Urthstripe. They had lifted and pushed him halfway through the long unblocked fissure when the badger Lord began shoving backwards. Half demented, he had partially recovered and wanted to return to the battle.

"Never trust vermin. I should have knowntreacherous toads. I'll show them! Where's my spear, Oxeye?"

The hare scrabbled desperately, clutching Urthstripe in an attempt to stop him escaping. "You're in no shape to fight, sah! Wounds *n' injuries an' so on. Come inside an' rest now, there's a good feller."

Urthstripe sat up on the bottom ledge of the fissure, swaying as he glared groggily at his friend. "Don't talk rubbish, Ox! Day I can't attend a battle I'll... I'll..." As he crashed over unconscious, Oxeye had the presence of mind to tip Urthstripe inside. He fell backwards over the ledge with a bump, landing in the groundlevel corridor. Willing paws gathered round to carry the badger Lord up to his bed, a rush-strewn rock slab in the forge room.

Pennybright stood side by side with Bart Thistledown and Starbob, firing arrows at the advancing horde. She was clearly worried.

"Oh, Barty, what'll we do? Most of the rocks blocking this space were pushed outsidewe just levered them out to get Lord Urthstripe inside. It'd take simply ages to reblock this crevice."

Bart Thistledown notched a shaft to his bowstring and dropped a charging rat with unerring accuracy. "Nothing much we can do, Pen. Hold the gap and wait further orders from Oxeye. Hi, Starbob, bring your bows an' lend a paw over here!"

Outside on the shore, Ferahgo's blue eyes gleamed triumphantly as he was swept along toward Salamandastron at the center of his horde of Corpsemakers. Now nothing could stop them.

,"Yurr, be this'n anuther o' those gurt lakes?"

"No, it's the jolly old sea, Arula. We've reached the sea!" Pikkle waved his paddle in the air.

The logboats bumped out across a gurgling stream that spanned a short pebbly beach. Mara turned to her right and pointed at the distant flat-topped peak.

"Look, Salamandastron!"

Framed against a reddening evening sky, the badger mountain stood separate from the ranges to the east. Loambudd placed a paw on Urthwyte's shoulder.

"Look at it, grandson. That's where your brother Urthstripe rules."

A tear gathered in the comer of the white badger's honest eye. "Urthstripe, the brother I never knew!"

The logboats bounced as they hit the white-crested waves. Log-a-log shouted orders as they backed water and turned the noses of the vessels into the tide, beginning the wide semicircular tack which would eventually bring them to land on the beach in front of the mountain. As darkness fell they paddled side by side in convoy.

"What's that floatin' up ahead?" Alfoh called across in a gruff whisper.

Log-a-log peered into the darkness as he called to his pad-dlers, "Take a tack to starboard, watch out for that driftwood ahead!"

A voice rang out from the floating debris of branches. "If yore vermin, I warns yer Hi'11 fight fer me life!"

Mara looked at Pikkle in astonishment. Together they echoed one word: "Sapwood!"

The Sergeant was hauled aboard. He hugged Mara and Pikkle, staring over their shoulders at the huge white badger in the other logboat to his left. Pikkle ducked and bobbed, throwing a light friendly blow at Sapwood with his remaining skill and energy. The boxing hare dodged it and rapped him smartly on both ears with a left-right combination as he spoke to Mara.

"Who's the big white badger over there? Strewth, 'e must

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be as big as 'Is Nibs Urthstripe."

Mara rummaged in a sack of provisions. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough. It's too long a story for tonightwe'll need rest if we're going into battle tomorrow. Here, take this food. I'll bet you're hungry, eh, Sergeant."

"Huh, 'ungry ain't the word, missie. Hi could make a stew o1 me own ears an' enjoy it!"

"I say, Sarge, no need for that sort of thing, wot." Pikkle pulled a face and shuddered. "Tuck in and have a good supper, have a nap and wake up bright 'n' breezy tomorrow, eh!"

However, it was some time before Sapwood was allowed to sleep. The shrewd old badger Loambudd questioned him closely about what was going on at Salamandastron. Later she held a conference across the boat sides with Mara, Urthwyte, Log-a-log and Alfoh,

"From what I gathered off Sapwood, I think that my grandson's mountain is in a perilous position. Our help is sorely needed there. When do you think we'll make land, Log-a-log?"

The shrew leader watched the moonlit wake of his small fleet. "We're running with the current and the wind is behind us. If the weather holds out, we'll probably hit the beach by dawnthough if I put on extra paddlers we could be there in the hour before daylight."

Loambudd did not hesitate. "Then do it right away, my friend. There's not a moment to lose. Now, let's hold a war council and make plans ..."

Only the rolling night waves were witness to the five log-boats cutting speedily through the sea toward Salamandastron. Grim-faced shrews dug their paddles deep, keeping the boats abreast of each other as their leaders conferred urgently.

Salamandastron had been breachedthe horde of Ferahgo was within the mountain!

Bart Thistledown and his little band had fought a gallant action. Firing into the oncoming masses until their arrows ran out and thwacking away at vermin bodies, they defended the open fissure heroically until Oxeye sent Seawood and ten oth-