When drinks had been served all around, Abbess Lycian made a small speech. “Redwallers, it is always sad when we lose one of our friends. More so, when it is a young creature who was not fated to live out his full seasons. We will never forget Brinty. Let us drink to all the happy memories we have of him. To Brinty!”
Everybeast repeated the name and drank. In the silence that followed, Skipper had a word to say. “He was a good an’ cheerful young mouse, an’ a true friend to all, includin’ my daughter Tiria.”
Girry felt he had to say something. “He saved me from the gannet. Brinty was very brave!” Then the young squirrel touched the bandage around his ear and fell silent.
Tribsy made a visible effort to finish the tribute. As he spoke, tears coursed down the young mole’s homely face. “Hurr, our pore Brinty, he’m wurr ee bestest friend us’n’s ever haved! We’m be a missin’ ’im furrever.”
26
Tiria had never been beneath the sea before. It was strangely silent, with only the muted sound of an air bubble or two. Translucent green light from above gave the subterranean world an oddly sinister aspect. As Tiria descended, keeping one paw on the rock face and the other gripping her lifeline, the water grew colder and colder. The outlook became decidedly gloomy as the ottermaid progressed downward. Soon she could see no further than her extended paw. The young ottermaid began to wonder just how far down the Rhulain’s wrecked ship lay.
Then she felt her rudder scrape the seabed—a mass of gritty sand, kelp, rock and little else. Feeling slightly cheated that she had not landed on the deck of the submerged vessel, Tiria groped about with her free paw. Nothing! She began to wonder if maybe the wreck had been moved by undersea currents or perhaps, after all the long ages, it had disintegrated and sunk beneath the sand. Who was to say? Then her footpaw struck something. She bent to discover what it was and felt a heavy ship’s timber protruding from the seabed amid a jumble of rocky debris. Sifting her paw into the sand, Tiria encountered another object and pulled it free, holding it close to her face. It was smooth, with some holes in it, a sickly pale white thing. A large bubble burst from her mouth as she gasped in horror. It was the skull of an otter! She was standing on top of a mass grave. All the bones of the crew were trapped within the sunken hulk, lying beneath an impenetrable weight of sand and rock. Searching for a slim gold coronet in these cold lonely depths was a fool’s errand, an impossibility. Tiria pushed off from the scene, bitterly regretting the failure of her mission.
She did not see the long dark shape streaking out from amid the kelp-festooned rocks. It struck her hard in the back, knocking the air from her lungs in a bubbling gush. Then the thing had her in a vicelike grip. Panic caused the ottermaid to struggle wildly, but the heavy coils enveloped her in their cruel embrace. Still holding on to the rope, Tiria wrenched both paws free. Amid the morass of debris-filled water, she saw a brutishly evil head striking at her face. Grabbing the bulky neck she fought to hold it off, thrusting frantically against the onslaught of a gaping mouthful of serrated teeth. The monster’s black, gold-rimmed eyes stared pitilessly at her as it pushed savagely toward her face. Then it squirmed, spinning her around to increase its purchase. In that moment, bereft of any breath of air but with a surge of energy brought on by naked terror, Tiria twirled the rope around the creature’s huge head. The lifeline looped twice, just below its jaw. The ottermaid jerked the lifeline sharply. One! Two!
Half conscious and still battling the thick, sinuous body, Tiria felt herself shooting toward the surface. She was hauled roughly into bright sunlight, with Mandoral’s battlecry ringing in her ears. “Eulaliiiiaaaaa!”
Spewing seawater and flailing feebly in the grip of the thing from the depths, both Tiria and the monster were dragged aboard the Petunia. Instantly, Cuthbert and the two subalterns flung themselves on the thing. Kicking, punching, battering and biting, they freed Tiria from its crushing stranglehold. Mandoral seized the rope, slashing through it with his fearsome teeth. Quartle and Portan were knocked flat by the thick, writhing body, but Cuthbert and the Badger Lord grabbed it between them. They bundled it over the side, coil by coil, into the sea, where it slithered off, with surprising alacrity, down into the dark depths.
Still conscious, Tiria staggered across the deck on all fours, gasping, “Wh . . . wh . . . what was it?”
Lord Mandoral shook his great striped head. “It looked like some kind of large water serpent!”
Cuthbert helped Tiria to stand upright. “Hahar, ’tweren’t no sarpint, that was an ole conger, the giant eel o’ the seas! Yore lucky t’be still alive, Tilly, mate. I never knew nobeast t’stand up to a conger, ’specially a giant one like that rascal!”
Quartle and Portan thought otherwise.
“Except Lord Mandoral an Ole Blood’n’guts, wot!”
“Absolutely! Three cheers for Lord Mandoral an’ Ole Blood’n . . . beg pardon, Major Blanedale Frunk. Hip hip!”
From the mast top, Pandion joined in raucously.
On her return to the mountain, Tiria sought out her room in the guest quarters. She slumped on the bed, overcome by a sense of depression. She had failed to retrieve the coronet and, to compound her misery, had had to be rescued from an eel. Having had little sleep the previous night and wearied by her ordeal in the sea, the ottermaid closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Judging by the angle of the light slanting through the window, Tiria guessed it was early evening when she was awakened by somebeast knocking on her door. She sat up, yawning and stretching.
“Come in, please.”
Captain Rafe Granden marched smartly in and deposited the regalia which Mandoral had given Tiria on the bedside table. The tough-looking hare saluted her.
“Lord Mandoral’s compliments, miz. He requests that y’join him at top table for dinner this evenin’. He sent these togs so’s you can attend in full fig, wot.”
Tiria took one look at the regalia and shook her head. “I’d rather not, Cap’n Rafe. Give his Lordship my apologies. I’ll be staying here on my own.”
The stern-faced captain looked straight ahead, continuing to speak as if he had not heard the ottermaid. “Dinner’ll be served shortly, miz. I’ll send Subalterns Quartle an’ Portan to escort ye t’the mess. Ye’ll be dressed an’ ready to attend!”
Tiria protested. “But I’ve just told you—”
Captain Granden interrupted her abruptly. “I must inform ye, miz, any refusal would be taken as an insult t’the ruler o’ Salamandastron. Nobeast refuses a Badger Lord, not done, young ’un, rank bad form, y’know. So, I’ll leave ye t’make yourself presentable. Y’servant, miz!”
The captain’s tone left Tiria in no doubt that she was to be Mandoral’s dinner guest, willing or not. He saluted stiffly and marched speedily off.
Tiria had hardly donned the new attire when her two subalterns arrived. Both were taken aback at her appearance. Quartle bowed several times, and Portan tripped over his own footpaws whilst trying to make an elegant leg.
He grinned foolishly. “I say I say I say, blow me down an’ all that, wot wot!”
His companion was equally voluble. “By the cringe an’ by the flippin’ left, Miss Tiria, if you ain’t a perfect picture, I’ll eat me aunt’s pinny!”
Tiria had to admit to herself that the regalia fitted her exquisitely. She felt every inch the warrior queen, even though she lacked a coronet. Taking both the young hares’ proffered paws, she smiled regally.
“Let us proceed to the mess, chaps, wot!”
As they strolled down the corridor to the main mess hall, Tiria could hear massed voices raised in a regimental song.