Beelu's paws kicked wildly, then his struggles lessened until he finally went limp. Mokkan hurled him into the stream and stood watching the rat's carcass being swept away. He chuckled. "Never learned how to swim, eh? Typical water rat, they're not much use at learning anything!"
Fenno drew in his breath sharply with fear. The Marlfox melted back into the trees and was gone. The shrew scrambled out of his hiding place and threw himself flat on the bank. Thrusting his head into the stream, he drank, sucking in water greedily. Then, to his horror, a strong paw pressed itself down hard on the back of his neck. Fenno tried to lift his head clear of the water, but he could not. His limbs thrashed about helplessly as water rushed into his ears and eyes and up his nostrils. Just before he blacked out he was dragged clear of the stream and smashed up against the trunk of the willow. Fenno found himself staring into the pale, ruthless eyes of Mokkan.
"Where are the rest of your tribe?"
Fenno shook his head as he coughed up water and streambed sand. "Gaaargh! I dunno. Kwaargh! B'lieve me, I dunno!"
Mokkan's double-bladed ax pressed none too lightly between the gagging shrew's eyes. "Oh, I believe you, only a complete fool would dare lie to Mokkan. Now listen carefully to my next question, your life depends on the answer. Are you good at steering and guiding a logboat?"
Not daring to nod with the ax so close, Fenno managed to gasp out, "Aye, Chief, I'm good at it!"
Mokkan's paw was like a clawed vise. It dug savagely into the back of Fenno's neck as he was propelled forward. "Good! I have work for you!"
The twelve remaining water rats rose to attention as Mokkan strode into camp, apparently fully recovered and thrusting a terrified shrew before him. He nodded to a rat. "Keep your spear on this shrew; if he moves gut him! The rest of you, take your weapons to those logboats, but save the stoutest one. Here, shrew, which is the best of these craft?"
Fenno scrabbled across and laid his paw on a boat without hesitation. "This'n, Chief. 'Twas Log a Log's boatbelonged to a Guosim leader."
The Marlfox inspected the fine craft, nodding his approval. "I'll keep this one. You rats, chop the rest to splinters!"
Swords, spears and daggers hacked and slashed at the other five vessels. Mokkan took a braided thong and noosed it about the neck of Fenno, locking off the knot so it could not be removed quickly. He dragged the bewildered and trembling shrew down to the boat he had chosen, bidding him sit in the stern. The Marlfox prized a towing staple from one of the wrecked logboats, knotted the thong end to the staple and drove it into the thick beechwood stern until the curve was embedded level with the wood. Fenno sat with his neck pulled to one side by the short thong. Mokkan smiled.
"If the boat sinks, then so do you. Right, rats, gather up all the supplies and stow that tapestry carefully amidships. High Queen Silth will be happy to see us when we bring Redwall's treasure to her."
Dann went first along the trail, leading his friends in the direction of the noise.
"Sounds like an army of woodpeckers havin' a mid-season feast!" Dippler panted as he ran.
Song wielded her greenstone-tipped stick. "Hardly likely, Dipp. Slow down, Dann, we don't want to rush into the middle of something we can't back out of!"
Dann slowed until they were traveling abreast. "It's stopped! Listen, is that a stream I can hear?"
They skirted the wide pool formed by the end of the inlet. Stooping low and taking advantage of the bush cover, the three friends pressed forward along the deserted streambank. Dippler saw the wreckage of his tribe's logboats first. With a sob of dismay he threw himself down by the shattered prow of the first one.
"Waterfly! 'Tis me ole boat. I paddled that'n many a long day. Wot filthy villain'd wreck a good craft like 'er?"
Song had run ahead to where the main broadstream flowed. She called back to Dippler and Dann. "Hurry, come and see this!" They both dashed up in time to see the surviving logboat speeding out of sight around a distant bend on the fast-flowing current. "A Marlfox and some other beasts, with one bent over in the stern. I'll wager the tapestry's aboard that boat!"
Dippler scrambled up a pine tree as far as he could climb. Clinging on with one paw, shading his eyes with the other, he watched until the vessel was lost to sight. Climbing back down, the Guosim shrew stamped his paws angrily. "We jus' missed the scum. Guess who the otherbeast was? I'd know that stinkin' bully anywhere. It was Fenno!"
"The one that murdered Log a Log?"
Dippler slashed the air with his rapier. "Aye, the very one!"
Dann undid his sword and pack and flung them down moodily. "Not much we can do about it now, mates. They've wrecked the other boats an' left us stranded 'ere. Besides, who knows where they're bound? They could be sailin' anywhere."
Song drew Friar Butty's parchment from her tunic. "That's where you're wrong, Dann. I'll wager an acorn to an oak they're away to the island in the lost lake. We can too. I've got the route right here, listen.
"At the rear of redstone wall,
Find me o'er where breaks the day,
You cannot, shall not walk at all,
Just follow as I run away."
Dippler shrugged and sat beside Dann on the bank. "You've lost me again, Song. You'll 'ave to explain."
Song translated the lines she had read. "The rear of the redstone wall is the back of the Abbey, where we left from. Now, we traveled east, through Mossflower, and day breaks in the east, so we've found it, the river. Obviously we cannot walk on water and the last line tells us to follow whichever way the water runs. That's the way Fenno and the Marlfox have gone, don't you see?"
Dann jabbed his swordpoint into the shallows. "Of course I see, but how d'we do that, Song, eh? The Marlfox wasn't stupid, he smashed the other boats to pieces so nobeast could follow him. 'Tis like I said, we're stranded!"
Song glanced hopefully at Dippler. "No way we could knock up a boat from the bits of broken ones, Dipp? You know about boat-building."
The young shrew shook his head mournfully. "All you could make o' that lot now is a good fire. It'd take me days an' days to make the roughest ole boat, an' that's always providin' we could find the right log an' drag it down t'the waterside 'ere. No, we're stranded, matey."
Song looked amazed at her disheartened friends. "Hah, so you give it all up, just like that? Well, not me, I can follow a riverbank whichever way it flows." She dashed off down the water's edge, shouting, "I'm not letting them get away from me. Oh no!"
After a moment the young squirrelmaid chanced a backward glance. There were Dann and Dippler, running after her.
"Wait for us, mate, wait for us!"
Gelltor stood on the flatlands outside Redwall Abbey, out of range of arrows or missiles. Skipper jumped up onto the battlemented threshold top above the gatehouse and called out to the figure on the sun-shimmered plain. "Well, wot is it today, snipenose? What're you after?"
Gelltor had to cup both paws around his mouth to be heard. "Blood for blood. The one you call Janglur killed a Marlfox. Give him to us, and after that we'll talk."
Skipper scratched his tail in amazement, and winked at Janglur. "Hoho! 'Ear that, matey? They want yer!"
The warrior squirrel's heavily lidded eyes flickered but once. Grabbing the otter's javelin, Janglur leapt on the battlement top above Skipper and threw out a challenge to the Marlfox. "Are you the beast who wants t'meet me? Stay right there, patchbottom, I'll come down an' sort it out with yer, jus' me'n'you!"