A blood-chilling roar rang out from the deck.
“Eeulaliaaaaaaaa!
Log a Log drew his rapier, saying, “But we must help him!
The kestrel knocked the blade from his paw. “If you value your lives, stay clear of the ship, all of you! The sight of that rat nearly slaying the little one has set off the bloodwrath in him; Sunflash is berserk! I have seen it before, though never like this. He will slay anybeast in his path, he is a Badger Lord. Stay clear, I beg of you!
The gathering on the shore stood in shocked silence as roars, screams, and chaos echoed from the Gutprow. Sunflash the Mace was visiting death upon the searats who had stolen babes from the shrews.
17
With his back against the mast, Sunflash faced the searats six at a time. Daggers stabbed, blades slashed, but nought could stand before him. The mace swung and fell, whirling in arcs, sweeping like a scythe, smashing like a sledgehammer. The searats fought back with desperation, but their swords snapped like twigs as the Badger Warrior wielded his mace so fast that it was hard for the eye to follow. His speed and strength were unmatched.
Onshore, the shrews covered their babes eyes and ears as they looked away from the swaying vessel. The oar slaves, however, stood watching, grim satisfaction stamped on their thin faces. The vermin of the waves were being paid back in full for every lash mark, every chain scar, every day of near-starvation, every night they had separated the oar slaves from their loved ones. An old squirrel raised a clenched paw and shook it at the hated Gutprow, crying, “Let them reap the whirlwind they have brought upon their own evil heads!
Not one searat or wave vermin left the ship alive. When his terrible task was at an end, Sunflash let slip the mace from his paws and fell down in a stupor by the mast. Folrig, Ruddle, and Skarlath had long since herded the shrews back behind the rocks at the shores edge, where they ate and stayed resting until sunsets scariet fires began lighting the horizon. Then the kestrel flew out over the silent ship.
Sunflash was awakened by the lonely cry of seabirds. Lowering himself over the ships side, he washed all traces of battle from his body and cleaned off his mace in the cold water. The badgers eyes were normal now, back to their usual mild, dark-brown hue.
Skarlath landed nearby and watched as Sunflash took his jpnace and smashed two gaping holes in the Gutprow, one each ; side, amidships, just above the waterline. Placing his mace to one side, he waded into the broadstream and, bending his back and grunting with exertion, he loosened the two boulders from the streambed and rolled them ashore. The water had been building up behind the vessel, and now that it was free of the restraining boulders, the ship sprang clear. Night winds caught the sail, billowing it out; the Gutprow was off on its last voyage.
Sunflash sat down on the sand beside Skarlath, his shoulders wearily, saying, “She will sail out into deep waters until the waves find those holes; then she will go to the bottom.
A great fire was lit on the beach; shrews sat round it with eir backs to the rocks, and a cauldron of soup made from iratershrimp, herbs, and leeks bubbled away merrily. Bread and cheese was shared, shrewbeer was poured, with blackberry iial for the little ones.
Sunflash sat alone, apart from the festivities. Log a Log brought him food and said, “Lord Sunflash, we of the Guosim thank you. Words do not come easily to show our gratitude for what you have done for us, but our hearts are full for you. The name Sunflash will live for ever with the Guosim.
The badger echoed the curious word: “Guosim?
Log a Log explained. “Guerrilla Union of Shrews in Moss-flower, first letter of each word. We are warriors, we honor you!
Sunflash nodded his thanks, but still he sat alone, knowing the first real feelings of being a Badger Lord, fearing his own bloodwrath, shuddering at the sight he had been granted of his own dark side.
Skarlath sat perched by the fire, watching Sunflash from a distance. The shrewbabes were too excited to sleep; they played and danced, laughed and sang with boundless energy. The kestrel knew how little ones affected his friend, so he called them over. “Poor old Mr. Sunflash, doesnt he look sad, he said. “Why dont you go and say thank you to him for saving you from the searats? Go on, maybe hed like to play with you!
When the little shrews had run off to Sunflash and there was peace around the fire, two shrewmaids began singing. One of them played a small stringed instrument not unlike a mandolin. It had a sweet, tinkling tone, and to it they sang a ballad that they had written that very day, a song that would become a great favorite around shrew campfires for countless seasons to come.
“Oh, twas all in the summertime,
Our hearts did sadly grieve,
The searats stole up in the night,
And with our babes did leave.
Full four and thirty little shrews
Were taken to be slaves,
To live in misery or refuse
And die in watery graves.
But then a mighty warrior
Did come along our way;
We knew what fate had sent him for,
When these words he did say:
Come follow me down to the sea.
Across the mountain track,
And I will set your young ones free;
Ill bring those babies back.
And then with mighty chunks of rock,
He dammed the great broadstream
And gave those foul searats a shock,
Which caused them all to scream.
He came with death held in his paw,
Which no rat born could face.
Oh woe to those who break the law,
Of Sunflash and his mace.
Take warning all you bold searats,
Who plough the raging main,
Steal not our babes, and come not near
Our peaceful shores again,
For fear you meet the Badger Lord,
He of the gold-marked face,
For youll meet death once you have met
The Warrior with the Mace.
Folrig raised his beaker in admiration. “Heres to a great ballad sung well by pretty maids!
Ruddle and Log a Log were chuckling. The shrew pointed and said. “Aye, look, here comes a big babe playing with little babes.
There were six shrewbabes riding on Sunflashs back as he ambled up and shook them off, then collapsed on the sand, begging, “Enough, enough! Id sooner do battle with ten shiploads of villains than fight you lot off!
Another group arrived panting, dragging the mace along the sand by its corded handle. A plump, serious-faced infant held up a pebble in one paw and addressed Log a Log. “See dis peggle, I make it get stucked inna star, watch!
Smiling broadly, Sunflash picked up his mace and held it like a bat, calling to the infant, “One, two, three. Now!
The little shrew flung the pebble and Sunflash struck it with his mace, sending it straight up into the night. He crouched and held out one paw, and the infant stood solemnly on it and was lifted high.
“Where has that pebble gone? the badger asked him.
A little paw pointed straight at the sky. “Way up der, it stuck inna star now!
Yelling and laughing, the big badger dashed off across the beach with a horde of little ones clinging to him.
“Cummon, lets gon paggle inna water!
Skarlath looked up from a bowl of soup and shook his head. “Shame on him, hes worse than the babes!
The Guosim slept on the shore that soft autumnal night, and never had they felt more safe. The presence of Sunflash drove away all fear of trouble. Next morning, Log a Log stood on the rocks that skirted the broadstream. Cupping his paws around his mouth, he warbled a long ululating call upstream.
“Logalogalogalogaloooooog!
It was answered so faintly that at first Sunflash thought it was an echo, but the shrew Chieftain set him right.
“That is our elders coming downstream with the logboats. We of the Guosim dont care to do too much traveling by paw.