Brian Jacques - [Redwall 03] - Mattimeo

their firepower is too heavy. I’d hate to die this far from Redwall, Matthias.”

“Me too, Jess, but they’ve got us pinned down now. It was a mistake to try and make a stand, but

they’d have caught us if we’d kept running. I’ll have to rack my brains and see if I can’t come up with—

What’s that?”

“Sparra kill! Kill! Kill! Eeeeeeeeeee!”

Queen Warbeak and her Sparra fighters hurtled into the rats like a winged shower of small beaks and

talons.

Jess leapt forward. “Matthias, it’s Warbeak and her Sparra folk. What are they doing here?”

“I don’t know, but they’ll be massacred if we don’t help them. Basil, Log-a-Log! Come on. Chaaaaarge!”

Quickbill and his two brothers Brightback and Diptail had found an easy source of supply for Ironbeak’s

fighters. Why forage in the woods when there was a beautiful orchard right in the grounds of the big

redstone house?

With the Redwall inhabitants forced to stay indoors, the three magpies had grown bold. Now they did

not even bother foraging by night. Each day they would fly down to the orchard and eat their fill before

loading up with supplies to take to the roofspace. Quickbill was amazed at so much different fruit growing

in one place; he had never encountered an orchard before.

“ Hakka! The northlands were never like this, brothers; apples, pears, plums and look, look at those juicy

red berries!”

The trio stood around the strawberries on the ground, unhurried, each seeking out a bigger strawberry

than the one his brother was eating. They were behaving like naughty young ones raiding the orchard.

“ Chakka! Look at this one, it is like two stuck together.”

“ Yaah , but this berry is more red and shiny, see.”

“ Kacha! I will eat them all as long as they are fat and juicy.”

The magpies’ long tails dipped and jerked as they gobbled the strawberries with swift bobbing head

movements. They carried on, comparing berries as they greedily ravaged the well-tended strawberry patch.

Suddenly Brightback belched, then he staggered and fell awkwardly.

His two brothers cackled aloud at the sight.

“ Chahaha! The red berries are making you too fat to stand, brother. We will load our bags and fly back

up.”

Diptail pecked at a berry and missed. His beak struck the soil. Smiling foolishly, he flapped his wings

and fell flat.

“ Yakko! The red berries are magic. I cannot fly,” he giggled.

Quickbill yawned. He lay in the soil, flapping his wings against it with a silly grin on his face.

“ Coohoo! Look at me, I’m flying.”

Led by Constance, a group of Redwallers crept out from behind a buttress at the east corner of the Abbey.

They were carrying nets.

“Easy now, let’s bag all three at once.”

Quickbill was the strongest of the three. He saw the shadow of the net spreading over him, but he felt

unable to do anything about it. Diptail was in a deep drugged sleep. Brightback tried to keep his eyes open,

but they snapped shut. The net fell on them, trapping the three birds squarely at its center. They lay

stunned amid the remains of the knockout strawberries.

Little Sister May came out from behind the raspberry canes, wagging a paw at the sleeping thieves. “It

serves you right. I hope you wake with dreadful headaches!”

Constance and Winifred rolled the magpies tightly in the nets. “They can’t hear you, Sister,” Constance

told her. “Let’s get them inside before we’re spotted.”

Pushing and tugging, they lugged their feathered hostages inside.

The Abbot dusted off his paws. “Well done, my friends. What do we do now, wait until the appointed

time or open negotiations right away?”

Constance gave a huge grin. She was beginning to enjoy herself.

“Allow me, Father Abbot. Leave it to Ambrose and me. We’ll go and inform Ironbeak that we have

three chickens in the bag. The rest of you, take up your posts at the windows, and make sure there are

plenty of arrows and spears showing.”

Constance and Ambrose strolled out in leisurely fashion. The badger threw her head back and called up to

the roof, “Hey, you up there! Irontrousers, or whatever you call yourself. Get down here, I want a word

with you.”

Ambrose sniggered into his paws. “I wish Basil Stag Hare was here, he’d think of some good names to

call that bird.”

There was a short silence, then Mangiz appeared at the eaves. The crow flapped down to a lower roof

level.

“Are you ready to surrender so early, stripedog?” he asked.

“Go and boil your beak, featherbag!”

“Silence, earthcrawler. My General sent me to speak with you.”

Ambrose wrinkled his snout at Mangiz. “Listen, maggotbrain, you just flap back to your Chief and tell

him that we want to speak to the big fish and not the little worm. Hurry up now, don’t stand there

gawpin’!”

The seer crow was outraged. “Mangiz does not forget an insult, hedgepig.”

Ambrose smiled cheekily. “Good, then here’s a few more for you to remember, you pot-bellied, cross-

eyed, feather-bottomed excuse for a duck. Now be off with you before I really get goin’!”

When the crow had gone, Ambrose turned to Constance. “What d’you think, stripedog, was I a bit too

hard on him?”

Constance thought for a moment. “No, no, on the whole I thought you did quite well, hedgepig.”

Ironbeak flew out with Mangiz and several of the rooks. They came down to the lowest roof. Constance did

not mince her words.

“Hello there, Ironbum, or is it Tinbeak? I can never remember. Anyhow, about the three hostages

you’re holding, don’t you think it’s high time you let them go?”

Ironbeak suspected by the badger’s tone that something was amiss, but he kept up a bold imperious

front.

“If you have not come to surrender, they will die, earthcrawler.”

Ambrose wriggled his spikes. “I knew you’d do no good talking politely to that bird.”

Constance stopped her teasing. Now that she had drawn the raven out, her tone became harsh and

serious.

“Listen to me, Ironbeak. We are holding your three magpies prisoner. If you harm a single hair of those

hostages, I will personally drown those birds in our Abbey pond. Is that clear?”

The birds on the roof cawed and cackled in consternation. Ironbeak silenced them with a wave of his

wing.

“You have captured Quickbill and his brothers? I do not believe it.”

Constance moved to the Abbey door. “Then I will show you the proof. We have cut your supply line;

you will starve without the magpies.”

Constance went indoors. A moment later, she was dragging out the net with the three magpies inside.

“They say that seeing is believing, what do you say to that?” she called.

Ironbeak peered over the guttering. “I say that it was very clever of you, stripedog. But it will do you

no good, I will send others out to forage.”

“Oh, as I understand it, warriors are warriors, not scavengers. Your fighters could not do the job, that’s

why you had magpies.”

“ Kaah! Then we will become scavengers, we will take the food from that place you call orchard.”

Ambrose pointed to the windows. “No you won’t, we’ve got archers, sling-throwers and javelins

stationed at the windows facing the orchard. It is not as far to shoot from there as it is from the ground to

the rooftop. Send a few of those birds into the orchard now and you’ll see what we mean.”

Whilst Ironbeak stood on the roof digesting this information, Ambrose pointed at the remains of the