High Rhulain

Kaltag’s voice dripped scorn as she came to Pitru’s defence. “Well, I hope he never becomes a warlord like you, skulking back here with a wounded paw and a stinking cloak! Where are all the prisoners you vowed to bring back? Scorecat Yund noticed you returned twenty-one guards short. What happened to them, O Mighty One, eh? At least we weren’t attacked, thanks to Pitru’s defence plans!”

Her words stung the wildcat worse than blackthorn spikes. He knew he had lost the argument and was not prepared to bandy further. However, he was determined to have the final word as he swept out of the chamber.

“I’ve ordered the guards back to their barracks and the slaves back to their compound. It is my command that they stay there. I will seek out Atunra now. If any harm has befallen her by either of your doings, then you will see just how merciless a warlord can be!”

Riggu Felis found Weilmark Scaut awaiting him alone on the pier. He barraged him with orders. “Search my fortress from top to bottom, and all the surrounding area. Use all your guards to do it. Find Atunra and bring her to me, dead or alive. I’ll be in my chambers. As of tomorrow, we will no longer seek out the otters.”

Scaut looked puzzled. “Lord?”

The wildcat ripped off his muddied cloak and threw it into the lake, watching the water carry it under. “Why chase about after a bunch of outlaws? I’ll make them come here to me. Don’t look so blank, Scaut. I have what they want—this fortress and a whole lot of otterslaves. Mark my words, they’ll come. Fortunately for me, otters are noble creatures. They won’t leave their own kind in slavery. They’ll make an attempt to liberate them.”

16

Happy sounds of Dibbuns laughing and playing drifted up through the open library window at Redwall Abbey. Old Quelt, Snowdrop and the three young puzzle solvers sat around the long, polished table. The Sister had one paw on Tiria’s farewell letter and the other on the Geminya Tome.

“I think the answers lie somewhere twixt these two. First we need to study the clues Tiria left for us. Then we can look up any references to them in the Tome.”

Girry stifled a yawn. “Is it nearly lunchtime yet?”

Old Quelt looked over his glasses at the young squirrel. “Bored with study already, are we, young sir?”

Girry flicked a paper pellet he had made through the window. “Huh, there’s no sense in saying that I’m not, sir.”

The Librarian Recorder turned his attention to Tribsy and Brinty. “Has your interest become dulled also, friends?”

The young mole yawned. “Hoo urrh! Oi’m a-doin’ moi bestest, zurr, but ’tis ’ard wurk, a-studyen’ gurt ole books.”

From where he was slumped in his chair, Brinty nodded to the open window. “There’s a lovely sunny day going to waste while we’re stuck in this gloomy library. ’Tisn’t fair!”

Sister Snowdrop sniffed meaningly. “That’s because you lack a true scholar’s dedication.”

Girry slouched over to the window, scowling rebelliously. “That’s alright for you to say, Sister. You’ve been studying since long before we were born, but we’re still young. We want to be outdoors in the summer days, like all the others. Hah, I’ll bet Tiria’s having a great time right now, travelling on a long journey and having all sorts of adventures probably. Somebeasts have all the good fortune!”

Brinty pouted. “Aye, and here’s us, swotting away and getting old’n’dusty. What did her letter say—‘Leave thy Redwall friends to read that tale of ancient life’? Ancient life! Huh, that’s what we’ll become sitting round here!”

Snowdrop looked to the letter. “That’s exactly what it says: ‘Leave thy Redwall friends to read that tale of ancient life, when Corriam the castaway took Mossguard maid as wife.’ ”

Tribsy sighed. “You’ m read that twoice afore, marm. But et bain’t gotten us’n’s much furtherer.”

Snowdrop tapped the letter decisively. “But these lines mean something important, I’m sure!”

Old Quelt made a suggestion. “Snowdrop, why don’t you and I ponder on this awhile? Meanwhile, our young friends can pop down to the kitchens and ask Friar Bibble to pack a picnic lunch for five. Then we can all meet up at the Abbey pond to do our work. Perhaps the open air will do us good.”

Cheered up by the idea, the three young ones were already making for the door. Brinty called out happily, “That’s the stuff, Mister Quelt. We’ll ponder by the pond!”

The ancient Recorder thought for a moment, then chuckled. “How very droll, ponder by the pond. I like that!”

Many other Redwallers had the same plan. Taking lunch by the pond was quite popular on warm summer days. They spread out around the bank, ever watchful of the Dibbuns, who were drawn like magnets to water. The little ones frolicked gleefully in the shallows.

Hillyah Gatekeeper and her husband, Oreal, were constantly calling out warnings to their twin babes.

“Irgle, come back here. Don’t go too far out, d’you hear me?”

“Stop splashing that water about, Ralg, you’ll soak us all!”