"Your Highness, wake up! Wake up!"
Tsarmina opened her eyes. Brogg was pounding on her bedroom door again.
"This is the second morning in a row that you've disturbed my slumber, weasel," she snapped. "What is it this time? Are the woodlanders attacking again?"
"No, but the floor downstairs is wet!"
Tsarmina flung the door open, sending Brogg flying. "You woke me up for that? It's always wet downstairs."
Brogg shook his head. "Only in the cells and beneath them, not on ground level. Besides, it's summer, and there hasn't been a drop of rain since spring."
"Well, since I'm not going to be able to get back to sleep now, I might as well take a look."
They went down to the kitchen. Water was leaking up through the floor.
"It's up to our ankles now," Brogg said in surprise. "A minute ago, it was only covering the floor!"
Tsarmina touched the water with her paw. "But how? I mean, where has it all come from?"
Brogg waded across the room to the cellar door. "I'll ask the dungeon guards."
A flash of intuition came over Tsarmina. "Don't open that door!" she yelled. But it was too late. Brogg had already opened it.
Splash! A veritable tsunami poured up from the dungeons. Brogg was knocked backward and he fell and hit his head.
Luckily for Tsarmina, she was standing close to the stairs. She bounded up them just before the water reached them.
She ran to the entrance hall, but a quick look out the window showed that the water was outside too. She couldn't escape by going out the door.
Soldiers' voices were shouting everywhere.
"The parade ground's like a lake!"
"Bottom barracks is flooded!"
"The supplies will be ruined!"
Tsarmina pulled herself together and shouted an order to the troops. "To the roof! Quickly!"