Chapter 34
Kyrin and his forces had just started moving when they heard the thunderous pounding of the paws of several hundred vermin behind them.
"KILL THEM!" Orak roared as the vermin charged blindly through the trees and branches. A couple of the vermin pitched torches at the small quarry. Luckily, nothing – and nobeast – was set on fire, though the fire did make obvious the position of Kyrin and his forces.
A shrew shrieked and fell, transfixed by an arrow. Instinctively, Kyrin hurried to the wounded creature.
"Leave me, mate. I'm not goin' t' make it!"
"No!" Kyrin shouted. "It's just your footpaw. Let me – "
Kyrin stumbled back as another arrow hit the prostrate shrew in the head.
"They're travelin' at night?!" Firulan screamed as they began to run.
Kyrin realized his gamble had failed; the vermin were traveling by night, too! "Run! Run!" he shouted, as they broke into a disorganized retreat.
Another shrew fell, hit in the back by a spear.
"There! That way!" Kyrin shouted over the noise, gesturing wildly toward a cluster of leaves. "Let's get there before we get cut off!"
Orak, foaming at the mouth, had other plans for his fleeing enemy, however.
"Burn them alive!"
In a flash, fire arrows began raining down around the survivors. A few arrows buried themselves deep into the trunks of trees, their flames smothered. Other arrows, however, shot too high and skimmed the canopy above, setting fire to the leaves. It was a windy night, and the fire soon spread. Within a few minutes it looked as if Mossflower were composed of giant flaming torches stuck in the ground.
Kyrin stumbled and nearly tripped. The flames were quickly licking up around him. He could feel the cold sweat run through his fur, despite the rising heat. A quick look behind him confirmed that Roco and two other shrews were still following him. Firulan and the others were nowhere to be seen. On the flip side, neither were the vermin, though their shouts could be heard over the crackle of flames eating through the undergrowth.
Another arrow whizzed through the air, snuffing out Roco's life instantly. The other two shrews, not knowing that their comrade was dead, stopped to help him and quickly disappeared among the swarms of vermin.
Kyrin felt a chill run down his spine as the sight of Orak the Assassin, eyes glowing with the flames of vengeance, crashed through the night, embers licking up around him.
A snapping sound above Kyrin caught his attention, and the young Warrior barely avoided being crushed by a heavy flaming tree limb that smashed to earth. Smothering off a few embers which were threatening to ignite his tail, Kyrin continued running blindly, not knowing who was still alive and who wasn't. He turned around to check, and all he saw were vermin chasing him at top speed. His footpaws threatening to give way from the shock of pounding the ground repeatedly, Kyrin forced himself onward.
"Kyrin! Kyrin!" a familiar voice sounded to his left. Turning, Kyrin saw Firulan fleeing from flames which were creeping down the tree trunks around him. Without a second thought the squirrel charged after his friend, sword drawn. He body-slammed a stoat who was grabbing at Firulan's tunic, knocking the vermin down, and he kicked a ferret out of the way. "Where are the others?" Kyrin screamed.
"I don't know!" shouted. "With some luck we'll be able t' find 'em! C'mon! Let's go!"
Together, the two of them ran wildly, zig-zagging between trees. Another salvo of flaming arrows landed in the trees right above them. Kyrin and Firulan threw themselves flat on instinct as a hail of embers rained down on them.
"Did you see anybeast still alive?" Kyrin gasped as they staggered up.
"I think most of th' shrews escaped," Firulan panted, "but – AAAAAAHHH!" his words were cut short as a large branch fell on him.
"Firulan!" screamed Kyrin in horror. He frantically tried to extricate his bleeding friend from the tree branch. Twice he had to retract his paws from the wood because it was still smoldering.
Looking around in a state of panic, Kyrin saw that the flames were beginning to encircle him. The vermin were also less than fifty feet away.
Sweating from heat and fear, Kyrin placed his paws on the tree limb again, ignoring the heat shooting through his palms. With all his might, he pushed it off Firulan. Carrying his friend on his back, Kyrin ran like he never ran before. A wall of flame stood in front of him, fire licking up like an embrace from Hellgates. Looking one last time behind him at the vermin charging like mad through the fray, Kyrin sucked in his breath and jumped through the fire with his friend on his back. The heat seared his flesh and burnt off chunks of his fur, but he just kept going. The smoke in the air made it hard to breathe and his adrenaline was beginning to wear off, making the pain all the more a reality for him.
Still being chased, Kyrin used the smoke as cover and took a sudden right, jumping off a mossy bank and sloshing across a stream, nearly spraining his ankle in the process. Having made it across the stream, he climbed up a tree and hid among the leaves, waiting for the noise to die down.
When he was sure nobeast was there Kyrin moved inland and laid Firulan down, putting an ear to the mouse's chest to check for a heartbeat. Luckily, Firulan was still alive.
After taking a dip in the stream to cleanse his wounds and soothe his burns, Kyrin moved inland, curled up next to Firulan's body, and blacked out once again.
The next morning, Tam's expedition, having not forgotten the Redwall Champion's stinging words from the night before, was up and moving before daybreak. Everybeast was in high spirits, but they knew to also keep their guard up in case of a vermin attack.
"Sleep well?" Gry asked Mena as Tam's forces, augmented by Pikejaw Flint's tribe, hustled along.
"Yes. Thank you, Gry. You?" Mena asked.
"Slept like a hare in a hammock."
Mena laughed lightly. "You might want to take that back. I think I saw Colonel Buckshaw's ears twitch for a second there."
Gry chuckled. "I'm just happy today. Just like everybeast else."
"I've noticed," replied Mena. "Could it be that we're almost home?"
"Most likely, aye. It's been six days."
"It's funny…I feel like we're in the middle of nowhere."
"Well, we are walkin' on land."
"You know what I don't get?"
"Wot?"
"That we've traveled on the river for the past few days and the vermin are still beating us?"
"Well, to be fair, th' stream got shallow in a few places an' it's hard t' coordinate movement. An' now, we've got these voles comin' along an' we don't have enough boats to fit them, so looks like we're travelin' by land for th' rest of th' trip."
"Well, I just hope we're almost home."
"Ideally, Kyrin'll be waitin', right?"
"Oh, stop it, Gry."
"Haha, I'm sorry, Mena. I couldn't help it."
"He's just a friend, and I'd be absolutely heartless to say I didn't care about his well-being. He fell off a waterfall, in case you've forgotten, Gry Riverpaw."
"Aye."
"'Aye?' Wh-what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothin'. Just agreein' with ye."
Mena shook her head. "If you'll excuse me for a bit," she huffed airily, "I have an urgent matter I need to attend."
Gry shook his head and smiled. His smile changed to puzzlement as he saw Mena scramble up a tree in true squirrel fashion. The squirrelmaid lingered up in the top boughs for a second, and then she scrambled down twice as fast.
"Wot is it?" Gry asked, perplexed, as an ecstatic Mena dashed past him.
"Sir!" Mena called after Tam, catching up to him.
"Hi, Mena. Wot is it? Wot happened?" Tam asked quickly.
"Does Redwall Abbey happen to be tall?" Mena asked.
"Aye, it is, miss," said Tam, not knowing why she was suddenly asking these questions.
"And does it have a weathervane on top?" Mena asked, sounded a little excited now.
"Why, yes it does," Tam replied, starting to get the drift.
"I saw it!" Mena nearly shrieked. "Dead ahead! A few hours and we'll be there!"
Something seemed to come over Tam. In an instant, the Warrior leapt upon a rock and cried: "Everybeast! Redwall Abbey has been sighted! We're near home!"
An earthshaking roar of victory rose from the ragged army. For some, they were returning home at long last. For others, it was new start altogether.
While Tam's expedition was cutting through the woods, Deatheye's soldiers had taken control of a key path which led south to the Abbey. This did little to raise the spirits of his starving, exhausted troops. Beset by mounting problems, soldiers were beginning to desert. It got so bad at one point that several soldiers just put down their weapons, took off their uniforms, and walked off into the woods, never to return.
The stoat general, too, was verging on physical collapse. For the past three days, having exhausted all their remaining food and water, Deatheye's soldiers had to fend for themselves in this unfamiliar land, foraging for roots and berries (a few soldiers fell ill or even died by eating the wrong ones) and hunting for small game fowl. A few soldiers had started to quarrel with the Captain, and even though, for a vermin, Deatheye had a saintly amount of patience, he was very tempted, at times, to let his serrated sword do the talking.
The stoat was all out of ideas on how to calm his troops, who were on the brink of all-out mutiny. Something needed to happen soon that could boost their morale for just a little longer. The problem was, Deatheye didn't know what to do.
It was about mid-morning, though, when a miracle turned everything around.
One of Deatheye's more loyal scouts, eager to know the progress of his Captain's journey, climbed a tall tree (with a lot of difficulty, of course) and saw the red sandstone towers looming large over the treeline.
In an instant, Deatheye transformed this occasion into a means of boosting morale for his decrepit army. And it worked; there was no cheering involved, but by the looks on many of their faces, Deatheye's soldiers appeared to be giving their leader one more chance. Deatheye smiled inwardly. Victory was in his grasp!
Well, I hope you all had a nice holiday! 2013 is coming up soon – isn't that a nice thought? Also, so is the end of this book. Almost done! ~The Ghost Writer