Bring me bread'n'cheese an' some dandelion ale,
An' light up a fire now to warm my cold paws,
I'll sit here all winter till that river thaws,
Skither riddle aye fiddle aye rumbletum hey!
Green rushes green rushes an' lilies so pale,
I've traveled so far over valley an' dale,
Stale bread'n'hard cheese an' the ale isn't here,
An' the fire isn't lit so 'tis goodbye, me dear.
Rowtle dowtle rye tootle I go on me way!
Green rushes pale lilies I'll bid ye good day!
For where I'm not welcome I never would stay!
An' to all you musicians I'd just like to say,
If I've sung out too fast yore indulgence I pray!"
Amid wild cheers and resounding whoops, Song was carried shoulder high around the cave. An old volewife shook a ladle at the pawsore, panting musicians, some of whom had stowed their fiddles and drums away, having been left far behind by the final verse, with Song completing the last four lines unaccompanied. The volewife cackled.
"Haharr, you lot'd better learn t'play proper, yiss yiss. The squirrelmaid sang the paws off'n yer, right sweet and clear too!"
Burble raised his beaker aloft. "Yiss yiss, let's drink the 'ealth of the best bargainer an' finest singer, the bravest-lookin' sword-bearer an' the starvin'est Guosim ever t'come inside Riverhead Cave. Good luck an' fine fortune be theirs wherever they travel. Yiss yiss?"
The watervoles raised their drinks and roared out, "Yiss yiss! Yiss yiss!"
Dippler licked the rim of his bowl. "Any more o' that stew left, matey? No point in lettin' it go t'waste!"
Mokkan lay back in the stern of the logboat, trailing a paw in the water as he issued orders. "Ship those oars an' let her drift, an' pass some vittles back there. Fenno, my friend, keep our boat out in the middle, away from the banks."
The shrew sobbed miserably as he maneuvered a paddle oar in the stern behind the Marlfox. "This noose is stranglin' me. I can 'ardly keep me eyes open, sir."
Stern-faced, Mokkan tested the double-headed ax blade on his paw. "You'd better keep your eyes open, shrew, or I'll shut them for good!"
The logboat drifted on into the calm summer night.
Chapter 17
A luminous white figure, with black pits for eyes and a gaping bloodstained mouth, drifted spectrally around the bedchamber of the High Queen Silth. Its voice seemed to come from afar, like the spirit of one lost upon a dark and distant shore.
"Siiiilth! I see you, I hear you, I will not rest until you are dead. Die, Siiiiilth!"
From within the curtained palanquin, which served her every purpose, Queen Silth's voice screeched hoarse with terror. "Go away! Leave me in peace, White Ghost! Guards! Guards!"
Immediately the bedchamber door started to open, the figure vanished upward. Water rat guards bearing torches dashed into the already brightly lit room. Obediently, they searched every corner as the Queen ranted on. "It was here again, the White Ghost! Where's my daughter Lantur? I want her here right now! Lantur, Lantur!"
In the room directly overhead, the vixen Lantur hauled up a sheet through the wide floorboard joints. It was heavily flecked with fish scales to make it appear luminous, with black charcoal and red dye marking out the face. Folding the sheet carefully, Lantur stowed it in a corner cupboard. The vixen replaced some loose boards in the cupboard's bottom, but before doing so she directed a final spine-chilling moan into the bottom section, which connected with a similar cupboard in the Queen's bedchamber below.
"Ooooohhhhuuuuurrrrrhhhhh!"
Closing the cupboard carefully, Lantur listened to the commotion set up by her mother as it echoed upward.
"There it goes again! I told you, fools, the White Ghost has been in this room, not a moment back. Find it! Lantur! I want Lantur!"
A moment later the vixen strolled calmly into the Queen's bedchamber. She dismissed the guards, who were only too glad to get out of Silth's presence. "Now what is it, Mother? Bad dreams again?"
"Don't talk to me like that. How can I have dreams if I don't sleep? The White Ghost was here again, just before you came in."
"If you say so, Mother."
"I am Queen here, you will address me as Queen! It was here, I saw it through the gauze curtain. You don't believe me, do you?"
"O Queen, if you say it was here then it must have been. But where is it now? Why does nobeast save yourself see this White Ghost?"
"I don't know! Do you?"
"Perhaps, O Queen, it is something from your memory, some enemy you slew long seasons ago, a restless spirit coming back for vengeance upon its killer ..." Lantur narrowly dodged a drinking chalice that was hurled out at her from between the curtains. Silth's voice was shrill with rage.
"Get out! Out! I won't have you talking to me like that!" The vixen bowed and turned to go. Silth subdued her voice to a whine. "No, stay with me, daughter, stay. I fear being alone here. This room is far too ugly. It needs more light, more beautiful things in it."
Lantur bowed again and continued toward the door. "I will stay, Majesty. With me you need have no fear. Wait while I dismiss those fools who are supposed to be guarding your door."
Lantur stepped outside and dismissed the guards. When they had gone she tapped lightly on the far wall. A female water rat emerged from the shadows of the upper stairs. Lantur nodded at her. "Wilce, keep an ear to the floor of my room. When you hear me snore as if I'm asleep, then send down the White Ghost and start moaning. When you hear the Queen scream, pull it back up again."
The rat Wilce bowed to her mistress. "I know what to do, my lady."
Lantur reentered the bedchamber and installed herself in a chair. "Rest, O Queen, I am here to protect you."
Janglur and Rusvul stood in the battlement shadows, watching the moonpatched landscape of open field that skirted half the south wall. Each of the squirrel warriors gripped a massive yew longbow, with a gray-feathered arrow on its string, half as long and heavy again as a normal shaft. Something moved near the woodland fringe.
"Here they come, mate, two of 'em," Rusvul murmured. "Over by that high sycamore."
Janglur followed his friend's direction, sighting the enemy. "Aye, I've spotted 'em now, water rat an' a Marlfox. See the liddle glow? They're carryin' a piece of smolderin' rope. Let 'em get closer afore we take a shot."
The vixen Vannan bent double, taking advantage of every bracken patch and groundswell. Beside her the rat Dakkle kept pace, blowing lightly on the glowing end of towrope to rid it of ash.
"Don't blow too hard," Vannan cautioned him, " 'twill burst into flame. Leave it now until we're at the wallgate."
Dakkle uncrouched slightly as they moved forward, raising his head a fraction to survey the walltop. "Looks fairly quiet up there, marm. We'll warm things up a bit for them soo ..."
As soon as the long shaft struck Dakkle between his eyes, Vannan was off, rolling to one side into a patch of fern. Thunk! Another arrow embedded itself in the spot where she had crouched a moment before. Flattening herself, she wriggled away through the ferns. Two more arrows followed, the last grazing her footpaw. Vannan sprang up then and ran for the trees in a zigzagging rush, tripping and falling flat by the sycamore as a clothyard shaft buzzed overhead like an angry wasp into the woodlands.
Gelltor grabbed the vixen and dragged her to safety behind the tree. "We'll have to think of another way to burn that door down."
Vannan tried to regulate her panting breath. "What about using fire arrows?"
Gelltor looked at her pityingly. "Fire arrows? Did you see the length of those shafts the Redwallers are shooting? You need a great longbow to fire such a shaft. We don't have anything like that. Our bows aren't powerful enoughwe'd be well within their range long before we could loose off a shot."
The vixen settled her back against the sycamore, pouting sulkily. "Well, why don't you think of something, brother? You're supposed to be the one with all the good ideas."