34. Lurking Threats.
Speaking objectively, nobeast could complain that the victory at Dornal's house was not overwhelming enough. Almost all hares were wounded, but only Lieutenant Bascinette's injury happened to be truly grievous – an axe slash below her left knee deeply gouged flesh and bone and left her unable to walk. Sovna's own wound was nasty, but threatened neither her life nor her future as a swordsbeast. All these rational considerations had no power to improve her mood. Well, at least as the hare with the second-heaviest injury she was freed from hauling corpses away and allowed to rest in the warmth of the house. Incidentally, that meant that she could hear as the strange band of travelers relayed their stories to Captain Aldwin, explaining how woodlanders and vermin came to fight on the same side.
"So that's how it is." The captain looked over the small group. "There are eight of you now. All but two of different species. You're travelers from afar. And you're seeking the path for Salamandastron."
The thin, vicious-looking mouse was the first to answer Aldwin. "Yes. So?"
"So it means you're almost certainly the beasts I'm supposed to escort back to the Mountain. I did not expect half of you to be, hmm…"
"…vermin?" The big, handsome ferretmaid finished the phrase for him.
"Why, yes." The captain smiled his evil smile. "Let us be clear: I do not think that all of your kind are backstabbin' villains who place less worth on promises and oaths to us, woodlander, than on dry leaves in the autumn. But I'd be a blinkin' addle-brained fool to think that most of your kind aren't. Four woodlanders vouchin' for you, what I can see in this house, and what this fox chap did is enough for me to put you all on probation, but you'll jolly well need to do more before I start liking any of you or trusting you as goodbeasts."
Sovna expected the ferret to try biting the captain's nose off for those words, but Kethra only chuckled ruefully.
"Now, Ewalt, I know how Brother felt, being judged by a fangless prey creature."
Aldwin laughed. "You'll see soon enough that there ain't a creature in the world that won't choke on Salamandastron hare!"
"Hard not to choke on a big lump like you." Suran responded.
"But indeed! As a big pike who once tried to get a piece of me learned!"
Sovna was not sure why, but the captain's smile now radiated genuine mirth. She despised him all the more for it. How he could sit here, exchanging wisecracks and brags with vermin, the same sort of creatures who just killed Greeves and another one his soldiers? The creatures whom the Long Patrol hares were supposed to despise and oppose?
"You don't look well. Does your paw bother you that much?"
Sovna turned to the squirrel. This one seemed kindly, albeit tired, but the haremaid had to wonder if she indeed only seemed to be like that. As a cadet in the Mountain she heard a number of scary barrack tales about turncoat woodlanders, who used their seeming innocence for selling their own kind out to vermin.
"No," she answered stiffly. "I'm all right."
Rowanbloom only shook her head in doubt.
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While a common grave in the sand awaited the dead vermin, Greeves and Kleves were buried separately, in a quiet place not far from Dornal's house. The surviving Gallopers, minus Lieutenant Bascinette, gathered around to pay their last respects.
"Greeves, my old friend. Kleves, my young comrade." Captain Aldwin stepped forward, after primitive markers of pebbles were completed and the seven hares lined up before the two nameless graves. "No honest beast could reproach you, right to the last moments of your lives. You have served faithfully and fought valiantly. With your blood, you have paid for a mighty victory. May the great warriors of old welcome you among the stars as their equals in courage. The revenge for you is already exacted, so we who remain on this earth can do but one more thing for you: fulfill the mission you've laid down your lives for."
The captain saluted sharply with his claymore and stopped for a moment, his back to the rest of his small unit. Sovna had a few bitter words about the mission for which Greeves had to die on the tip of her tongue, but another hare spoke first, and more beasts that she were surprised to see who that hare was.
"So fulfill it we shall." Espadron made a step forward in his turn, stopping right behind the captain. His facial scars darkened, his whiskers, on the side where he still had them, twitched, but his voice remained firm. "We all have heard what our Lady's command was. Who we are to mistrust her foresight and your judgment, sah?"
"Jolly well said, Sergeant." Were the captain's eyes glistening and wet, as he lowered his blade and turned to the others? Sovna was not sure.
Later, as the hares walked back to Dornal's house, Aldwin spoke quietly to Espadron. "Thanks."
The scarred sergeant took a few breaths before answering, just as quietly. "I still think that invitin' vermin to Salamandastron is bloody blinkin' madness. And that ye're too trustin' and big-hearted for anybeast's good, Captain. But you trusted me too, back then. What sort of an ingrate I must be to not trust you in return?"
Sovna, who was close enough to them to overhear most of the dialogue, gritted her teeth. "Big-hearted?" Aldwin? What a joke. That was nothing more than a pretense, it had to be.
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Dornal's dismay at the thought of having to offer shelter for eight more creatures in a house, which now barely had room for everybeast to sit cross-legged, was obvious without words. Aldwin loathed the very idea of tarrying as well. So it was swiftly decided to move out the very next day and not wait until the wounded recover. An improvised sled of fir boughs was made for Bascinette, while everybeast else had enough strength to walk.
Well, except for Trugg, who was not going anywhere. Thanks to Rowanbloom's efforts, the former slave seemed to be on the path to recovery, with no fever that would have indicated a fatal inflammation, but was still not in a condition to argue about that. Everybeast else agreed that he'd be better off remaining with Dornal's family. Dornal was only glad that the problem of finding a husband for his eldest daughter, which had plagued his mind for the last couple of seasons, apparently solved itself.
The Gallopers managed to find a maimed stoat, who lived long enough to answer a few questions in exchange for getting a final cup of water and a swift knife to the heart, so Aldwin knew that Sargiss' band was not a part of a bigger horde. He therefore believed that the mouse family was reasonably safe.
He rarely was so completely wrong.
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Had Spikepelt not been so hungry after almost two days in the forest without real food, he might have paid enough attention to notice the danger. As it was, he remained oblivious until a mighty paw seized him by the neck and slammed him against a pine tree. All the fight was knocked out of the ferret instantly, the shoddy spear that Sargiss gave him falling into the snow. Gasping for air, he saw in the dim rays of setting sun the beast who caught him: a brawny otter with harsh blue eyes.
"Listen here, you scum" the otter growled. "You'll answer my questions, or we'll see how long a ferret can live without his hide!"
The pressure against Spikepelt's throat was such that he couldn't say or do anything but to clutch madly the paw that was constricting him, vainly trying to get the iron fingers off his neck. Realizing that, Heddin shook the ferret like an empty garment, before throwing him into the snow.
"Now, tell me: from what band are you from? And where are the rest of you?"
Spikepelt looked around desperately, while sucking the blessed air. More otters were running to join the first one. There were no visible chances of escape.
"Wait just a second!" The ferret heard a vaguely familiar voice. "Methinks I've seen this one before."
"Well, then take a look at him and try to remember where, Torbit," answered the blue-eyed otter.
Spikepelt remembered that name. "W-wait! Wait! I'll tell ye! I'll tell ye all I know!"
And so he did.
"You're in luck, my friend." Heddin turned to Torbit after it became clear that their prisoners cannot say anything new anymore. "If the villains who deceived and robbed your tribe still are alive, we'll fix that soon enough. Now, shall I leave this vermin to you?"
Torbit was taken aback by the question. Now, of course, the ferret was very much a vermin, and he was in the company that wronged Torbit, but the young otter just barely managed to remember his face. However wrathful Torbit was, it was hard to feel real anger at this pathetic creature. "Ehm… no. He's had enough, if ye ask me."
"As you say." Before anybeast could say anything, Heddin grabbed Spikepelt by the chest fur with his left paw and delivered a devastating punch to the head with his right. Torbit could swear that the sound of cracking bones was audible, and the ferret instantly went limp, his neck bent at an unnatural angle. Heddin let the body drop and turned away just in time to notice the expression on Torbit's face.
"What's wrong, friend?"
Concern in Heddin's voice somehow disturbed Torbit more than his action. "Did ye have to kill him like that?"
"But drawing my blade to slay such a yellow-bellied coward would dishonor the weapon." Heddin shrugged. "Let's go, we are still far behind our quarry, and the weather is getting worse."
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On the same day a feast was thrown in the Seacrag Castle to honor Captain Eikeru Manybattles, who returned after her tour around the island, and to welcome their new recruits whom she brought. It was not a very lavish feast. Ubel knew that they could ill afford such luxuries. But he had no choice: the newcomers had to be shown a taste of prosperity to come, and old soldiers had to be reassured too. They did not join the horde out of the kindness of their hearts, after all, and demonstrating miserly conduct was the surest way to sow discontent among them.
While common soldiers were eating and drinking in their barracks, captains and a few of the most promising score commanders enjoyed better fare at the big table in the King's chamber. Important beasts among the corsairs were invited here too, though Ubel was not about to waste food on their whole crews, or, indeed, invite their whole crews into the castle.
Of course, the small King Seien was sitting at the head of the table… although he wasn't so small anymore. Seasons ran very fast for young beasts, after all, but Ubel, who sat at Seien's right paw, was still mildly surprised to realize, that the young pine marten already stood almost as high as his shoulder. Would he match his father's stature by the time they'd see Southsward?
"Offer the next toast for our friend, captain Greencloak, lest he takes offence," Ubel whispered to Seien.
The young pine marten nodded slightly, waited until there was a small pause in the lively table chatter, and rose, a silver cup in his paw. "And now let us raise our cups for Enjo Greencloak! The wisest and bravest of all searats! May our friendship hold stronger than the thickest anchor chain!"
A loud cheer rose among the beasts at the table, the captain himself being the first to welcome Seien's words. Ubel raised his cup too, but there was no mirth in his mind. For a cub, this one certainly was composed and well-spoken. The white ferret guessed that sharing a castle with the uncaring father and the malicious half-brother made him grow faster than expected. Maybe Seien was the overlooked trouble, the danger that the sorcerer suspected, but could not pinpoint?
No. The very idea was idiotic. Ubel knew that one of Kunas' sons was destined to surpass his father before any of them were born. The thread of Seien's fate was among the key ones from the beginning. Now he had to start taking Seien into account as a threat a little earlier, that was all. The seer silently admonished himself for letting his paranoia run wild. If there indeed was a hidden factor, he needed a clear head to recognize it.
Eikeru Manybattles pretended to be busy gorging herself and mildly flirting with Enjo, but one of her eyes was always on Ubel. The black rat had mixed feelings about what she saw upon return to the castle. On one paw, Ulakhai was back on his paws and seemingly friendly to the accursed ferret. On the other, Ubel started filling the tower with newly picked King's guardsbeasts while she was far away. While Kunas usually rewarded brave fighters by appointing them to his personal guard, his former seer chose very differently: the particularly mean and cruel ones, the bullies, those who didn't get along with their comrades in the barracks. They were not going to be of much use in a real battle, but Eikeru swiftly saw the underlying motive of elevating beasts like those – under another ruler they were unlikely to keep their positions and perhaps even their lives, thanks to their natural propensity to abuse said positions. So they were going to guard Ubel loyally, as far as such scum was capable of loyalty at all.
However, Eikeru still considered this move to be a slip-up on Ubel's part. Sure, now he had to worry less about some soldier just walking up to him and taking his head, but elevating these dregs was only going to earn him further enmity of the rest of the army. If that was the extent of white ferret's wits, then in the end she, not he, would be the one left standing.