Gathering his rags about him, Tammo lay back to rest. “Aye, but we’d best wait until late night to make our
escape. That’ll be a good time to break Fourdun out, too—we can’t leave him there for the vermin to starve an’
torment, he must go with us.”
Midge smiled at the determination on his young friend’s face. “Of course Fourdun’s goin’ with us, wouldn’t have it
any other way, Tamm. But it ain’t goin’ to be easy, by the left it ain’t!”
43?
By mid-morning of the following day, Rockjaw Grang had shifted his hiding place. Moving farther downhill, he
settled himself in a dip, surrounded by rock and bushes. Not knowing how long it would be before he could once more
sample the good food of Redwall, the giant hare ate sparingly. Munching on a russet apple, he checked his weapons.
He laid out his heavy arrows and counted them, then rubbed beeswax on the stout string of his great yew bow.
Rockjaw tested his sling, refilled the pebble bag, and set himself to honing a long dagger .on a smooth stone.
Taunoc appeared beside him suddenly. Without raising an eye, the big fellow continued whetting his blade,
commenting drily, “Sithee, bird, where’st thou been? Much longer sittin”ere alone an’ I’d be talkin’ to mahself!”
The little owl folded his wings rather moodily. “Continue with that attitude and you will be talking to yourself, sir!
My late arrival was due entirely to the tardiness of your own compatriots. However, I am not here to bandy words with
you. I bring important news, so listen carefully.”
Lady Cregga Rose Eyes was lost in strange country. She had plunged forward in the darkness, driven by the
Bloodwrath, running all night until she could go no farther. Now, with her massive axpike clutched in both paws, the
Badger Warrior lay amid the ferned fringe of an ash grove. She slept a fevered sleep, shivering, with her tongue lolling
out and eyes half open, but unseeing.
From the grove, a colony of rooks watched, hoping the badger was so ill that she would soon be weak and dying.
A young rook made as if to hop forward, but the leader, a hefty older male, buffeted him flat with a single wingsweep.
“Chakkarakk! We wait, take no chances with a stripedog. When the sun sets we will fall on that one. Never have
we tasted stripedog; there will be plenty there for all!”
The Long Patrol had risen at dawn. Picking up Sergeant Club-rush’s trail, they pressed forward on the double. The
Drill Sergeant was sitting cooling his paws in a brook. He watched them approach, gnawing his lip in disappointment.
Ellbrig halted the column in front of Clubrush, who shook his head.
“Must be gettin’ old lettin”er give me the blinkin’ slip. I lost Lady Cregga’s trail sometime in the night. But even if
I ’adn’t, what beast can keep up with a badger travelin’ at ’er speed?”
“Sah, beg t’report,” Trowbaggs called out from the back ranks. “Lady Cregga’s tracks are here to the left, travelin’
due west by the look of it!”
The veteran Shangle Widepad inspected the torn-up grass and scratched rocks. “Well spotted, young ’un. She’s
well off course, though.”
Ctubrush limped slowly over to the spot. After a quick glance he gave his verdict to Ellbrig in an undertone.
“Bad news for us, Lance Corporal. Looks like the Blood-wrath’s full on ’er. Take four with you an’ find ’er. We’ll
wait ’ere.”
Trowbaggs, Deodar, Furgale, and Fallow jogged in a line abreast with Ellbrig. In broad daylight the trail of Rose
Eyes was clear: ripped-up moss, flattened bushes, and trampled heather all told the story of the badger’s flight.
The irrepressible Trowbaggs chatted constantly as they forged on. “I say, looks like a flippin’ herd o’ badgers
passed this way, wot? This Bloodwrath thing, Corp—what’s it all about?”
Ellbrig eyed the grinning recruit, about to tell him to mind his words, then he thought better of it. “You’ve as much
right as the next beast t’know, I suppose. Bloodwrath is more a sickness than anythin’, ’tis a terrible sight t’behold. I
think ’tis mainly Badger Warriors suffer from it, though I ’ave ’card o’ otherbeasts taken by the Bloodwrath. Imagine
hatin’ an enemy so much that even if he had ten thousand at his back, y’d charge at ’im, aye, an’ destroy many to get
at ’im. They say a beast taken in Bloodwrath can fight on, even though wounded almost to death. Aye, they battle on
still, as if they was fresh as a daisy, slayin’ anybeast that stands afore ’em. Red-eyed, full of the lust for death, an’
scornin’ fear, that’s Bloodwrath. Worst thing that c’n happen to a creature, I think!”
Trowbaggs was subdued by the Corporal’s statement, but only for a moment. He nudged Furgale, saying, “Hard
luck on the foebeast, I’d say, but blinkin’ useful to have a hefty dash o’ the Bloodwrath on our side. Wot, wot!”
In the late afternoon, Ellbrig stopped to scan the weaving, meandering trail. “Hmm, the fires appear t’be dyin’
down. These tracks are all over the place, willy nilly. She can’t be far ahead.”
Fallow pointed to the distant ash grove, set in a vale between three low-lying hills. “I’ll wager we find her there,
’tis where I’d make for if I was tired’n’weary. What d’you think, Corp?”
“Aye, I’d say you made a good bet. Let’s get a move on. I think there’s big birds flyin’ low over that way.”
They increased the pace. Drawing closer to the grove, Ellbrig put on extra speed, roaring out an order. “Out slings,
it’s rooks, they’re attackin’ somethin’!”
Yelling Eulalias and loosing off stones, the five hares leaped to the fray. Shrieking harshly, the rooks fled from
their prey in a dark flapping mass, beating at one another with wing and talon in an effort to regain the safety of their
grove.
A few bold ones remained, sticking out their necks and menacing the hares with their pointed beaks. Charging into
the ferns, Ellbrig and his companions battered at the birds with loaded slings. Several rooks were slain before the birds
finally fled.
Cregga Rose Eyes was surrounded by dead and dying birds. The big badger was ripped and pecked in a dozen
places. Using her axpike for support, she staggered from the fems with the hares assisting her. Ellbrig watched her
carefully as she drank from a small canteen he had brought along, and he noted that her face was calm and her eyes
had returned to their normal rose pink.
“Sar’nt Clubrush sent us, said you’d lost y’way, marm.”
Cregga looked slightly bewildered. Wiping a heavy paw across her eyes, she blinked at the Lance Corporal. “Lost?
Yes, I suppose I was, in a way. Where are all the others?”
Ellbrig pointed in the direction they had come from. “Nearly a full day’s march back that way, marm. Can y’make
it?”
The badger set out slowly, her head bowed wearily. “Yes yes, you carry on, Corporal. I’ll be fine.”
Drill Sergeant Clubrush sat finishing a fine supper of forager’s stew, washed down with some good mountain cider.
He wiped his platter with a chunk of rye bread.
“By the furV feather, that was a better meal than I ever knocked together in my recruit days. Top marks to you’n’
yore crew, young Algador, there’s hope for ye yet!”
As Algador saluted he cast a quick glance to the huge form of Lady Cregga, fast asleep on a pile of groundsheets
by the fire. “Thanks, Sarge. Will we be movin’ out at dawn?”
Clubrush continued wiping his already clean platter. “Y’move when I say, laddie buck, an’ I move when she says.
Though the seasons only knows when Lady Cregga’ll waken. She looked fair done in. Thank the fates that she’s