Brian Jacques - Mossflower

half-rations with a sea rat's whip cracking about your ;cars and you chained

to the oar.''

The vessel had been built for coast raiding. Though it was a large craft, it

had a flat bottom for taking shallow draught; fhus it was able to travel

upriver without a deep keel sticking in the shallows.

Inland they traveled, sometimes aided by a breeze when the sails were hoisted.

Other times saw two teams dragging her forward on headropes from the

riverbanks.

It took a day and a half of hard work to get across the flat beach and into

the dunes, where the river was tighter-channelled and flowed faster against

them. Log-a-Log solved the problem by using the long galley oars from the

deck. Two crew to each oar, they punted and pushed Wuddshipp through Ae dunes,

keeping her head upriver with great difficulty. Gradually the dunes gave way

to hilly scrubland and the sand began to disappear.

307

It was a weary crew that sat upon the bank that night, watching the ship

riding at anchor.

Gonff hurled a clod of earth at the fast-flowing water. "We'll never make it

this way, mateys. Why not abandon ship and march the rest of the way?"

Harebell and company smiled sweetly.

"Oh, you are a silly, Mr. Gonff. We must take the ship."

"The river flows back to the sea, you see."

"And we may need that to make a quick getaway if we are pushed."

Martin winked at Gonff. "The ladies certainly know their strategy. By the way,

has anyone seen Log-a-Log Big Club?"

As if in answer, the shrew strode up out the gathering gloom. "Aye aye. I've

been scouting ahead. Found the old village, too. Come on, you lucky lot.

There'll be a hot meal and a warm bed with a rpof overhead tonight. Bank

snout, you wouldn't recognize your little ones now—they're taller than me. Oh,

Martin, I forgot to tell you, we've gained another hundred able-furred

recruits."

Delight awaited them at the shrew village as families were reunited amidst

cheering and shouting.

"Daddy, Daddy, it's me, Emily, your baby shrewlet."

"Hoho, look at you! You're bigger than your mum."

"Sharptail, you said you were going for acorns. That was four seasons ago!

Where have you been?"

"Sorry, m'dear. Sea rats y'know. What's this, grandshrew babies?"

"Aye, you're a grandpa shrew now."

"By the fur! Here, give me a hold of that little fat feller."

* 'Gluggabuggaluggoo!''

"Haha. See, he knows me already."

The hares joined Martin and the others around a fire. Two plump shrews served

them with hot fruit pie, dandelion salad and bowls of fresh milk. Gonff sang

around a mouthful of hot pie,

O the Wuddshipp is a goodship, And we'll sail her anywhere, Rowed by mice,

crewed by shrews, And often steered by hare. 308

So hoist the anchor, loose the sails, Give me a wind that never fails, And

we'll sail the goodship Wuddshipp From here to old Brockhall.

He had to sing it twice again whilst the shrews danced a s hornpipe with the

hares.

As the fires burned low, they settled back with full stomachs and renewed hope

for the morn.

Martin and Timballisto slept side by side beneath the stars, each wrapped in a

colorfully woven shrew blanket.

Dinny dug a flatfish hole for the hares.

• "Oh, thank you kindly, Mr. Mole."

"Such charming manners and swift digging." :; "Ooh, and that beautiful

velvety fur and strong claws." ;- Dinny wrinkled his face and tugged his

snout, slightly em-, barrassed. "Burr, bless 'ee, baint nought but an owd

'ole, : missies."

The moon rose like a white china plate over the peaceful scene on the banks of

the River Moss.

-. Tsarmina faced the troops gathered in the large mess hall. She had

specially arranged the gathering by sending Bane's former mercenaries in

first; her own soldiers, led by Brogg >: in his red velvet cloak, ringed the

mercenaries by jostling them to the center of the floor. Brogg held up Bane's

curved ? sword for silence as the wildcat Queen addressed the assembly.

"Bane is dead. Those who served under him have nowhere left to go now. Move

from here, and you do it without sup-,;(, plies or weapons. Besides, those

woodlanders out there would take care of you in short order. Any creature want

to say something?" There was silence.

"Right," she continued commandingly. "From now on

; you take your orders from me. Brogg will see that you get

; rations and a billet each. Later I'll see about appointing more

officers and getting you some proper uniforms. Take over,

Brogg."

The weasel Captain stepped up, twirling his new sword. "All together now. Hail

Tsarmina, Queen of Mossflower!"

309

The response was less than enthusiastic.

Tsarmina made them repeat it until she was satisfied. "That's better. You can

learn my list of titles later."

They stood in awkward silence, not knowing what to do next. In the hush that

followed, Tfcarmina's ears rose visibly. Something was beginning to disturb

her.

"Dismiss, all of you. Brogg, you stay with me."

When the hall was emptied she turned to Brogg with haunted eyes.

"Listen, can you hear it?" she asked fearfully.

"I can't hear a thing, Milady."

"Listen! It's water, flowing, dripping, spilling somewhere. Ugh!"

Brogg gave careful ear. Suddenly he brightened up. "Haha. Yes, I can hear it

now, Milady. You're right. There is water about somewhere. Damp d'you think?"

The sound of water produced so distressing an effect upon Tsarmina that she

forgot to chide Brogg. She cowered in a corner, paws covering her ears to shut

out the dreaded noise. Flowing water, seeping water, creeping water, dark,

icy, swirling water!

"Brogg, quick, get as many troops together as you can," she ordered

desperately. "Find out where that water is coming from and stop it. Stop it!"

Brogg saw the terror on his Queen's face and fled the room.

The whole of the garrison searched high and low. But not too low; nobody,

including Brogg, was overkeen to venture beneath the cells. Down there it was

dark and cold; down there was the lake where Gloomer used to be kept.

And goodness knows what else!

That night, as T^armina sat huddled in her chamber, dripping water echoed in

her imagination, never letting up. When the fear of water was upon her, the

daughter of Verdauga was no longer Queen of Mossflower, Lady of the Thousand

Eyes or Ruler of Kotir.

She was reduced to a crazed, terrified kitten, trembling at the sound of

dripping water in the darkness, longing for

morning light to come stealing over the horizon.

* * *

310

Something had gone radically wrong with the flooding. Bella slumped in the

grass by the river with Skipper. "No joy, marrn?" he asked solicitously. "I'm

afraid not, Skipper. There seems to be only a trickle going down the tunnels."

Lady Amber joined the pair. "Aye, it seemed to be going , go well at first.

D'you think it's because it's summer and we haven't had much rain?" she

suggested. : Skipper chewed a blade of grass. "Maybe so. There's not .»lot

we can do about it, anyway."

; "Maybe we could dam the river?" Bella offered tentatively.

- "Impossible, marm," the Skipper of otters snorted. "Dam the River Moss?

Stow me barnacles, you couldn't hope to r«top a river that size from flowin'

to the sea." Columbine stopped by to join the discussion. "Perhaps it will

fill gradually."

. "Aye, missie," Skipper chuckled drily. "We could all sit there growing

old and watch it doin' just that. No, we'll give